Progressive Media Advocates
Tina Dupuy: Warning of a zombie nation feasting on the metaphorical brains of the U.S. is consistent with a party now completely untethered from basic American history, science or any other evidence-based practice: The GOP is now a party standing proudly on a pro-fiction platform.
James Rhodes: The Bush administration lied us into a war with Iraq and now GOP hopefuls are leading us down that same path with Iran.
Alvaro Huerta: Making food stamps a campaign issue is a loser for Republicans. Too many Americans now recognize how vital the program is.
Denis Campbell: As my ultra-rational and liberal Dutch wife said, “It’s so annoying people believe what they are told by the Republican party. Has the US gone completely mad?”
Victoria DeFrancesco Soto: Their rejection of Romney is so strong that Somos Republicans have instructed their membership to write in Ronald Reagan for President if Romney wins the GOP nomination.
Brent Budowsky: Notwithstanding the endless echo chamber of political insiders and slashing attacks that is called our public discourse, the wonderful story of Jeremy Lin tells us far more about America than partisan debates or talking heads.
Joseph Palermo: The Republicans think they believe that with enough SuperPAC money and stoking up the base, along with relatively high unemployment and gas prices and millions of underwater mortgage holders, they can win a close election.
Randy Shaw: In accepting a Texas case of a white student challenging racial preferences, the United States Supreme Court is again set to reverse decades of court precedents and impose its own conservative agenda.
Robert Reich: Have you heard of William Dore, Foster Friess, Sheldon Adelson, Harold Simmons, Peter Thiel, or Bruce Kovner? If not, let me introduce them to you. They’re running for the Republican nomination for president.
Victoria DeFrancesco Soto: Sandoval has a proven track record of garnering support outside of his party but not within the Latino community. Sandoval would otherwise be an ideal running mate.
Berry Craig: I’m not against Romney just because he was born on third base and thinks he hit a triple. Likewise, it makes no sense for any union member to vote for Santorum just because his grandfather was a coal miner.
Victoria DeFrancesco Soto: The GOP, however, shouldn’t hold its breath. The idea that Latinos are social conservatives akin to white evangelicals is simply off-base.
Tina Dupuy: Part of being a Democrat is acting like you’re losing even when you’re winning. Part of being a Republican is acting like you’re winning even when you’re losing.
Randy Shaw: Considering that polls show that 99% of all women and 98% of Catholic women who have had sex have used contraceptives, Democrats should follow Senator Barbara Boxer’s lead and aggressively frame the November elections around this issue.
Berry Craig: Santorum didn’t talk about the “equality of man” at the GOP-friendly Conservative Political Action Conference. Neither did Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Peter Brimelow or Robert Vandervoort.
Tina Dupuy: Of course, the market for Republicans is just like the Bible or the Constitution. They worship it piously as long as they believe it agrees with them.
Steve Hochstadt: Those who have argued for excluding some Americans from full rights, who have urged some Americans to leave because they weren’t American enough, who wanted to separate and classify and dominate people, have always been wrong.
Anthony Samad: By intellectualizing racism, Gingrich is leaving his signature card with Americans that still have a race problem with Obama. We can’t let it work.
Brent Budowsky: If George Romney were here today, Mitt Romney would probably be calling him a European socialist, while George Romney would probably be supporting the auto policies of Obama and possibly endorsing Obama for reelection.
Tina Dupuy: When I hear “entitlement society” I think, “country club.” But When Mitt uses that phrase he doesn’t mean rich guys like him, given all the advantages of wealth, who are now enjoying its comforts – he means the rest of us.
Peter Dreier: The high unemployment rate among today’s youth, and the enormous increase in debt owed by college students and recent graduates, has something to do with their growing doubts about capitalism. So does their uncertainty about their own future and the country’s future.
David Love: Now, when the GOP is tea party-owned and steeped in 100% pure corporatism, greed, intolerance and white supremacy, black conservatives are simply useful idiots.
Tanya Somanader: Republicans in Congress and across the country are introducing a variety pack of extreme anti-abortion bills — including personhood initiatives, heartbeat bills, and fetal pain bills — that saw some success last year.
Friday Feedback: This week, an article by Steve Hochstadt, Do Republican Candidates Like Most Americans?, drew a series of comments, supportive and not. We’ll lead with Steve’s aggregate response, then include the observations by others he comments on.
Robert Reich: No responsible Democrat should be pleased at the prospect that Gingrich could get the GOP nomination. The future of America is too important to accept even a small risk of a Gingrich presidency.
Brent Budowsky: Obama 2.0 is singing on key to the real America, talking about matters they care about, battling for policies that will better their lives, championing the American notion of fair play and taking to voters a narrative that is clear, consistent and compelling.
Scott Prosterman: Republicans are in a snit because their selection process is so Darwinian. Whatever rises to the top of that vat surely won’t be cream.
Ted Vaill: Republican operatives will work hard to undercut Mitt in the weeks and months ahead, so that Romney will be their nominee, in spite of his Bain baggage.
Steve Hochstadt: The Republican presidential candidates were talking to a minority of Americans, telling them they were the only true patriots. The rest of us, poor, gay, black, unionized, believers in science, supporters of a fair tax system, we were disdained.
Randy Shaw: Obama could regain young people’s support by lowering student loan rates, enacting immigration reform and rejecting the Keystone XL Pipeline, but time—and his political capital—is running out.
Steve Hochstadt: The women’s liberation movement of the 1960s and 1970s finally made an issue of fathering. If women were going to get out of the house and into the workplace, men had to change their roles, too.
The Frying Pan: A successful mayor and council cannot be satisfied with merely coping as issues arise, but must be able to anticipate and define the city´s needs for the next four years. As our newly elected leaders prepare for their roles, we´ve asked writers to share their thoughts about what lies ahead for Los Angeles.
PCL offers monthly Open House Events on the 2nd Saturday at 2pm and 3rd Thursday at 6pm. Click here to learn more.
Cenk Uygur: Can Progressives Reclaim the Democratic Party?
Sharon Kyle: Cenk is viewed as a kindred spirit by many in the Caucus, partly because of his unyielding progressive stance but also because Uygur is no stranger to challenging the status quo.