THE CRASS STRUGGLE: HOW #FORCE THE VOTE EXPOSES THE RIFT BETWEEN THE LEFT AND FAUX LIBERALISM
by Albert Lanier
Before a year filled with the stark, unceasing and unrelenting spectre of death caused by the worldwide viral pandemic known as the Corona Virus and the persistent, consistent and seemingly never ending politicking of this presidential election came to an end, a political commentator and stand-up comedian named Jimmy Dore came up with a political gambit that he floated on his you tube program THE JIMMY DORE SHOW.
The tactic became popularly known online as #Force the Vote. The concept was simply to target a select number of US House members in Congress primarily left leaning progressives of the Justice Democrats variety such as Congresswomen Ilhan Omar (Minnesota) , Ayanna Pressley(Massachusetts), Rashida Tlaib (Michigan) and especially Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez (New York) and get about 15 members at least to demand a floor vote be taken on Medicare for All legislation or Nancy Pelosi of California would not get their vote for a new term as House Speaker.
Force the Vote is essentially at its core leverage, plain and simple. It’s localized, targeted pressure, political muscle used to extract a tangible political result (Congressional floor vote) by threat of retaliation (denying votes to elect the reigning House Speaker).
Strangely, as a former journalist who sometimes covered local politics in Hawaii, Force The Vote strikes me as something you would hear about done within a caucus or as move by a number of members within a legislative body.
What is striking is that this move is being promoted and pushed by not by a member of Congress or New York Times or Politico political writer but a long-time denizen of nightclubs and comedy clubs now known for his unsparing and candidly honest appraisal of American politics online.
Dore has essentially had two careers. The first as a stand up comic with specials on the Comedy Central network and then later as a host of the show AGGRESSIVE PROGRESSIVE and as one of the political analysts of the online The Young Turks Network (TYT). Dore also started his own podcast and youtube show THE JIMMY DORE SHOW before leaving TYT.
The Force the Vote concept has quickly become a campaign-creating a petition aimed at members of Congress as well as an event in January in 2021. It has also garnered support from online left and progressive media figures such as writer and former Bernie Sanders Press Secretary Briahna Joy Gray, Professor Cornel West, Cohost of The Hill’s RISING show Krystal Ball, comedian Graham Elwood, Youtube show hosts Kyle Kulinski and Katie Halper and LA Chargers Player and Medicare for All Activist Justin Jackson.
Force the Vote has also garnered opposition. The Head of TYT Cenk Uygur came out against what he termed a “half baked plan”. Another TYT personality Ana Kasparian admonished Dore for his “rage filled rants”. Sam Seder the host of the political youtube show THE MAJORITY REPORT at first thought Dore’s idea might have merit but quickly turned against Force the Vote primarily because he thought the move might imperil any future Medicare for All legislation and because he felt Dore was wholly ignorant of how electoral and legislative politics worked.
The site OpIndia in an article “Jimmy Dore set the cat among the pigeons as Democrats and ‘Progressives” bicker after comedian pushes ‘Force the vote’ on Medicare for All” notes that “Jimmy Dore has made quite a few enemies due to his relentless criticism of ‘progressive’ politicians and Joe Biden.”
The article later noted “he is again facing a barrage of criticism and personal attacks including allegations that he recieved money from a ‘ProAssad’ group.”
Uygur’s criticism turned into an ugly online battle and feud between the youtube personality and Dore. In one tweet, Dore wrote of Uygur : “Im a union buster, former pro-war Republican, took $20 million from Clinton donors and still pretend Im independent so I can beg poor people 4 money 3x week from my ‘cell phone’ in direct marketing campaigns while I smear true indy media cuz they advocate 4#ForcetheVote”
This illustrates what I have observed about the Force the Vote Phenomenon: The tactic separates the wheat from chaff, flowers from weeds on one side of the political spectrum and exposes an ugly truth about politics in America.
The Force the Vote move contrary to what its critics might say is not an end to a means but a beginning of the fight. Forcing a floor vote on Congress for Medicare for all-a proposed piece of legislation that is popular on both sides of the political isle in the US-is a perfect way to rally support and continued activism and lobbying in the future. It is a foundation for further efforts and work.
