Progressives looking to change the narrative
by Hanna Trudo - 06/15/22 5:30 AM ET
Progressives are ready to change the storyline that their wing of the party is losing Democrats’ civil war.
Candidate defeats and a rash of negative headlines have caused soul searching on the left, prompting some to recalibrate what they need to do to maintain credibility going into a challenging midterm cycle.
Two top progressives in the House — Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) — believe Democrats still have a shot at keeping Congress. But to do that, they told The Hill, the party must deliver economically in the short term for their voters, while putting more candidates in office who can push their progressive message into the future.
“Every time someone brings up a loss, I’m like, ‘let me give you two for that. Two wins,’ ” Jayapal said in a wide-ranging conversation Monday in her Capitol Hill office.
“It’s a narrative that benefits the people that are in power or have power in our political process. But the reality is the progressive movement is ascendent in this country,” she said. “We have completely changed the narrative of what it means to invest in working people.”
To be sure, that view may be a rosy one. Painful primary losses have offset some of the excitement of early wins, and Republicans are widely expected to take control of the House with the midterm elections, driven in large part by the economic pain many are feeling.
But Jayapal and Khanna warn that pain, largely from the sky-high inflation that hits lower- and middle-class Americans the hardest, won’t improve without more intervention from Congress and the White House — the type of intervention progressives have long pushed for, and President Biden has promised.
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https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/3523901-progressives-looking-to-change-the-narrative/
