The values that unite the Democratic Party

Episode 33 Sneak Peek

Big news in the battle against evictions: Rep. Cori Bush spent the week shining a spotlight on the injustice of the expiring eviction moratorium in a country that is 49 percent fully vaccinated. Now, her refusal to let the plight of housing-insecure Americans leave the government’s sight has just proved successful.

Cori Bush @CoriBush

On Friday night, I came to the Capitol with my chair. I refused to accept that Congress could leave for vacation while 11 million people faced eviction. For 5 days, we’ve been out here, demanding that our government acts to save lives. Today, our movement moved mountains.

Bryan Anderson @BryanRAnderson

WASHINGTON (AP) — Biden to announce new eviction ban due to COVID spread.

Rep. Bush draws upon her own experience with homelessness in order to advocate for the most vulnerable people in the country. She has no plans to abandon a critical vote in order to fit in a full vacation. Instead, Cori Bush has called upon her colleagues in Congress and upon the Biden administration to take the action they’ve denied having the power to take. Now, she’s gotten results — by sticking to the value that everyone deserves housing.

By contrast, for establishment Democrats who stake their careers on faux social-justice outrage and corporate funding, the expiring moratorium offered another opportunity for empty gestures.

Nancy Pelosi @SpeakerPelosi

Ensuring every American has a roof overhead is a value that unites the Democratic Party. That's why I led a relentless campaign to extend the CDC eviction moratorium. In an act of pure cruelty, Republicans blocked this measure — leaving children and families out on the streets.

Though Pelosi’s tweet is galling in its completely performative, calculated concern for millions of Americans living in the most dire straits imaginable, it’s very useful in illustrating the worth of the “value[s] that unite the Democratic Party.” From heart-shaped White House yard displays to inaugural speeches and Instagram posts, the various slogans that create the Democrats’ platform — “Science is real,” “No human is illegal,” “Hate is not welcome here” — remain conveniently detached from the material programs that would curb hate, prevent the detention and torture of immigrants, or inspire public trust in science. Conveniently for the Democrats, of course, because Biden’s admin continues to detain migrant children and threatens to send people incarcerated for marijuana use back to prison.

The real value uniting the Democratic establishment is a refusal to challenge the profit motives behind human suffering in the United States. But at least they might tweet about it. Luckily, we have better advocates for the working class (like Cori Bush) in office. But, of course, even more action is needed to make sure that families and individuals who have fallen behind on rent are never forced out of their homes, and that nobody experiences homelessness in the world’s richest country.

This week, we’re welcoming Irami Osei-Frimpong to Krystal Kyle & Friends to discuss his work, his political journey, and his perspective on today’s current events. Paid subscribers can watch the video conversation on Friday through Substack; everyone else, tune in through Substack, Spotify, Pandora, Apple Podcasts, and more when the audio drops on Saturday.+