Jimmy Dore Lambasts The Squad, Calls Out Progressive Left
Jimmy Dore, the host of "The Jimmy Dore Show", is the host of one of the most-watched progressive political commentary shows on the internet. His videos as of late have targeted "The Squad", in a series of videos pressuring them to withhold their votes for Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House in exchange for a floor vote on "Medicare For All" (H.R. 1384). The show promoted the hashtag "#ForceTheVote" in an attempt to pressure them to that end - a hashtag which "trended" on Twitter. The pressure campaign failed, and "Squad" members elected Pelosi without concessions. Dore is now calling them out as "frauds and sellouts", along with TYT's co-hosts Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian for propping up politicians who refuse to fight for Americans while simultaneously referring to themselves as independent media. TYT's (The Young Turks) slogan is "Home of Progressives".
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), after running on a progressive platform in her successful bid to oust establishmentarian Democrat Joe Crowley in New York's 14th congressional district, received a great deal of attention after stating that "we need to bring the ruckus" to the DNC. However, unless "ruckus" is a synonym for "acquiescence", she seems to have changed her strategic position. AOC took to Twitter to defend her position on not forcing the vote, claiming that advocates of the strategy had not thought through "step 2" (which would inevitably be a public pressure campaign highlighting the members of Congress who had voted against their constituents). For context from recent political memory, congressional Republicans voted to overturn the Affordable Care Act a ridiculous 54 times in 4 years, leveraging the political theatre for public support. This is how political leverage is used. This is not the only faulty political logic being employed to justify rolling over for Pelosi, however. Cenk Uygur, the aforementioned host and founder of the nominally progressive news outlet TYT, suggested via Twitter that withholding their votes for Pelosi could leave the House with a "Speaker Kevin McCarthy", which is factually untrue. The House of Representatives does not elect a Speaker based upon the total number of votes cast, but rather based upon a simple majority among it's total members, or at least 218 votes in this case. Later, Uygur backpedaled, admitting that there was only one strategy that would have resulted in McCarthy becoming Speaker, but did not explain his previous decision to withhold support for the original idea. Dore, by the way, never suggested that "The Squad" vote for McCarthy. Only that they withhold their vote for Pelosi. Members of the Progressive Caucus could have rallied their support around Rep. Mark Pocan, the Chair of the CPC (Congressional Progressive Caucus) until concessions were made by Pelosi to bring "Medicare For All" to a floor vote; A strategy which would not have resulted in an elected Speaker unless a majority of the House supported Pocan, or Pelosi made concessions.
Many prominent progressives had thrown their support behind "#ForceTheVote", including Sen. Bernie Sanders' Press Secretary Briahna Joy Grey, Rolling Stone's Katie Halper, prominent public intellectual and philosopher Dr. Cornel West, and many others, most of whom expressed support for the idea as guests on Jimmy Dore's show, but were not recipients of the same attacks as Dore was from Cenk Uygur on the issue, who was told by Uygur that "just don't understand politics" and was "embarrassing [himself]" in one tweet.