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Even as 150 enthusiastic organizers of a new Franklin County League of Women Voters gathered on a recent Sunday at Greenfields Temple Israel, a standing-room-only crowd of more than 200 people showed up less than a mile away at the Guiding Star Grange Hall for the second general assembly of a new political action group calling itself Franklin Continuing the Political Revolution.

We thought wed have 100, said David Cohen of Greenfield, since 65 had shown up for its first general assembly just after the November election.

Were really tapping into people who are really afraid of whats happening right now, and they want to work on progressive issues, Cohen, a member of the groups eight-member coordinating committee, said recently.

Franklin Continuing the Political Revolution bills itself as nonpartisan, although its leaders clearly are politically engaged and liberal. Many recruits are political novices recently energized by the election of Donald Trump. There are 225 dues-paying members, many of whom arent enrolled in any party and some of whom, Cohen says, havent been politically active before.

People want to talk and know What can we do? said Susan Triolo of Sunderland, another coordinating committee member, adding that using social media, the group has brought in people who havent done anything, ever, in their lives politically, who are terrified or depressed or desperate, or who just believe in democracy and want to do more than just show up for demonstrations.

FCCR, a grass-roots effort that morphed out of the Pioneer Valley for Bernie (Sanders) organization last summer, turned its emphasis from get out the vote to long-range issues.

We said, Well stick together and work on issues long-term, said Cohen.

Seven task forces have been meeting every couple of weeks to actively advance their seven areas of concern, including civil rights, education, electoral politics and workers rights.

A task force on single-payer health care, said Judy Atkins of Greenfield, is insisting that Massachusetts in the face of Republican efforts at the national level to dismantle the Affordable Care Act and do away with Medicaid should move toward a full single-payer health plan, as prescribed in a bill now before the Legislature, and as called for on the state Democratic platform for years.

That task force, of which shes a member, is researching how much area towns would save on employee health insurance if such a plan were in place, to create what Atkins calls a groundswell of support.

A campaign finance reform task force, meanwhile, is working on efforts to get big money out of lobbying. The Climate Crisis Task Force is working to help Franklin County towns move toward the statewide coalition Mass Power Forwards goal of 80 percent renewable energy generation, supporting the campaign to divest the states pension fund away from fossil fuel investments and promoting greater use of public transportation.

The Education Task Force, which worked initially to defeat the charter school ballot question on last falls ballot, is focused on issues like high-stakes testing, on separating test results from teacher evaluations and promoting free higher education.

The Electoral Politics Task Force will encourage progressive candidates to run for local and state office, said coordinating committee member Ferd Wulkan of Montague. Were not going to just support somebody because theyre slightly better than their opponent.

In this, FCCR appears willing to take its revolution moniker seriously.

Wed expect that if somebodys running for, say, state rep and they say they support single-payer, but the leadership of the Democratic Party doesnt want to push it, wed expect that person to buck him, and not say, Ill go along with what the leadership tells me, Cohen said. If they run on a platform of things people need, we expect them to fight and raise a little hell in the statehouse over those issues. We have to openly say, Yes, we have a political system that doesnt work and is dominated by the interests of corporate donors. To have a true democracy wouldnt depend on people who have been in there a long time and have toed leaderships line. Theres a real problem with that.

The task force also hopes to provide basic information and support on how to run for town office, or for becoming a delegate to the state party convention.

General assembly meetings are open to members and nonmembers, and nonmembers can go online to http://www.FCCPR.us to join and learn when task forces are meeting or the time and location of the next general assembly meeting, on March 26.

There are also plans for theater, music and arts activities, as well as seeking town meeting resolutions on issues from sanctuary for refugees to campaign and finance reform.

With plenty of work to do, the local groups hardly work in a vacuum, but Triolo said, Were trying to stay focused locally and not get distracted by Donald Trumps daily tweets.

Cohen reiterated state Rep. Paul Marks message at the Jan. 19 Greenfield pre-inaugural rally that The federal government is not going to be there for us for the next two to four years or maybe longer. Massachusetts has always been a leader, and nowhere more so than western Massachusetts. It is our duty now to set an example for the rest of this country, to lead as weve always led. Whether its same-sex marriage, whether its health care for all. We need to lead and we need to go beyond where weve been able to go so far.

Rather than standing apart as a group, these gray-haired veterans of the labor movement and other social issues said, FCCR has also attracted anti-pipeline activists as well as members of Western Massachusetts Jobs For Justice, Social Justice Rising, Not in Our Town and even some founding members of the new League of Women Voters chapter.

