Not captured yet
by Tom Sullivan
“The populists capture the Democratic Party,” declares the headline on Dana Milbank’s Washington Post column. “Can Hillary Clinton manage those rowdy populists?” asks Katrina vanden Huevel.
Well, not so fast. The big split to be managed soon is over a Senate resolution to give the president “fast track” trade authority for the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal. Milbank writes:
Twenty years ago, half of Senate Democrats and 40 percent of House Democrats voted for the North American Free Trade Agreement. This time, even if Sen. Ron Wyden (Ore.), top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, signs off on a fast-track deal, proponents say a best-case scenario has them winning only 10 of the 46 Democrats — and an even smaller percentage of House Democrats, despite aggressive lobbying by the usually passive White House.
Progressive Senators and Representatives from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (MA) to Rep. Alan Grayson (FL), alongside labor leaders, may have staged a protest outside the Capitol yesterday, but the Obama administration has so far not flinched on supporting TPP. Milbank’s headline writer may have jumped the gun.
Obama, Republican leaders and business leaders are pushing hard for the treaty, while Hillary Clinton has still not declared her position on TPP. Meanwhile, progressives are organizing to pull her and the party to the left. Vanden Heuvel writes:
Warren has joined with Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., to launch the Middle Class Prosperity Project, planning to convene hearings across the country on economic policies threatening the middle class, including, most recently, the need to relieve the burden of student debt. Progressives are gearing up a major campaign for four years of free public college.
Next week, the Campaign for America’s Future will announce an alliance with three major national grassroots organizations — National People’s Action, USAction and the Alliance for a Just Society — to drive a populist platform into the political debate. Moveon.org, the Progressive Congressional Campaign Committee and Progressive Democrats of America are all mobilizing online support for the demand that candidates address “bold ideas” for economic reform. Warren is joining the Center for Community Change Action as it launches a campaign for jobs. The AFL-CIO will hold convocations in each of the early primary states focused on the issue of raising wages.
Populists may not have taken over the party, but down-ticket Democrats as well as Hillary Clinton will need the Warren Wing in 2016, writes Linda Feldman for the Christian Science Monitor:
First, she needs Senator Warren’s supporters to get excited about her – and not just vote for her grudgingly in the general election. She needs them to donate and volunteer. If enough Warren enthusiasts sit this election out, Clinton could have a hard time winning.
Right now, it’s too soon to tell how that will go. Republican candidates are already staking out policies they’ll run on. Clinton has yet to get specific. Katrina vanden Huevel pokes Clinton, “Front and center?”