[ When progressives fight each other, the establishment wins. "For
the sake of humanity and the planet, we need a tactical alliance
between the Sanders and Warren campaigns. Defeating corporate
Democrats and Donald Trump will require no less."]
[[link removed]]

PROGRESSIVE GROUPS URGE SANDERS-WARREN UNITY TO DEFEAT DONALD TRUMP
  [[link removed]]

 

Jonathan Easley; Jon Queally
January 16, 2020
The Hill
[[link removed]]


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_ When progressives fight each other, the establishment wins. "For
the sake of humanity and the planet, we need a tactical alliance
between the Sanders and Warren campaigns. Defeating corporate
Democrats and Donald Trump will require no less." _

Sen. Elizabeth Warren greets Sen. Bernie Sanders as former Vice
President Joe Biden looks on before the Democratic presidential
primary debate at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. Six candidates
qualified for the first primary debate of 2020., Photo: Scott
Olson/Getty Images // The Hill

 

18 Progressive Groups Sign Unity Pledge Amid Sanders-Warren Feud -
Jonathan Easley (The Hill)
Progressive Groups Urge Sanders-Warren Unity to Defeat Corporate
Democrats in Primary—and Then Donald Trump - Jon Queally (Common
Dreams)
Sign the Pledge

 

18 PROGRESSIVE GROUPS SIGN UNITY PLEDGE AMID SANDERS-WARREN FEUD

By Jonathan Easley

January 16, 2020
The Hill
[[link removed]]

Eighteen progressive groups have signed a unity pledge vowing to keep
their fire trained on the “corporate wing” of the Democratic Party
amid a burgeoning feud between Sens. Bernie Sanders
[[link removed]] (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth
Warren [[link removed]] (D-Mass.) that
has split the left.

The signers include seven groups who back Sanders's 2020 presidential
bid and two that back Warren's. The remaining nine groups are either
supportive of both candidates, such as Democracy for America, or have
not endorsed anyone yet.

The three-part pledge says the groups will “focus our fight for the
nomination against candidates supported by the corporate wing, instead
of fighting each other.” The groups say they’re committed to
ensuring a progressive candidate wins the Democratic Party’s
presidential nomination and that they’ll join forces to ensure that
candidate ultimately defeats President Trump
[[link removed]].

“When progressives fight each other, the establishment wins,” said
Charles Chamberlain, the chairman for Democracy for America. “We saw
it in 2004 when progressives took each other out and John Kerry
[[link removed]] slipped through to win Iowa
and then went on to lose in November to a very unpopular Republican
incumbent. We’re determined to not let that happen again.”

Sanders and Warren had agreed to not attack one another and stuck to
that pledge for all of 2019.

But the detente exploded in spectacular fashion earlier this week
after reports that the Sanders campaign was instructing volunteers to
question whether Warren is electable.

Warren later alleged that Sanders told her in a private meeting in
2018 that a woman could not win the White House. Sanders, however,
denies ever saying that.

The allegations and denials escalated between the two at Tuesday
night’s debate in Des Moines, culminating in a post-debate exchange
in which Warren confronted Sanders and accused him of calling her a
“liar on national TV.”

Sanders and Warren are at the top of many polls of Iowa with the
caucuses only weeks away, and liberals are fearful that the bitter
dispute will hurt both candidates and potentially pave the way for a
centrist contender, such as former Vice President Joe Biden
[[link removed]] or former South Bend, Ind.,
Mayor Pete Buttigieg
[[link removed]], to emerge
victorious.

“We need a bold progressive president. In our opinion, the most
inspirational and electable Democrat we could nominate is Elizabeth
Warren,” the Progressive Change Campaign Committee said in a
statement. “We are joining this effort out of a belief that it
represents leaders in the progressive movement urging everyone from
campaign staff to Twitter commenters to focus on defeating a
corporate, establishment Democrat like Joe Biden. This effort
inherently includes standing opposed to sexism and bad-faith arguments
in the primary process. We look forward to working with our friends to
enforce these principles."

The unity effort, called “Progressives Unite 2020,” features a
website [[link removed]] where members can sign
the pledge and commit to voting for either Sanders or Warren at their
caucus or primary.

That’s particularly important in Iowa, where candidates must reach a
15-percent threshold at a caucus site to win delegates. Organizers
will be seeking to ensure that if one of the progressive candidates
does not hit that threshold, those voters move to back the progressive
candidate that does.

“We need a President who will put the interests of everyday people
ahead of those of the wealthy elite and big corporations,” said Bree
Carlson, the deputy director of People’s Action, which backs
Sanders. “Our members voted to endorse Senator Sanders as the best
choice for President because he is ready to work side by side with us
to do just that. Senator Warren is our clear second choice, both
Senator Sanders and Senator Warren stand heads and shoulders above the
candidates seeking only to prop up the status quo of corporate
interests."

