Digital Podcast

Alternative Visions - Is a 3rd Independent Progressive Party Now on the Agenda in America? - 10.19.18


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Alternative Visions show

Summary: Dr. Rasmus invites guests, Nick Brana and Alan Benjamin, to discuss the growing demand for a 3rd, independent political party, now supported by 67% of Americans according to a recent Gallup Poll. Nick Brana is the former national coordinator for the Bernie Sanders 2016 campaign’s liaison to the Democratic Party, formerly the electoral manager for the post-2016 ‘Our Revolution’ movement behind Sanders, and a prior director of Democrat campaigns for governor (McAuliff) and Kerry. Alan Benjamin is a former delegate to the San Francisco central labor council, AFLCIO, a union member and long time activist in Latino politics in California. Both guests are now active in the ‘movement for a People’s Party, a coalition of labor, community and progressive activists with 50,000 signed supporters. Dr. Rasmus asks Brana how the Democrats stopped Bernie Sanders, what’s going on inside the Democratic Party today on the eve of the 2018 midterm elections, and why he has broken with the Democrats in favor of a new party. Rasmus explains how the two parties—Democrat and Republican—have morphed into parties controlled increasingly by the radical right (Trump’s Republican) and corporate lobbyists (Democrats), why Democrats can’t stop Trump, how they’ve become inept and ineffective, and why the ‘blue wave’ in the midterms being predicted by the media may not materialize. Alan Benjamin describes discussions and shifts underway today at the grass roots level in both Unions and Latino movements. Together the three discuss: Is the US at a critical political juncture? Can an organizational alternative be formed in time to stop the shift to the right and proto-fascist politics in the US? Can progressives get beyond single issue politics? Why can’t Democrats stop Trump? (For more information, listeners should check out: http://ForaPeoplesParty.org. laborcommunitycampaign@gmail.com, or http://socialistorganizer.com for more information and activities).