What is truly disturbing about the critics of Force the Vote is their seemingly callous, bloodless almost inhuman response to the massive problems that exist at present namely that millions remain without health insurance while a deadly pandemic has already killed thousands of Americans. This is in addition to potential evictions from houses and apartments as well as loss of jobs and wages effecting millions more people.
As William J Astore notes in the piece “Force the Vote: Medicare for all” on the site LA Progressive, “Its not just about holding a ‘performative’ vote on M4A. Its about forcing the hand of Congress and seeing who the phonies are.”
“Who wants to deny Americans M4A at this awful time?” Astore asks “Id like to know. Im sure All Americans would like to know.”
Astore later notes “Again, if not now when? If progressives arent willing to force a vote on M4A during a deadly pandemic, when there’s deep suffering in America, When will they be willing to act?”
What Force the Vote taps into and exposes are the cleavages between the left, progressives and liberals. Liberals are one side of the same status quo system as conservatives. Liberals seek reform of the system but have no issue with the current neoliberal capitalist economic system that has turned hospitals and health care into a for profit colossus that monetizes health care and leaves millions out in the cold.
The left and often progressives are opposed to the status quo system and its excesses. They have fought the rise of wars during the past two decades and more and called for universal healthcare. This opposition to the system is one reason why a number on the left are supporting the Force the Vote initiative.
What the opponents of Force the Vote are are essentially liberals. In fact, a good number of them are really liberals who fancy themselves progressives but are in essence, just experts at political posing, preening and positioning . In fact positioning is what they do best-they always make sure they are interviewed and quoted as being for the right left-progressive initiatives and legislation but in the end, never go out of their way to get their hands dirty politically and act on their supposed positions and principles.
Those on the left do not and never have had the luxury of pretending and posturing but have had to do the hard work it takes to organize, engage in activism, to build coalitions, to produce collectives or groups that create community change. It is therefore not surprising a number on the left back Force the Vote.
Faux Liberalism and Faux Progressivism is what we see coming from those who disagree with Force the Vote. They are overly concerned with process, with pondering about AOC’s loss of committee assignments and with the perception about PR about legislation not about trying to get it voted on let alone passed.
This kind of Stand-By Do- Nothing Liberalism can be seen in Eric Levitz’s New York magazine article about Force the Vote and Dore’s criticism of NY Congresswoman AOC on her stance thus far entitled “The Left’s Most Naive Cynics have turned on AOC”
At the end of his “analysis” of Force the Vote and the Medicare For All vote, Levitz concludes “Ignoring the structural obstacles to single-payer’s passage, the fragility of public support for the policy, and the simple fact that people can share political values while earnestly disagreeing about the best way to advance them-all for the sake of declaring Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez an enemy of America’s uninsured-is a sound strategy for giving up interest in your rant-based youtube show.”
“But it is also a recipe for converting your politically naive viewers into anti-political cynics and making the US left as self-deluded and internally divided as Corporate America wishes for it to be .”
At first, it is easy to embrace this kind of article as reasoned, rational , sober minded dissection as the proper sort of response to the forceful, emotional, angry passion fueling Force the Vote and to view those who support FTV as misguided and in need of patience.
During an online Town Hall event, Dore shared his story about his health issues including a spinal cord collapse, about being so ill he had to have someone help him on stage to do stand up and about being rendered bankrupt because his medical bills.
Just multiply this situation by thousands and one will see why the normal go along to get along just simply won't work, cant work and is nothing more than unfeeling savage contempt for the average American.
Force the Vote. Period. Just do it.
Albert Lanier was a journalist and freelance writer for 22 years. Lanier freelanced for Honolulu Weekly, Asianweek, Pacific Business News and Hawaii Magazine. He also wrote online articles for the website for Modern Luxury Hawaii and the film Aint It Cool News.com
After retiring in 2017, Lanier has written a blog for Medium.com on media and news and current events and has been interviewed as a commentator and pundit on a number of podcasts and talk shows.
