Friday, October 17, 2025

CNN Town Hall: AOC Leads the Way

 


It's getting harder and harder for mainstream media to hear progressive voices. One of the most laughable assumptions about the mainstream media is that it is filled with liberal bias.  What hockey puck! Virtually ALL our major broadcast networks, their affiliated cable channels, their streaming services, and our social media apps are controlled by billionaires.  Most of them, like Fox, Newsmax, and now Paramount Plus, are owned by billionaires on the far right, pushing authoritarianism, fascism, libertarianism, and devotion to the almightyTrump. MSNBC has a few liberal commentators, but there are many topics that they won't explore - anything that negatively affects the ability of billionaires to control things.

One of the problems that Democrats have is that they have a large contingent of moderate/corporate Democrats that serve primarily their own collection of wealthy interests that have an agenda that might be slightly more moderate than the Democrats, but really listen to the working people they're supposed to represent.

That is not the problem with these two poctured above.  They represent a vision of a Democratic Party that is not beholden to special interests but will work on behalf of the American people as a whole.

Much of the discussion, led by Kaitlin Collins, focused on pinning the shutdown on Democrats.  They had questions from many government workers affected by the shutdown, as well as from others who could lose benefits or programs.

I feel for them.  I really do.  My son is a federal worker. But do they really want to see insurance premiums rise, with subsidies for the ACA eliminated?  No, the majority of people, including Republicans, want these preserved. They don't want to see their insurance rates doubled, tripled, or even quadrupled. It is a fight worth having.

The Bully-In-Chief will keep taking and taking until he is finally stood up to. And these two will lead the way.

The Orange Narcissist is determined to punish Democrats by taking away programs that he perceives as Democratic programs.  You know, like SPECIAL EDUCATION. I wonder how all the people who participate in The Miracle League (a fantastic local program enabling special needs children to play baseball) feel about that?  

You see, Trump doesn't see Democrats as human.  They didn't vote for him, so he doesn't have to be their President.

According to Karoline Leavitt, White House Press Secretary...

"The Democrat Party's main constituency is made up of Hamas terrorists, illegal aliens, and violent criminals."

Contrast that with what AOC said at the CNN Town Hall.

Unlike Trump, "I don't care if someone likes me or not. That will never change the fact that I'm going to fight to ensure they have health care. I want MAGA to have health care. I want MAGA to be paid a living wage."


Look. I know that some of my more moderate Democratic friends are nervous about AOC - a progressive female sounds scary to them. But the times they are a-changing. And we're not going to become the dominant political party until we unite the working class. And Gavin Newsom/Josh Shapiro/Pete Buttegig, etc., may make you swoon, but none of them are capable of rebuilding the Democratic Party the way it needs to be rebuilt. This isn't about marketing a product that can temporarily appeal to a fragile coalition. It is time for bold realignments. Are we going to be a party of the average American, or are we going to be a party that's queasy about Trump and his extremism, but otherwise beholden to their own group of wealthy interests? Are we going to have real answers that improve our country and restore our participatory democracy?

I have swallowed Moderate Democrat after Moderate Democrat. They may not be my favorites, but I understood how dangerous the opposition was. But now I feel in my bones that we have to have a full-throated progressive, and if that comes, I expect all my moderate Democratic friends to join with me.

AOC'28!!!

Until next time,

T. M. Strait

No comments:

Post a Comment