A full list of the groups that signed on to the effort and the
candidates they support is below:

1. Be A Hero Action Fund

2. Black Male Voter Project

3. Black Voters Matter Fund

4. Center for Popular Democracy Action (Sanders)

5. Democracy for America

6. Dream Defenders (Sanders)

7. Inequality Media Civic Action

8. Justice Democrats

9. Our Revolution (Sanders)

10. People’s Action (Sanders)

11. Presente Action

12. Progress America

13. Progressive Change Campaign Committee (Warren)

14. Progressive Democrats of America (Sanders)

15. Roots Action (Sanders)

16. Social Security Works

17. Sunrise Movement (Sanders)

18. Working Families Party (Warren)

 

PROGRESSIVE GROUPS URGE SANDERS-WARREN UNITY TO DEFEAT CORPORATE
DEMOCRATS IN PRIMARY—AND THEN DONALD TRUMP

"When progressives fight each other, the establishment wins."

by Jon Queally

January 16, 2020
Common Dreams
[[link removed]]

The heads of six progressive advocacy organizations—some that have
endorsed Sen. Elizabeth Warren, some backing Sen. Bernie Sanders, and
others who have remained neutral thus far—issued a joint statement
calling for unity among the two candidates and their supporters on
Thursday morning, arguing that the largest beneficiaries of this
week's dust-up between the two campaigns
[[link removed]] are
establishment Democrats, corporate defenders of the status quo, and
ultimately President Donald Trump.

"For the sake of humanity and the planet, we need a tactical alliance
between the Sanders and Warren campaigns. Defeating corporate
Democrats and Donald Trump will require no less."
—Norman Solomon, RootsAction

The statement (which can be read in full below) was signed by the
heads of Democracy for America, Our Revolution, RootsAction.org,
Sunrise Movement, Working Families Party, and Justice Democrats. It
argues that the best chance for progressives in the United States to
defeat Trump "does not lie with an establishment or corporate
Democrat," but rather with unified progressive front.

While Our Revolution, RootsAction, and Sunrise are all openly backing
Sanders, the Working Families Party has officially endorsed Warren.
Justice Democrats and Democracy for America, meanwhile, have yet to
throw their support behind any of the 2020 primary candidates in the
Democratic field. Despite the divergent approaches to the primary, the
groups called for unity to ensure that Trump is defeated in November
and that a truly transformative and progressive vision can take hold.

According to the joint statement, "the surest way to defeat Trump is
for the Democratic Party to nominate either Warren or Sanders, as
these are the candidates best able to energize voters by providing a
vision of a decent society and a fair economy. This vision is sorely
needed, as is an administration that will implement far-reaching
reforms toward a more just society."

The groups backing either Warren or Sanders said the statement of
unity "in no way signals the slightest decrease in that commitment,"
but added that both the campaigns and their respective supporters will
have to "find ways to cooperate" going forward.

"The crossfire amplified by the media is unhelpful and does not
reflect the relationship between two Senate colleagues who broadly
worked well together for most of the last year," reads the statement.
"We hope to build solidarity between delegates affiliated with these
two candidates prior to the convention and will encourage the
campaigns to work towards a unified convention strategy after the
final primaries on June 2nd."

In a column for _Common Dreams_ on Thursday morning, Norman Solomon,
co-founder of RootsAction.org and a signatory to the joint statement,
wrote: "For the sake of humanity and the planet, we need a tactical
alliance between the Sanders and Warren campaigns. Defeating corporate
Democrats and Donald Trump will require no less."

"The surest way to defeat Trump is for the Democratic Party to
nominate either Warren or Sanders, as these are the candidates best
able to energize voters by providing a vision of a decent society and
a fair economy. This vision is sorely needed, as is an administration
that will implement far-reaching reforms toward a more just society."
—Progressive Unity StatementThe joint statement by the six
organizations coincides with a separate yet overlapping effort, called
"Progressives Unite 2020 [[link removed]]," which
includes 18 organizations—some of whom also signed the unity
statement. According to the project's website:

The progressive movement has the chance of a lifetime to defeat Donald
Trump and elect a truly transformational progressive leader President
of the United States.

With multiple progressive candidates competing against neoliberal,
corporate and billionaire Democrats, our movement must be strategic as
we fight to win caucuses and primaries and elect candidate delegates
in state conventions to ensure a progressive wins the nomination and
then the general election.

"When progressives fight each other, the establishment wins," Charles
Chamberlain, the chairman for Democracy for America, said
[[link removed]] in
a statement. "We saw it in 2004 when progressives took each other out
and John Kerry slipped through to win Iowa and then went on to lose in
November to a very unpopular Republican incumbent. We're determined to
not let that happen again."

