Why I left the Democratic Party

CANADA'S ORIGINAL PROMISE: Still waiting to be realized
Mohawk education advocate Roberta Jamieson was the first woman chief of Six Nations of the Grand River, the first Indigenous woman to earn a law degree in Canada, and she holds an astounding twenty-five honorary degrees. She believes Canada is at a make-or-break historical moment where it has a chance to recast its historically toxic relationship with First Nations for the next 150 years. She sees the hope for that renewal in the very moment of contact between settler Europeans and her ancestors: "Our people consciously decided to share. And we had a choice. We were the majority then. And we made a conscious decision to share. And to help people survive. So I think we still have that choice as Canadians. And I'm very optimistic and very hopeful -- and I'm going to work very hard to see that we live up to that promise.

"I'm asking you to take an active role, a supportive role. An active role in building Canada for the next 150 years. Find Indigenous movers and shakers in your area and ask them: what support do you need? Support Indigenous organizations and charities doing the kind of work that needs doing. Enroll in cultural competency courses. Call your Member of Parliament, talk to your Provincial elected representative, and ask: what are you doing to push real action in implementing the Truth and Reconciliation calls-to-action? What are you doing to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples? Do you know what it says? Did you know we've accepted it in Canada? And keep calling until you get the answers

There is, however, a problem connected with the comforts and conveniences of being back home. Daily existence in a familiar environment can sometimes be just a little bit too comfortable. One of the most important spinoffs from travelling to foreign places comes when the traveller is forced to confront, and even reconsider, some of the convenient assumptions that are too often taken for granted.

Roberta Jamieson did that for me. I won't say it was always a pleasant experience. In fact, there were moments when her lecture made me feel uncomfortable, or even painful. But I will say that I was sincerely grateful for the wake-up call -- even when it hurt. She asked some extremely unnerving questions

Three of them spoke out for economic justice. We need a stronger emphasis on that.

Thanks RM, interesting people with real ideas. I am glad to see young adults engaged in wanting to run for office.

I bet I know who MLK would’ve been working for, side by side, probably as a post-term president who’d already made some of the changes Bernie espouses now—if he could get through it without another assassination.

Castro launched Opportunity First, his brand-new political action committee meant to propel younger Democrats into office (and eventually regain control of Congress).

Castro, who was replaced as the U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development by Ben Carson in January 2017, has three specific types of "young, progressive" candidates in mind: Those who are running to unseat Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives, those running for office in states with majority-Republican state legislatures, and people with "exceptional talent" running for local office.

It doesn't come as a total surprise, since Castro has focused on backing younger Texas Dems since leaving D.C., like when he went door-to-door campaigning for Mayor Ron Nirenberg or endorsed civil rights attorney and former NFL player Colin Allred in the race for Texas' 32nd Congressional District.


Plus, Castro and his twin brother, Congressman Joaquin Castro, are textbook examples of the PAC's sought-after candidates — both men kicked off their political careers in their mid-20s.

Some see the new PAC as a step toward Castro eventually running for president in 2020, but he's dodged the question.

"The thrust of Opportunity First will be to support people who are running in the 2018 cycle. I'm happy to do it," he told the Texas Tribune in a Monday interview.

But let's not pretend "Opportunity First" isn't a loud-and-clear response to "America First."

Did anyone followup with these people? what's happened for them in the past four years?

a most unusual thing has happened: Alaska—which elected Sarah Palin governor and has not supported a Democratic presidential candidate since Lyndon B. Johnson—has turned from red to a bluish hue of purple.

Throughout the state, unknown progressives, like the kind Kreiss-Tomkins once was, have been winning.

Before the elections of 2012, conservatives controlled all the major seats of power in Alaska: the governorship, both houses of the Legislature, and the mayoralty and city assembly of Anchorage, where 40 percent of the state’s 740,000 residents live; now, progressives and moderates control all of those offices but the state Senate, which has been gerrymandered beyond their control.

More than half of the 40-member Alaska House of Representatives has been newly elected since 2012, most of them Democrats or independents; together with three moderate Republicans, they have remade the Democratic-independent caucus into a 22-18 majority.

operatives in the rest of the country are slowly taking notice.

Among them is Nick Troiano, executive director of the Centrist Project, an effort to seed a movement of pragmatic, non-ideological candidates at the state and federal levels.

He believes that Alaska can be the template for other closely divided states, like Colorado. “By combining a smart political strategy with professional tactical support, [John-Henry and Ship Creek] have accomplished what few have been able to outside of both parties: prove it’s possible to win,” Troiano tells POLITICO Magazine.

But as Alaska’s insurgent Democratic-independent coalition is finding out, it’s one thing to be the scrappy upstart with nothing to lose, and a whole other thing to govern and hold on to power.