Faith Quintero

Understand the decades it took for "progressives" to have some success in shifting the Democractic party to the socialist left! And now we are in an unsafe place. A hard lesson we have not learned, those against democracy, the Jewish people and Israel have been at this for so very long. Not a word of their msging has changed for decades. Bernie Sanders is who they coalesed around. And PDA takes pride that they convinced Sanders to run for President in 2013, for the 2016 general election. Eventually, as in years, more socialists orgs joined PDA. And now they are having serious and dangerous impacts on so many of our lives. HUGE lessons, they played chess while so many of us were playing checkers. Another critical lesson, so many of us raised concern for decades, only to lose support, our jobs. As a friend said on October 7 and after, this is the worse 'i told you so' ever! Please pay attention!!!! And, don't use my research withoug my permission and without crediting me. Below is an excerpt from the ED of PDA. While he was working at PDA is was also working at a 501 (c) 3 public radio station from 2002 until 2018. And he still contributes to the station and network. Many of you know "Democracy Now!", which is the flagship show for the same network. "In all of these respects, Rashida Tlaib continues the 13th District’s tradition of sending a progressive visionary to Washington.  However, history has shifted. Left-progressives are no longer so marginalized. In fact, millions of Americans are raising their voices, demanding exactly the type of systemic change as Rashida and the Squad. However, radical change doesn’t come easy. Does the new progressive left have realistic plans to remedy America’s endemic social ills, and the dramatic impact they have on places like Michigan’s 13th? Aren’t these the product of decades of dis-investment? Wouldn’t a reversal of this trend require a wholesale social and economic re-organization of society? The answers to those questions are Yes, Yes, and No – as long as true left progressives like Rashida Tlaib keep on winning elections. Rashida Tlaib is the real deal, an exceptional public servant on all fronts. I’ve had the privilege of co-hosting an event with Rashida Tlaib. Not surprisingly, Rashida faced challenging questions. She handled them with grace, a welcoming sense of inclusivity; and still made strong persuasive arguments throughout. I’ve also participated in an activist action with Rashida, and witnessed her make a powerful presentation at the Congressional Progressive Caucus Center on the People’s Housing Platform, a legislative initiative to guarantee housing as a human right. There’s no denying that Rashida has tremendous charisma (with a million-watt smile), yet she is as down-to-earth as anyone you could hope to meet. (Want proof? Check out her interview with Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman a few days after her election to Congress). Not surprisingly, Rashida has been very accessible to the members of her district these past two years. She is truly of the community, by the community, for the community. As such, Rashida Tlaib fully understands how much needs to be done to lift Michigan’s 13th into the realm of middle class prosperity. She also understands the centrality of government policy for achieving that end. After all, the state determines both society’s laws and the parameters of the economy (including those of the market) in all industrialized/technological 21st Century societies. The contemporary American right-wing fully grasps this, hence their astronomical expenditures on elections, and their voter disenfranchisement shenanigans, etc.  Somehow, this truth is lost on a significant portion of the left, but understood fully by Rashida and the Squad. Thus, these young radical Congresswomen occupy a unique and central role in current politics. They share a social critique with the millions of largely young Americans who poured into the streets following the murder of George Floyd, demanding not just an end to murderous racist policing, but to the entirety of American structural racism. Rashida is now one of the two lead sponsors, along with Ayanna Pressley. of the Movement For Black Lives-endorsed Breathe Act; which calls for the divestment of Federal funds from policing and incarceration, and the investment of those funds into new, alternative approaches to public safety, and into building “healthy, sustainable, and equitable communities for all people.” We do not know with certainty where those millions of protestors fall on the ideological spectrum; but all evidence suggests they not only loathe the perpetuation of America’s institutionalized, structural racism; but understand its direct relationship to much of America’s endemic social pathologies.  There is a voracious appetite in the land for justice, and for building an anti-racist society with more shared prosperity. Among our elected officials, only left-progressives will pursue this agenda. Without a major re-setting of government policy – comparable in scale to FDR in 1933 (to the left) and Reagan in the 1980s (to the right) – America’s endemic social pathologies will surely persist. The current slate of well-known left progressive programs – such as Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, living wage and full employment mandates, and now the Breathe Act – would provide a solid foundation for such a necessary and seismic shift . Rashida Tlaib will pursue these ends and more. She is a leader for our times. We need Rashida to win re-election. We can build a just, equitable and sustainable society in America, but we need political power to get there. A septuagenarian socialist and The Squad have established a beachhead inside the halls of power. If they hold that ground, and continue to expand their ranks, a sense of real possibility will continue to spread across the land. (So, now it’s time to mobilize for Rashida! Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) has officially endorsed Rashida Tlaib for Congress. Please support our efforts to re-elect Rashida by donating or by signing up to phone bank.) A loss by Rashida would be devastating not only for progressives, but also for Palestinians and those of us who support Palestinian human and political rights. Rashida is, of course, Palestinian-American and she’s an outspoken advocate for the Palestinian cause; which, of course, puts her at odds with the U.S. foreign policy establishment. While the Israeli Government, President Trump, and Republicans in Congress have all leveled attacks against Rashida, she has remained an unwavering voice of reason; reiterating principled positions backed up by facts.  Support for the Palestinian cause is growing in America; and Rashida is a great spokesperson for the movement. One more reason why the world will be a better place if Rashida Tlaib wins on August 4th; in what I consider the most important Congressional primary of 2020."