Obama’s comments appear in a new video supporting Gavin Newsom’s Proposition 50 which would allow the California legislature to draw new congressional boundaries ahead of the midterms
Barack Obama has entered the political fray ahead of November’s special election in California, accusing Republicans of attempting to “rig the next election” in a new ad backing Governor Gavin Newsom’s Proposition 50, a ballot measure that could reshape the state’s congressional map.
“Republicans want to steal enough seats in Congress to rig the next election and wield unchecked power for two more years,” Obama says in the 30-second ad, urging voters to approve the proposal. “You can stop Republicans in their tracks.”
The Pritzkers are literally the billionaire family of the Hyatt hotel chain fortune. They are, if anything, one part of the problem with the democratic establishment. If you want there to be zero change in society when it comes to taxing the wealthy to create social safety nets, JB is your guy.
Realistically there is zero chance that an actual progressive and a Pritzker could ever function on one ticket. Thats like Bernie running with Bezos, it makes no sense
Pritzker is a guy who comes from money but actually does try and govern for the people. I live in Illinois and he did a bang up job for COVID, is actively doing things to try and fight/resist ICE and shows up in person to talk to the people, has signed vaccination protections to law, he helped to get stalled projects (like road repairs) going, he’s helped with education funding and requiring homeschooling to have more standards, and more.
Yeah, he’s not perfect but he’s at least one who fucking fights for the people and is trying to find ways to make things better for us in Illinois. I truly believe he would do the same on a national level.
Nobody hates Sociopathic Oligarchs more than I do, but there have been cases of ultra-wealthy people being sympathetic to the people.
The best example is Franklin Roosevelt. By my general way of thinking, I never would have supported him based on his wealth alone. And yet he went in to do more for working people than any 10 presidents combined.
So while my general attitude is to NEVER support a billionaire for office, I am prepared to make exceptions for the right candidate, but they have a very high bar to clear to get my support.
Pritzker is looking like a possibility, but I’m still deciding. I’d love AOC, but she’s problematic at this stage. I can’t stand establishment Dems like Newsome. But I will vote for anyone who vows to purge MAGA from our government and our society, reconfigure our government to remove MAGA advantages, and then follows through.
We have to deal decisively with MAGA before we can do any thing else. We can deal with progressive policies after that.
Definitely among the top five people that should be president. AOC is my first pick, but I would be alright with Pritzker too. Newsom is vaguely acceptable, in the sense that he at least has the ability to lead and isn’t a complete idiot. I guess he would at #10.
I never said he is a bad governor or even a bad politician. I said it is antithetical for anyone who is legitimate progressive to run with him. The Prtizkers at large are the type of people who are democrats in the interest of protecting their money. Typical establishment democrats who will make limited concessions in whatever way is needed to prevent any radical change from occurring. No DemSoc or Progressive candidates or voters should be foolish enough to let the fox be in charge of the henhouse
Being better than nutjob conservative billionaires doesnt make someone a good fit to run with progressive candidates
We will see if the progressives like Mandani can do what they say. There is still a lot of resistance in law and interests against them. I think that’s why people get these aspirations to do big positive things in government and then can’t because reality hits. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but it’s going to take multiple years and rounds of those kinds of elections and the voters do not have that patience.
So the argument most people seem to focus on regarding AOC is that she’s too far left, especially in terms of economics. If we could have an actual progressive VP, I would hope we could logically then actually have a progressive as a president.
Pritzker may be from a wealthy family, and not be extremely progressive in terms of economics, but several of his economic policies seem more progressive than a lot of establishment Democrats. They would be an odd couple, but might offset each other enough to make a good team and cast a wide net.
He raised minimum wage in his state to $15 an hour back in 2019, he passed a law to protect collective bargaining, and he passed a graduated tax law that didn’t make people making $250K or less pay more in taxes.
I would say the least likeable trait, and probably the thing that would make their pairing least likely, would be his unwillingness to call for the ceasefire in Israel until October of 2024 (which sadly is still a better track record than a lot of establishment Dems).
It’s also worth noting that he apparently funded his own campaign for governor with his own wealth, and that could make him less beholden to big donors like many establishment Dems.
I also think he and AOC are two of the few politicians who could really mop the floor with the MAGA narrative control bullshit, and their individual strengths and differences could make them more difficult to target with typical narrative control attacks.