In North Carolina’s 4th Congressional District Democratic Primary, a young Muslim woman is running for the Democratic nomination. If elected, the Nida Allam would be the youngest woman ever elected to Congress and its first Pakistani-American member. She is a progressive, who worked for Bernie Sanders in 2016 and later served a term as third vice chair of the NC State Democratic Party.
NC’s 4th CD is a safe seat, encompassing Durham and Chapel Hill, so the winner of the Democratic primary will be a shoo-in in November. Up to the beginning of April, Allam, a Durham County Commissioner, had a big local fundraising lead over her two opponents, North Carolina state Sen. Valerie Foushee and Clay Aiken, singer-turned-activist.
At this point, major national groups have jumped in, both in terms of endorsements, and more importantly, money. Some, like Emily’s List, are closely associated with the establishment wing of the Democratic party. Additionally, it has been revealed that the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), had bundled more than half of Foushee’s $320,000 early April campaign haul and AIPAC’s “super PAC, United Democracy Project, has purchased $720,000 in airtime for TV ads promoting Foushee’s personal story and work” (Huffington Past). Please note that AIPAC has also endorsed 80% of the Republican members of Congress who opposed the certification of the 2020 presidential election results.
Another big donor in support of Foushee’s campaign is Protect Our Future, a super PAC funded by a cryptocurrency billionaire. Conclusion: some of the most reactionary forces and big money are joining together to ensure that another progressive voice is kept out of Congress.
And it’s not just NC. The Jessica Cisneros campaign in Texas has seen national establishment opposition to her efforts to unseat one of the most conservative Congressmen in the House.
Those allied with the corporate/neoliberal wing of the Democratic Party, the centrists, the old guard, whatever you want to call them, continue to squander resources to fight the progressives, resources that would be better spent fighting Republicans.
The progressive wing of the party, which has been pushing a program that is both absolutely necessary to meet the crises we face and popular, particularly among younger voters, is being marginalized by any means available in order to please the Party’s corporate donors and, supposedly attract upper middle class white suburbanites. It has consistently failed to fight for the needs of working-class Americans and marginalized rural and urban communities. It has failed to aggressively stand up to Republican dog whistle attacks.
It seems to me that the Democratic Party on the national, state and local levels is moribund. At the last New Hanover County party meeting on Zoom, it looked like some 85-90% of the participants were over 60. New voter registration, here and in most places in the country, is overwhelmingly “unaffiliated”, despite the clear movement of the Republican Party towards fascism. Young people do not see the Democratic Party as a viable alternative, perhaps because it isn’t.
For the time being I plan to stay and fight for the progressive alternative to the corporate leadership, but I left the Party once before, in 1968, when Humphrey was nominated on a platform to continue the Vietnam War and the more I look at the current situation (including the US actions with regard to Ukraine) the more I see 1968 all over again. History repeats …
(Note: I plan to post a series of articles I am working on that traces the history of “The Empire of Liberty”, aka US imperialism, from its origins until today. I hope you will stay tuned.)
For more information on how this is coming down in NC, check out this article from Huffington Post. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/big-money-north-carolina-democratic-primary_n_6269afc5e4b029505dedaeb1
BTW, it’s not too late to make contributions to the Congressional campaigns of two progressives.
Nida Allam at https://nidaallam.com/
Jessica Cisneros at https://jessicacisnerosforcongress.com/
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