This week’s town hall!
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Andrea, sorry this is late {July 1] but thanks for your kind words. I hope to see you on the town hall Wednesday , Jack
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Thanks ,Anthony , hope to see you Wednesday Jack
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I agree with you overall @Galphar about not running away from labels. But in this case, I think progressive and populist are two different things.
Just thinking of a couple of examples.
Progressives would be for the Green New Deal but populists on the right not necessarily.
But both would be for taking money out of politics so that people had more power over their elected officials.
I’m having a hard time distinguishing between the two. This is what ChatGPT says, although I’m not sure I 100% agree, but like I said I’m not completely clear on the difference.
At some point, defining what we as Operation Hope (or TYT if it become a bigger thing) populism and/or economic populism would be important imo.
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To me TYT and Operation Hope are BOTH Progressive and Populist. But rebranding as Populist over the current Progressive would be a bad thing. All that would do is confuse people that we would like to join us. Keeping the brand of “Progressive” is keeping it simple. But changing it because of a slight difference in definitions will drive people away not bring them in. Keep it simple and you will get more supporters. It’s the way that MAGA has been able to recruit so many and stay so big.
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I have to agree with personally being both populist and progressive. Reframing from progressive into economic-populist can leave so much out from our priorities, such as gender diversity, racial justice, anti-war peace, climate justice, etc. On the other hand, I do also see the point about how emphasizing our politically progressive stances of such cultural inclusivity does in a way play into the far-right culture war bs; we reduce our populist appeal.
Part of this dynamic is why I have argued for progressive~ish republicans in this thread. Ideally populist economics would become established as bipartisan, usurping obsolete establishment economic politics, (while other cultural politics may still be partisan).
Another aspect to this dynamic reminds me of how MLK responded to critiques on his widely inclusive perspective. I’ll quote an article I previously referenced in this other thread:
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It is difficult to overstate the political risk that King was taking when he stepped up to the podium at Riverside Church. Our nation had been at war in Vietnam for two years, more than 400,000 American service members were deployed, and roughly 10,000 American troops had been killed. The war had enthusiastic bipartisan support within the political establishment, and those who dared to criticize it were often labeled communists and subjected to vicious forms of retaliation. Many of King’s friends and allies warned him that speaking the truth about the war would jeopardize the fragile gains of the civil rights movement. Little could be achieved, they said, by speaking up for people halfway around the world, and much could be lost. “Why are you joining the voices of dissent?” they asked. “Aren’t you hurting the cause of your people?”King acknowledged the source of their concerns but said that their questions revealed that they did not really know him, his commitment, or his calling. Indeed, as far as he was concerned, “they do not know the world in which they live.” King acknowledged that it is not easy for people to speak out against their own government, especially during wartime, and that the situation in Vietnam was complex. But he felt morally obligated to speak for the suffering and helpless children of Vietnam.
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MLK, I argue, was right to have such a perspective on the intrinsic interrelatedness of the perhaps seemingly disparate political issues. Especially, he was right to clarify that and how the issues are not disparate, in order to grow the perspectives which argued for appeasing (or argued from) narrow-mindedness. On growing mindfulness, I shared a video discussion in this thread.
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Unfortunately, since its conception in recent history, people like Trump have used the term Populist and twisted it into meaning things it does not. Populism, at its roots, is based on the very basic idea that the government should truly represent the people, all people. It is opposed to the elite being able to decide what is best for everyone, as with the oligarchy we have now. It is not Nationalistic, nor is it inherently violent. Not so much an all-encompassing ideology, but a basic idea that us little people matter and our voices should mean more because we are many.
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Andrea , I saw you at the town hall last night so I want to ask you a question. Did I understand correctly that TYT wants to hear from us possible nominations for the convention? If so , what do you think of a Harris/Bernie Sanders ticket? Bernie could have a moral influence on establishment Democrats so that maybe we can get out of all these wars and conflicts. We can reestablish the child tax credit, regain abortion rights for women , elect progressive Democrats down ballot , put a wall up for fascism encroaching our nation. Am I dreaming , is this even a possibility ? Hope you have a wonderful 4th , Jack
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Bernie would be amazing! I just wonder if he wants to, knowing that there are plenty (well, maybe not plenty 
) of younger people who are up for the job. Unfortunately, for Harris, with her popularity so low they would have to do a lot of work to get people behind her. All that said, if they get Biden out ASAP and work on propping up a Harris/Sanders ticket, I could see it going well and being a force for positive change. I hope you have a great 4th of July weekend too! 
