Could New York become a progressive beacon in the United States?
Imagine this: it’s the day after the presidential election, and Donald Trump is officially on his way out. The era of toddler imprisonment, pandemic denial, regulatory rollbacks and constitution shredding is over. And under new leadership from a Democrat in the White House, we can finally focus on making sure every American has access to healthcare, quality education, stable housing and a livable planet. Right? Wrong.
I hope Trump and the Republicans get voted out of Washington this November, but here’s the sobering truth: our presumptive Democratic presidential candidate has told us in no uncertain terms that he’s not interested in changing the status quo. While I love and respect our progressive allies in Congress, and I hope to see their numbers grow in November, we simply can’t wait for the rest of Washington to wake up and adopt a progressive agenda. But wecan win real progress over the next four years, by fighting at the state level to do what Washington won’t. That’s where New York comes in.
I was born and raised in Brooklyn, and I’ve seen New York politics change a lot in that time, but nothing compares to the last few years. The 2016 presidential election was a wake-up call for Democrats, and New York progressives leapt to their feet and got to work. We showed up at the polls for progressives and broke the Republican stranglehold on the New York state legislature, and finally put an end to the ridiculous Independent Democratic Conference. We embarrassed the centrist establishment and gave hope to the entire country when we elected Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to the US House of Representatives. In just four years, we have chipped away at the complacent, corporate-funded, pseudo-progressive Democratic establishment that’s never prioritized working-class people and we have forced them to listen to what working-class people need. The resurgent, grassroots socialist movement we have built is fast becoming a beacon of humanity in an inhumane, capitalist country whose establishment politicians – yes, including Democrats – resist real change at every turn.
This nation is crying out for progressive leadership, and New York is poised to deliver it. Even with lackluster leaders such as Andrew Cuomo and Bill de Blasio in our executive branches, New Yorkers are hungry for serious change. Amid an unprecedented global pandemic that’s led to record unemployment and housing instability, New Yorkers are putting their hard-earned dollars, time and energy behind progressive movements.
The nation is not going to get universal healthcare under Joe Biden. Yet last year, in New York, we were just one vote shy of passing a bill to give every New Yorker access to healthcare.
With just a few more true progressives in Albany, we can finally pass the New York Health Act and guarantee free healthcare to every single one of the nearly 20 million people who call New York home.
We can also become the first state to fully fund the infrastructure that will protect us from climate change, and we can power every home and business from Staten Island to Champlain with clean, renewable energy. We can reclaim our power grid from greedy corporations and distribute that energy via a public utility. We can remind the rest of the United States what happens when everyone has the right to a free, quality education from preschool to college. We can defund the nation’s largest police department and reinvest in our communities, modeling an approach to public safety that doesn’t rely on guns and mass incarceration. And we can decide that the ultra-wealthy no longer profit from our state without paying their fair share of taxes.
In a lot of this country, even Democrats would call these policies pipe dreams. Let’s prove them wrong. In New York, they can become reality, because we’re not going to settle for the status quo. The need for these changes has never been more urgent, and no one is in a better position to implement them than the progressive wing of the New York Democratic party. New York has the chance to serve as a blue
print for how the nation moves forward, even without progressive leadership in Washington. We’re not willing to wait, so we’ll have to lead the way.
Jabari Brisport is a candidate for New York state senate