Ilhan Omar's Clear and Precise Response on CNN Panel

Richard Mellor
Afscme Local 444, Retired

Not only does Ilhan Omar call this question asked of her "appalling" which it is. She gives a clear explanation as to why. This woman is very savvy and also don't forget, who knows what she has faced in her life as a Somali refugee, she is a tough person.

Followers of this blog are well aware that we do not support the Democratic Party. We welcomed the election victory of Alexandria Ocasio Cortez over Crowly as we believe that it will hasten what will in our view be an inevitable split in the Democratic Party and it appears that split could come sooner than later.

What is lacking in the politics of the new Congresspersons is a clear explanation of what their alternative is. It does seem with AOC (I am not as informed about Ilhan Omar) that some version of Roosevelt's New Deal is it. This is not possible in this era and even back then, the New Deal excluded millions of workers. The Social Security Act for example did not apply to agricultural and domestic workers many of them black and Latino workers that were dominant in these industries. The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) had an explicit policy of not insuring suburban mortgages for African-Americans. Roosevelt, being a Democrat, had to appease the racist Southern Democrats and this was done at the expense of black folks. He even opposed the anti-lynching law.

"Roosevelt’s need to accommodate Southern racists often complicated the implementation of his programs, according to Digital History. Distribution of relief in the South, for example, slowed to a trickle because Southern relief administrators didn’t want to distribute money to Blacks. One Georgia relief agent told Roosevelt’s emissary Lorena Hickok that “any N*gger who gets over $8 a week is a spoiled N*gger, that’s all … The Negroes regard the President as the Messiah, and they think that … they’ll all be getting $12 a week for the rest of their lives.” The Atlanta Black Star 

I do not think Omar is in DSA but Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Rashida Tlaib are. There are also many more DSA members that have won political office and its Congresspersons, hopefully in unity with others on the left wing of the Democratic Party should campaign for the DSA leaderships to withdraw its support for Bernie Sanders, a Democrat for President, and for DSA to use its tremendous resources of some 60,000 members to build a movement which would run independent candidates on a program that speaks to the immediate needs of working class people and the environment in which we find ourselves. Along with this DSA can help build a national direct action movement to throw back this offensive of big business by drawing together and offering it's resources to the multitude of movements that have been fighting back on issues important to them.

The teachers/ educators movement is of particular importance as this movement shattered the decades old propaganda of the trade union hierarchy that we cannot win, that concessions have to be made. They showed one thing, where the established labor officialdom was weaker or not present at all, the rank and file workers, not facing a powerful combination of the employers and the passivity and in many cases outright betrayal of their own leaders, found their feet and made gains. In the main, the top leadership are silent on these issues and the the left in the trade union movement more often than not provide a left cover for them, some political currents like Labor Notes rarely if ever, mentioning the leadership at all. But a struggle to change the direction of organized labor and the country will inevitable mean some conflict with the present hierarchy and it is important to prepare for this not ignore their role.

Ilhan Omar is not backing down and two weeks ago she and Ocasio Cortez received a personal lashing in Peggy Noonan's column in the Wall Street Journal.  It reflects the political crisis the US ruling class is in, and their weak hold over US society that despite the statements and politics of these new Congresswomen being relatively mild in nature, they are forced to wage a serious slander campaign against them. This is also of great concern to Pelosi and co. who are being squeezed from both sides here. It is not what they are saying that is the problem, it is that they are saying what is on millions of people's minds. The DSA among many others on the left are not recognizing the opportunity that exists I think. By supporting Sanders the DSA leadership could wreck the gains DSA has made in the near future.

The "squad" as they have been called have time to lead the exodus out of the Democratic Party and offer a independent left alternative in 2020. Either way, watch Omar here and compare what and how she addresses this issue compared to our own leaders atop organized labor who say nothing at all. She is very good.