Were making it clear: Were not out to supplant them, Cohen said. Were trying to add more people into this large struggle for civil rights and against racism.

Because were seen as an active group, actually doing stuff, the work were doing is giving people hope, said Triolo. Thats how we got 200-plus people to show up on a Sunday afternoon for two hours. Were alive People can actually be involved with doing something.

On the Web: fccpr.us

You can reach Richie Davis at rdavis@recorder.com

or 413-772-0261, ext. 269

See the original post here:
Local progressives continue working toward 'Political Revolution' - The Recorder

Republican Donald Trump becoming the 45th President of the United States was a shock for Albany County progressive Chris Lowry.

But the left-leaning Wyoming native in an overwhelmingly Republican environment isnt looking to lie down and accept an executive branch thats taking the nation in a direction that contradicts some of his core values. Instead, Lowry said he and fellow Albany County progressives are feeling energized.

It was disappointing, but I would say it gave me incentive to work even harder, Lowry said of the November election that saw Republicans take control of Congress and the White House. It definitely seems the opposition feels inspired to work together against a common threat to what people on the left feel are important to them.

Lowry, 33, came to Laramie to pursue a chemistry degree at the University of Wyoming. Today, hes a chemist at Western Research Institute and a single dad of two younger children. Since the April primary where more than 1,000 local Democrats cast their votes in the Democratic caucus, Lowry has attended monthly meetings of the Albany County Democratic Party.

The number of people that were there was really impressive, he said of the caucus. Wyoming people wanted to have a voice even though Democrats are outnumbered by more than two-to-one.

Looking forward, Lowry said he plans to remain active politically.

If a position in the (Democratic Party) leadership happens to open up and the rest of the county delegates think that Im a good choice, then Ill accept a leadership position, he said. But I plan on remaining active and involved and aware of whats going on.

Laramie resident Adrienne Vetter, 34, also said shes been inspired by the enthusiasm local progressives displayed during and since the election cycle. Like Lowry, Vetter said she was a supporter of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who ran on a democratic socialist platform to the left of Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Though shes volunteered some time and effort to the Albany County Democratic Party in the past, Vetter said shes also potentially upping her commitment in the near future.

Ive definitely been interested since the caucus section of the election, she said. Its kind of that realization, If not me, then who? We have to step it up and be more involved in political systems.

Vetter said she let the Albany County Democrats know she wants to put her name in the hat for the State Committeewoman position.

Im planning on being more involved, she said. Im not entirely sure Ill get it, but its important enough for me to fight this apathetic mood by taking a risk and putting myself out there.

One of Lowrys first acts of 2017 was attending the Wyoming Womens March in Cheyenne on Jan. 21 to voice dissent regarding Trumps policies that he said he opposes.

I think it was uplifting and inspirational, he said.

I feel like it was empowering to a lot of people that were there and for me, too just to have something to kind of register dissent of the results.

Albany Countys Democratic representatives in the State House and Senate were able to keep their seats in November, but werent able to come up with any victories from newcomers. With a Senate seat and four house seats up for grabs, only Rep. Cathy Connolly, D-Laramie, and Rep. Charles Pelkey, D-Laramie defeated their challengers. Pelkeys race was the closest as Republican challenger Tom Schmit had the lead with 12 of 13 precincts reporting before the final precinct, but early and absentee votes put Pelkey over the top.

However, since the election, some local progressives have been pleased to have some younger blood looking to fill leadership positions, said Pam Mathewson, Albany County Democratic Party chair.

We have a whole lot of new faces and we have a lot more precinct committee spots filled, Mathewson said. Weve been engaging some more young people and people who previously havent been politically active, or at least not recently. Were trying to get their viewpoints, get them into the process and part of our organization so we can be more inclusive, get more viewpoints and what they want to see for the future of Albany County and Wyoming. Were getting new faces and new enthusiasm, and thats always nice to see.

Forward Wyoming is a nonprofit organization based in Laramie dedicated to progressive causes. Though the group is officially nonpartisan, Executive Director Marc Homer said it is aligned with progressive ideals.

Were working to develop the next generation of progressive advocates, Homer said.

