What's There Been To Say?
Last week I took off; this week, I'm keeping it quick - but I promise there's a message, here.
Hello, friends,
Two weeks ago, we talked about how Democrats continue to disappoint. That hasn’t changed much. There’s a big primary not too far from me, where Congressman Jamaal Bowman is defending his seat against Westchester County Executive George Latimer. Hillary Clinton endorsed Latimer, which makes total sense since Latimer, to paraphrase New Republic writer Talia Jane, can’t stop saying weird shit on topics of racial equity. Bryan Metzger organized some recent flubs, for example.
But that depressing mundanity is part of why I took last week off unannounced.
Right now, by and large, politics and the world in general are in a holding pattern. Okay, so it’s not exactly “holding.” It’s kinda falling apart. But, see, that’s the status quo.
For starters, there are ongoing violence outbursts in numerous places around the world, from Israel/Palestine to Sudan to the Chinese attacking Philippinos with swords. No, I didn’t make that last one up.
Elie Mystal (whose name I typoed as “Elite Mystal,” which is just as accurate) has a short list of Supreme Court cases he’s waiting to hear back on, but until those rulings are issued they aren’t, well, issued. They will matter, but speculation is useless and draining.
And, yeah, sure, Louisiana signed a blatantly unConstitutional law mandating the Ten Commandments be displayed in classrooms, but, like…That’s par-for-the-course stupidity. It’s what we should expect from Christo-Fascists who want to tear the country down and build it back in their own image via Project 2025.
I’m not about to sit here and write articles about “Biden SLAMS Trump with explosive ad!” or anything inane like that. The Progressive Cafe is a place to talk about and explore Progressive ideas and structural concepts, such as Medicare For All - or, if we aren’t talking about aspirational ideas, to at least report on happenings from a Progressive angle.
So what’s there to write?
Last week, as generally with this week, there’s not that much to say. And that’s okay. I haven’t had the mental resources to do a deep dive into anything, recently. Well, more recently than our exploration of national service three weeks ago.
I kind of want to tackle Charter Schools, but I’ve got this weird psychological paradox where I’m coming at that from an extremely biased position (I spent about 8 years working in public schools as a Teacher and TA), so it’s hard for me to bring myself to dig in.
Finally, it just feels as if the ‘battle lines’ have been drawn, and we’re past the aspirational stage of pushing for new policy and trapped in the drudgery that is trying to keep the country from falling to a Fascist. It’s Biden versus Trump again, and that sucks. Biden is a conservative Democrat uninterested in most Progressive policies, especially on the foreign front.
Trump is a Nazi who wants to deport millions of people in a massive ethnic cleansing and stick them in what amount to concentration camps. You do the math on who we need to support, because a third-party vote is just you getting out of the way of the Nazis.
Just like I won’t write “Judge drops DEVASTATING ruling against Trump!” articles, I’m not here to write “Biden CRUSHES Trump in new poll!” or “Why Biden is the BEST President in Labor’s history!” articles, either. They’re pointless and don’t advance the conversation.
And there’s little point to me jumping on bandwagons that are reported en-masse because, well, let’s be real here: The Progressive Cafe is still a very small publication, and all you need to do is hop on Reddit’s r/politics to be informed of the latest big stories. That sort of stuff is simply beyond my niche.
So, yeah, that’s kind of where this is at. Status quo.
Calm before the storm.
Thank you for reading The Progressive Cafe. If this article has helped you, please consider signing up for our mailing list. This article is by Jesse Pohlman, a former hyperlocal journalist and sci-fi/fantasy author from Long Island, New York, whose website you can check out here.