{"id":24323,"date":"2022-11-30T11:28:28","date_gmt":"2022-11-30T19:28:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=24323"},"modified":"2022-11-30T11:28:30","modified_gmt":"2022-11-30T19:28:30","slug":"beware-corporate-democrats-passing-the-torch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2022\/11\/30\/beware-corporate-democrats-passing-the-torch\/","title":{"rendered":"Beware Corporate Democrats “Passing the Torch”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Nancy<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

U.S. Speaker of the House Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) speaks with and Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) during a news conference at the 2022 House Democratic Caucus Issues Conference March 11, 2022 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo: Alex Wong\/Getty Images)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Congressman Hakeem Jeffries is a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, but that affiliation for the heir apparent to the current House Speaker should not be taken at face value.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

NORMAN SOLOMON<\/a> November 29, 2022 (CommonDreams.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Images of passing the<\/strong> torch can be stirring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President John Kennedy reached heights of inaugural oratory when he declared<\/a> that \u201cthe torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans.\u201d Three decades later, when Bill Clinton won the presidency, a Newsweek headline proclaimed \u201cTHE TORCH PASSES.\u201d The article underneath glorified \u201ca film clip that made its way into a widely seen campaign ad: a beaming, 16-year-old Bill Clinton on a sun-drenched White House lawn, shaking the hand of his and his generation\u2019s idol, John F. Kennedy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weeks later, when Time<\/em> magazine named Clinton \u201cMan of the Year,\u201d its cover story carried the headline \u201cTHE TORCH IS PASSED.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Clinton presidency went on to carry the torch for corporate-friendly measures. The NAFTA trade pact destroyed<\/a> many well-paying union jobs; \u201cwelfare reform<\/a>\u201d harmed poor women and their families; a landmark crime law fueled mass incarceration<\/a>; Wall Street deregulation<\/a> led to the financial meltdown of 2007-2008.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, the top of the Democratic Party is passing torches on Capitol Hill. When Nancy Pelosi announced two weeks ago that she will no longer lead House Democrats, she said<\/a>: \u201cThe hour has come for a new generation to lead.\u201d But in what direction?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pelosi quickly endorsed Rep. Hakeem Jeffries to replace her as leader. NBC News<\/em> offered<\/a> the common media frame: \u201cPelosi made history as the first female speaker of the House, while Jeffries, the current Democratic Caucus chairman, would become the first Black leader of a congressional caucus and highest-ranking Black lawmaker on Capitol Hill.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can count on much of the mass media to shower the 52-year-old Jeffries with accolades, largely supplied by fellow Democrats. But, overall, a closer look reveals a problematic record.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Early on, before becoming a New York state legislator, Jeffries worked for years as a corporate lawyer<\/a>. In Congress\u2014while he has taken a few progressive positions like cosponsoring Medicare for All and voting to cut 10 percent of the military budget\u2014his emphasis has been in sync with the party establishment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m a Black progressive Democrat concerned with addressing racial and social and economic injustice with the fierce urgency of now,\u201d Jeffries told<\/a> The Atlantic<\/em> in August 2021. But during the same interview, Jeffries added: \u201cThere will never be a moment where I bend the knee to hard-left democratic socialism.\u201d (Ironically, Jeffries was echoing the \u201cfierce urgency of now\u201d phrase from Martin Luther King Jr., who was a democratic socialist<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jeffries likes to jab leftward. In 2016, he called<\/a> Bernie Sanders a \u201cgun-loving socialist with zero foreign-policy experience.\u201d A 2018 profile<\/a> in The Economist<\/em>\u2014titled \u201cHigh Hopes for Hakeem Jeffries\u201d \u2013 concluded that he \u201cis nearly as moderate as a safe-seat Democrat gets.\u201d The article pointed out: “Though he supports the principle of universal healthcare coverage, he speaks of \u2018the importance of market forces and getting things done in a responsible fashion.\u2019 Quoting Ronald Reagan approvingly, he suggests this means promoting a flourishing private sector outside the \u2018legitimate functions\u2019 of government.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Congressman Jeffries takes umbrage at negative press portrayals to such an extent that his office tries to quash critical assessments. When I wrote in a HuffPost<\/em> piece<\/a> in January 2019 that \u201cJeffries has been more attentive to serving corporate power<\/a> than the interests of voters in his Brooklyn district,\u201d the response was swift and angry. Jeffries\u2019s communications director and senior advisor at the time, Michael Hardaway, fired off emails to HuffPost, claiming that my characterization was \u201cfactually inaccurate and easily disproven.