During the 2016 election cycle, Forward Wyoming worked with affiliate organizations to support Democratic candidates running for seats in the Legislature. Homer said Forward Wyoming is moving on with the Grassroots Institute, a free program offered to community members looking to learn how to enact political change. He said many Democrats as well as Republicans and Independents think the Trump administration is out-of-step with their values and could unite to oppose policies they find objectionable.

There used to be a time where conservatives and liberals wanted the same things, Homer said. We are teaching young people to organize so they can go in their communities, they can begin to protect the rights that they know they should be having as American citizens and they are going to try to develop public momentum behind ideas that are simply trying to level the playing field and give everyone a slice of the pie.

In addition to the Womens March for which Forward Wyoming chartered a bus that transported dozens of Laramie residents to Cheyenne Homer said there are more actions coming from progressives looking to make their voices heard in Wyoming.

I think its wonderful people are finally taking this seriously maybe a day late and a dollar short but they are going out, he said. Well see more of these rallies, and well do our part in helping to sustain them.

Wyomings Legislature is also on Albany County progressives radars, Lowry said.

Im worried about losing access to public lands, Im worried about government overreach into public bathrooms, Im worried about bills that are titled Religious Freedom but actually protect Christian beliefs more than allowing non-Christians to have an opinion, he said. I make phone calls and send emails, and Im donating and volunteering.

Mathewson said local Democrats are happy about the defeat of House Bill 135, titled Government Nondiscrimination Act, which opponents said would tie the governments hands in protecting LGBTQ people from discrimination. However, she said they are still concerned about bills regarding abortion and concealed carry of firearms.

Those are bills at the top of the list wed like to see if we can keep from passing, she said.

With all the disagreements between liberals and conservatives in Albany County and across the nation, Lowry said he thinks its important especially for people on the left to listen to different and opposing viewpoints. The violence that broke out when Breitbart News editor and right wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos was scheduled to come to the University of California, Berkeley, campus Feb. 1 was counterproductive way for progressives to express themselves, Lowry.

We have to find a way to build some consensus, he said. Some of the ugly rhetoric Ive seen from people not just online, but in person, like the riots in California is probably not the best action to take. The violence and destruction of property is not going to help win elections and change.

Homer said the best way to forward for progressives is registering more people to vote.

Hopefully politicians who are ethically challenged maybe the only thing they listen to is the zero-sum result of whether they win or lose, he said. So, we have to keep getting more people registered to vote so they will keep that pressure up.

Link:
County progressives moving forward after elections - Laramie Boomerang

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I'm a conservative. But sometimes wonder if I could describe myself as a member of the political left.

After all, I am animated by the same moral instinct that leftists endlessly and loudly profess: the belief that a society's moral worth is measured by how it treats its weakest, neediest, and most marginalized members. Like them, I am outraged by all the ways in which our society screws over the little guy. These convictions are born of my Christian faith and are anchored deep in my mind and heart.

But it's those same moral convictions that too often make me angry at the political left as it currently exists in the West, and make it impossible for me to call myself a leftist. Perhaps nothing exemplifies this better than the debate around the confirmation of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and her stance on school choice.

School choice is not a fantasy of right-wing ideologues. For parents of means, it is a reality. They are able to either pay for private schools or move to districts with high-quality public schools. What school choice advocates like DeVos want is simply for poor children to have the same opportunities afforded to those parents who are better off. Opportunities that, by the way, many liberal parents happily exercise for themselves.

What's so wrong with the public school system as it is? Well, a lot.

Large, centralized, bureaucratic, top-down systems are impervious to change, innovation, institutional learning, and adaptability. They are particularly disadvantaged when it comes to being responsive to the needs of those they are supposed to serve as opposed to those of the insiders who man them. A public school classroom is not some platonic ideal of learning. It was born out of a very specific time and place, the late 19th century, when the elite ideal was the industrial assembly line. The way schools are designed today is based on these old ideas, which are rooted in shoddy philosophy and pseudo-science that has long been outdated.

Consider this: If a 19th century school teacher walked into a contemporary classroom, she would feel right at home, and could start teaching with minimal adaptation. Meanwhile, if a 19th century surgeon walked into a contemporary operating room, he would be utterly out of place, and if he wanted to perform a surgery, he would have to go through years of unlearning and relearning. This simple analogy should have us running around with our hair on fire every single day from sunrise to sundown in a state of collective fury.

Why haven't schools changed? In so many spheres of human endeavor medicine, business, the military, and academia new scientific discoveries, new organizational paradigms, and technological change have brought evolution and transformation. Innovation and efficiency comes about through a complicated trial-and-error process, one which is most effective the more decentralized it is, exactly the kind of process that large, top-down, centralized, bureaucratic organizations are most impervious to.