We will focus our fight in the primary against candidates supported by
the corporate wing, instead of fighting each other.

When progressives fight each other, the establishment wins. We saw it
in 2004 when progressives took each other out and Kerry
won. [link removed] [[link removed]]

— Justice Democrats (@justicedems) January 16, 2020
[[link removed]]

Joseph Geevarghese, executive director of Our Revolution, which is
part of the Progressives Unite 2020 coalition, said
[[link removed]],
"Our members are ready to elect Bernie Sanders as our next President,
but we must be clear. 2020 is a must-win moment for the progressive
movement. It is the best opportunity we have to transform our
political system – and take power back from the corporate elites who
seek to destroy our country and our climate. We know there are more of
us than there are of them. And if we come together and organize, we
will win 2020."

In a series of tweets on Wednesday, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.)
also made a pronounced call 
[[link removed]]for
a progressive truce between the two camps.

"Trump wants progressives pitted against each other. Corporate media
want progressives pitted against each other," Omar, who endorsed
Sanders last year, tweeted. "Billionaires want progressives pitted
against each other. Pitting progressives against each other weeks
before the Iowa Caucus hurts ALL of us."

Clarifying that Sanders is "not a sexist" and that Warren is "not a
snake," Omar told
[[link removed]] supporters
of candidates to "stay focused on the task ahead: defeating Donald
Trump in November and fighting for the America we deserve."

As Solomon, who openly backs Sanders, wrote in his column, "It's
easier—and maybe more emotionally satisfying—for anger to spin out
of control. But this is a tactical situation."

The overarching point, he said, is this: "Whatever Sanders and Warren
supporters think of each other's candidate now, there is no plausible
pathway forward to the 2020 presidential nomination for either if the
conflict festers."

READ THE FULL STATEMENT AND THE LIST OF SIGNATORIES BELOW_:_

_A Progressive Unity Statement on the Democratic Presidential
Primary _

_The importance of defeating Donald Trump in 2020 requires no
explanation._

_In 2016, mainstream conventional wisdom asserted that Hillary Clinton
would easily triumph over Trump. Today, some still argue for a return
to pre-Trump policies and politics as the safest path to victory. We
disagree. Going “back to the future” does not offer the best path
to Trump’s defeat. Nor does it move our country forward in terms of
the enormous challenges and inequities facing the American people._

_We offer this statement as independent organizations. Some support
Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren or are not currently supporting any
candidate for president. For those with a declared preference, this
statement in no way signals the slightest decrease in that commitment.
Instead, this statement is a shared declaration of our belief that the
surest way to defeat Trump is for the Democratic Party to nominate
either Warren or Sanders, as these are the candidates best able to
energize voters by providing a vision of a decent society and a fair
economy. This vision is sorely needed, as is an administration that
will implement far-reaching reforms toward a more just society._

_Our best chance of defeating Trump does not lie with an establishment
or corporate Democrat. The anti-establishment, anti-corporate
awareness and anger that characterize American society today are
justified, and it would be a huge mistake to once again yield that
ground to a phony like Trump. We can do better, and will work to
persuade Democrats to choose a strong, progressive nominee._

_Sanders and Warren, as well as their campaigns and supporters, will
need to find ways to cooperate. The crossfire amplified by the media
is unhelpful and does not reflect the relationship between two Senate
colleagues who broadly worked well together for most of the last year.
We hope to build solidarity between delegates affiliated with these
two candidates prior to the convention and will encourage the
campaigns to work towards a unified convention strategy after the
final primaries on June 2nd._

_While we firmly believe that either Warren or Sanders should lead our
nation in 2021, we will, in the end, go all-out to defeat Trump no
matter who the Democratic nominee is. We urge all American
progressives to adopt this view. We owe no less to ourselves, our
nation and our world. _

_Signed by:_

_Yvette Simpson, CEO, Democracy for America_
_Larry Cohen, Board Chair, Our Revolution_
_Norman Solomon, Co-Founder and Coordinator, RootsAction.org _
_Varshini Prakash, Executive Director, Sunrise Movement_
_Maurice Mitchell, National Director, Working Families Party_
_Alexandra Rojas, Executive Director, Justice Democrats_

SIGN THE PLEDGE

We pledge to make our case to the American people on why our chosen
candidate is the best choice to defeat Trump.

We pledge to focus our fight for the nomination against candidates
supported by the corporate wing, instead of fighting each other.

We pledge to come together in state caucuses, primaries and
conventions from the first vote in Iowa to the last vote at the DNC
Convention in Wisconsin to ensure a progressive wins the nomination
and America elects a Progressive President!

CLICK HERE TO SIGN THE PLEDGE [[link removed]].

Unite for a progressive president and work together to win 

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