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IMHO Harris is not popular enough. She faces the same likability issues that Hillary Clinton encountered when running for President. Both are often criticized for their personalities and public personas.
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Cenk , in regard to the town hall meeting last night [ July 3 ] , I along with Anthony and David Stone, were flummoxed that you were looking for information to push forward the Ohio Ballot . We sent to you tons of information [via Kara] and after the town hall I remembered that the ballot end date was July 3-4. It never made it . I sent you an AOL article from a couple of days ago asking What Happened ? because there were evidently factions fighting and not enough voters signed the petition. Sorry for butting in last night , I felt it necessary but I followed up after remembering the end date and found that article. So , ostensibly raising the minimum wage is moot for now. Thanks for allowing me input , Best Jack
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Not answering for Cenk - I did receive the info you sent and I have been talking with Policy Matters. One Fair Wage has never gotten back to me even though we have connected by text several times. I think now we just need a firm plan for moving forward.
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Notes from 7/3/24 Town Hall (by Maggie!!!)
Discussion Points:
- New Candidate Selection:
- Decision to select a new candidate.
- Launching a new candidate bracket on the Ohio website.
- Need to vet candidates for pros and cons, dubbed “The New Candidates.”
- Emphasis on group collaboration for better results.
- Nominations and Fact-Checking:
- Trumpbrackets.com is live now. Work transferred from Micheil to TYT site.
- Request for nominations of dumb/evil things done by Trump.
- Fact-checking volunteers needed; email your interest to [email protected] with subject line “Brackets Fact-Checking”.
- Project to be managed by Maggie Bowman ([email protected]).
- RFK Jr. Stance on Gaza:
- No success in convincing RFK Jr. to change his position.
- Encourage the new candidate to adopt favorable RFK stances.
- Accountability and Ballot Initiatives:
- Petition for Trump’s accountability for criminal convictions; email KE [email protected].
- Volunteers needed for Ohio ballot initiative; email [email protected].
- Exploring involvement of Cavalry PAC in ballot initiatives.
- Discussion on the impact of minimum wage increase on workers.
- Raise the wage initiative details: $10.50/hr by Jan 1, 2025, and $15.00/hr by Jan 1, 2028.
- Refer to Policy Matters Ohio for more details on the wage raise initiative.
- Engagement and Outreach:
- Use of letters to the editor, Facebook posts, groups, Discord, and Twitter for outreach.
- TrumpBrackets: Potential partnership with an opposing entity for educational purposes.
- Public education goal, extending beyond the TYT community.
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That’s frustrating that One Fair Wage didn’t get back to you Kara. Hopefully they ended up getting enough valid signatures, but if not from what you said Jack, then it was people on the ground that weren’t coming together to do what they needed to do. Just speaking for myself from the outside, I honestly don’t know how Cenk finds time to do Operation Hope while he’s CEO, hosting, and doing 20 other things we don’t know about. It wasn’t on Operation Hope’s radar until really close to the filing deadline it sounds like so I don’t know how much more he or we could have done.
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Kara, I sent an article to Cenk about Michigan since he asked , so both Michigan and Ohio didn’t reach the threshold to advance minimum wage . Sorry to hear they never got back to you , probably realizing it was a lost cause . I hope your vacation is enjoyable, Jack
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I only mention Harris/Sanders as a way to appeal to a broad audience , but you are right about Kamala’s low popularity. Jack
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You never know, though, things change daily.
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Just a heads up that the next town hall will not be until August 7. Busy days at TYT!
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Thanks for the heads-up, sounds like busy and crazy times in the world of political media! It’s great that you and Cenk are still committed to doing this.
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