This issue is personal for me. As I was growing up, my family had economic ups and downs, and I experienced the worst as well as the best of what the school system in an advanced First World country had to offer. I had an unconventional learning style, which meant I did not do well in traditional public schools, and it was only because my parents eventually had enough money to put me in private schools that I eventually made something of myself academically. There is no doubt in my mind that if I had I not been afforded these opportunities, I would have become a teenage dropout.

I have personally witnessed the destruction that a top-down, one-size-fits-all, bureaucratic system can wreak on the lives of children who have the gall to be a square peg in a round hole, or have underprivileged parents, or both. There are so many kids with tremendous gifts whose lives will never reach their full potential because the public school system lets them down.

I broke out, and did well for myself. Now my own daughter goes to an alternative private school where she thrives to an astonishing degree, even as public school parents around me are in various states of dismay and panic. Every time I drop my daughter off or pick her up from school or go to a PTA meeting, I utter a silent prayer of thanks for this incredible luck and joy, right before my heart breaks at the thought of the parents who do not have the same privilege.

And then, if I'm in a sour mood, my thoughts go to the progressives who would sanctimoniously explain that, because I am a conservative, and I support school choice, I am somehow an advocate for cruelty or disregard for the poor. But it is they who are the members and agents of a political coalition whose goal is the sustainment of a system that actively destroys underprivileged children's lives.

Maybe you disagree, and that's fine. But for all that is beautiful, spare me your sanctimony. My cause is holy, and yours stinks to high heaven.

View post:
Liberals are wrong to gang up on Betsy DeVos - The Week Magazine

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'Disgrace to the Black Race': Sen. Tim Scott Illustrates How Liberals Show Tolerance - CNSNews.com

The Democratic Party has gone off the rails. We are now seeing serious (apparently) contemplation of a military coup as the solution to the Donald Trump crisis. And it isnt just comedians either, although liberals seem to get their news largely from comedians these days. The liberal Foreign Policy features an essay by Georgetown law professor and former senior advisor at the U.S. State Department Rosa Brooks, on how to get rid of President Trump before 2020. Because a four-year term is too long to wait.

I think Foreign Policy pretends to be a serious publication; it currently features a special offer subscription rate billed as a response to the war on truth. But Ms. Brookss essay isnt serious, it is just another howl of anguish from the Left.

How, exactly, are liberals going to get rid of our president without waiting until the next election? To her credit, Brooks doesnt advocate assassination. She notes the possibility of impeachment, but admits that cant happen until the Democrats take over Congress, no sooner than 2018. Thats too late! Plan B is the 25th Amendment, which, among other things, provides for a transition in power if the president should become disabled:

Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

Brooks hypothesizes that Mike Pence and a majority of President Trumps cabinet might certify that Trump is disabledby reason of insanity, apparentlyand install Pence as Acting President. I guess it truly is morning in America, if liberals are fantasizing about having Mike Pence as president.

This brings us to the ultimate solution: a military coup!

The fourth possibility is one that until recently I would have said was unthinkable in the United States of America: a military coup, or at least a refusal by military leaders to obey certain orders. *** The prospect of American military leaders responding to a presidential order with open defiance is frightening but so, too, is the prospect of military obedience to an insane order. After all, military officers swear to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, not the president. For the first time in my life, I can imagine plausible scenarios in which senior military officials might simply tell the president: No, sir. Were not doing that, to thunderous applause from the New York Times editorial board.

Several things are funny about this. To name just a few: 1) If military leaders had any desire to mount a coup against a president, it would have been Barack Obama, not Donald Trump. 2) Liberals who yearn for generals to seize power with guns say they are the ones who are against fascism. 3) The idea that applause from the New York Times editorial board is somehow a relevant factor in a world where the Army is staging a coup is a wonderful illustration of the American Lefts distance from reality.

It is easy to laugh at the current hysteria in the Democratic Party, and, perhaps, it is a moral duty to do so. But we are learning something very ugly about liberals. All that talk about democracy? Forget it. Their interest is in power, period. I seriously think they would throw us conservatives in jail if they had the opportunity. The Democratic Party, as currently constituted, must never achieve power again.

Via Donald Sensing.

More here:
I'm So Old, I Remember When Liberals Opposed Military Coups - Power Line (blog)