\u201d Despite the escalating fulminations, the HuffPost editor explained that he saw \u201cno reason to correct or update the piece.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jeffries has not been<\/a> a sponsor of the Green New Deal (which Pelosi famously denigrated<\/a> in 2019: \u201cThe green dream or whatever they call it, nobody knows what it is, but they\u2019re for it, right?\u201d). He also has not cosponsored the Green New Deal for Cities Act<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the latest election cycle, Jeffries joined forces with one of the most corporate and vitriolic anti-progressive Democrats in the House, Josh Gottheimer, to form Team Blue PAC. Its priority \u2013 to protect the party\u2019s incumbents against Squad-like primary challengers \u2013 was summed up last winter in a Rolling Stone headline over an article<\/a> about Jeffries\u2019s initiative: \u201cTop House Democrat Unveils Plan to Beat Back Progressive Rebellion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year, The American Prospect<\/em> reported, Jeffries was conspicuously absent<\/a> from efforts to support public housing in his home city. \u201cWhen all [other] New York City House Democrats sent a letter to Pelosi<\/a> urging her to protect all $80 billion for public housing in the BBB [Build Back Better bill], Jeffries was the only member not to sign that missive, especially surprising given that New York Dems are known to act as a bloc.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jeffries is a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, the magazine noted, but that affiliation should not be taken at face value: \u201cJeffries is a mute member of the CPC, the largest caucus in the party, but has recently chosen to ally himself with its more conservative factions. And while the party\u2019s moderate wing has moved left on everything from foreign policy to social welfare, Jeffries has not moved with it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, Hakeem Jeffries is thoroughly corporate, As The Intercept<\/em> reported<\/a> four years ago, after he won a close race against Rep. Barbara Lee to become chair of the House Democratic Caucus, \u201cJeffries is heavily backed by big money and corporate PACs. Less than 2 percent of his fundraising comes from small donors, who contribute less than $200, according to Federal Election Commission records.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While in his fourth term, \u201cJeffries was the leading congressional recipient of hedge fund money in 2020,\u201d The American Prospect<\/em> reported<\/a> last year. \u201cHe banked $1.1 million from the financial sector, real estate interests, and insurance industry in the 2019\u20132020 cycle. Everyone from JPMorgan Chase to Goldman Sachs to Blackstone contributed. Zimmer Partners, a hedge fund, is one of Jeffries\u2019s top donors in 2021. From the outset, he has governed with those interests at heart. While Democrats were reconsidering their coziness with Wall Street, he broke ranks to vote with the financial services world, including on a high-profile measure literally written by Citigroup lobbyists in 2013 that killed the Dodd-Frank \u2018swaps push-out\u2019 rule, allowing banks to engage in risky trades backed by a potential taxpayer-funded bailout.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thirty years younger than the outgoing speaker, Jeffries is a fitting symbol of media eagerness to herald generational change for Democrats in Congress. But investigative journalist Alexander Sammon has provided an apt sum-up<\/a>: \u201cBarely in his fifties, Jeffries is young numerically, but aligned with an older mode of Democratic politics, and has repeatedly distanced himself from the younger crop of Democrats that is almost categorically more progressive (and more popular). He\u2019s made a reputation for himself as the party\u2019s future by becoming a foremost representative of its past.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When a torch passes, we might be glad to \u201cmeet the new boss<\/a>.\u201d But we should discard illusions. That way, hopefully, we don\u2019t get fooled again<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Norman<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

NORMAN SOLOMON<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Norman Solomon<\/a><\/strong> is co-founder and national coordinator of RootsAction.org<\/a>. His books include “War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death<\/a>“<\/em> (2006) and “Made Love, Got War: Close Encounters with America’s Warfare State<\/a><\/em>” (2007).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

U.S. Speaker of the House Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) speaks with and Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) during a news conference at the 2022 House Democratic Caucus Issues Conference March 11, 2022 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo: Alex Wong\/Getty Images) Congressman Hakeem Jeffries is a member of the Congressional Progressive… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24323"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24323"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24324,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24323\/revisions\/24324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}