The Young Turks’ Cenk Uygur Co-Creates ‘Justice Democrats’ to Revamp the Democratic Party (Video)
The Young Turks organization, along with many other progressive media outlets, has made no secret of being highly displeased by the Democratic Party. In an effort to revitalize liberals and combat rising corporatism and neoliberalism in American politics, the network announced the creation of a new political wing of the party, called Justice Democrats. The announcement came during a segment of “The Young Turks” show Monday.
After tracing some of the history of progressive politics in the U.S., host Cenk Uygur argued that the Democratic Party has suffered a “hostile takeover” by corporate interests. “If you base all the campaigns on money, and the other guys take more corporate money than you do, and you agree to that system,” he said, “of course that leads to failure and ruin. And we are in ruin.”
Uygur then laid out how Americans can “take the Democratic Party back.”
“We’re going to run strong progressives, and we are launching today something that will represent not the donors, not the multinational corporations, but just us,” Uygur said. “From now on there will be a new wing of the Democratic Party, and it will be the Justice Democrats.”
Who makes up the Justice Democrats? Uygur, of course, as well as Kyle Kulinski, who hosts an online program on the Secular Talk Radio Network.
“But there is a whole other component,” Uygur said. “A significant portion of Bernie Sanders’ team, that ran that wonderful campaign, is now with Justice Democrats.”
The platform of Justice Democrats is posted on the group’s website. Uygur explained that the Justice Democrats will put forward candidates who don’t take corporate money and don’t blindly follow party lines.
But what about Democratic Party unity? “We will not unify behind Democrats who don’t represent us,” Uygur said. “If your claim is that you actually want unity, great! Then unify behind us.”
Watch the full segment below:
—Posted by Emma Niles
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