 So, if you're not on Twitter, a lot went down over the weekend. I didn't necessarily partake in the conversation, but in a nutshell, Jimmy Dore put pressure on AOC and other members of the squad to withhold their votes for Nancy Pelosi, deny her the speakership if she doesn't promise a floor vote on Medicare for All. Now, I didn't talk about this online, but I've been thinking deeply about this, and I have quite a bit to say. So let me give you some context in case you're not on Twitter. So Jimmy Dore tweeted out, progressives in Congress can actually force a Medicare for All vote if they withhold their vote for Pelosi as speaker to do it. I ask all progressives to pressure your favorite progressive congressperson to withhold their vote for Pelosi and demand a Medicare for All vote. Now what's interesting is that AOC actually responded to this pressure, but not directly to Jimmy Dore. She responded to Justin Jackson, who's an NFL player, who basically relayed Jimmy's message to her, and he says, if AOC and the squad don't do what Jimmy Dore has suggested and withhold their vote for Pelosi for speakership unless Medicare for All gets brought up to the floor for a vote, they will be revealing themselves. Power concedes nothing without a demand. AOC then responded, saying, problem with this idea is that there isn't enough thought given to step two. The Democratic votes aren't there yet. And with a razor-thin margin, the dem knows are greater than the margin. So you issue threats, hold your vote, and lose, then what? If you want to know who's opposed, look at the cosponsor list. In contrast, you can use leverage to push for things that can happen and change lives, i.e. a $15 an hour minimum wage vote in the first 100 days, which is doable, elevating longtime progressive champions to important positions of leadership, also doable, that's the opportunity cost to weigh. Justin Jackson then responded to that, saying, why aren't they there? The people of the party are there. It's not acceptable. Leadership isn't there. If they have no threat of not staying in leadership, what's the point? Pelosi was speaker for two years with no Medicare for All vote. What is your plan to force her to get a vote? AOC then responded, saying, why aren't they there is a real question. We watched the presidential debates and saw how many fiercely defend our for-profit insurance system, but know that the movement pressure, positive support, primaries, popularity, organizing, et cetera, is working. More cosponsors now than ever. Justin Jackson responded, saying, would love for Democrats to be on the record denying their constituents health care during a pandemic. Sounds like good politics for the progressive movement and our goals. AOC responded, saying, I respect that. And in an important way, they are on the record. There are 118 House Democrats who have publicly signed on to guaranteed health care during this term. They are listed here. Justin Jackson says that sounds like 118 House Democrats who can use their leverage to get a Medicare for All for a vote. It's unacceptable that a 118 coalition of Democrats who support Medicare for All cannot even get a vote, something to consider. So I like the way that Justin Jackson thinks, and I'm just going to put this out there into the ether. If he were to run for Congress with his name, recognition and celebrity status, he could get elected and do a lot of good. But let me just say this. I do hear people who are a little bit skeptical on the left about this plan because in the event of floor vote for Medicare for All actually does come up and it fails, could the Democratic Party establishment then use that as evidence, basically, that it's just not popular enough. And if Democrats don't support it, then we shouldn't have it. Yes, that's a possibility. But I think that we can use it more to our advantage than they can use it to their advantage. The failure to pass Medicare for All during a pandemic, that's better for us when we're playing politics than it is for them in actuality because when you have the support of the people behind you, I think that you need to use that to your advantage. Now for the leftists who don't think that this is a good idea because it will ultimately fail. So basically what this comes down to is political theater, right? That's the counterargument. And that's fine. I kind of see that argument, although I sighed more with Justin Jackson in this is good for us in terms of optics and getting them to go on the record denying their constituents healthcare during a pandemic. And even if it's the case that you don't necessarily agree with the strategy of getting a floor vote on Medicare for All, ultimately what Jimmy Dorr is doing is really important. He's getting them to not just roll over and die and accept that Nancy Pelosi will be the Speaker of the House. It is overwhelmingly likely that she will become the Speaker of the House again. But with that inevitability, understand that there are things that you can do. Use your leverage as a bloc that is growing in Congress to perhaps deny her Speaker of the House unless she gives you something, anything, fight. That's the main thing because ultimately we're all disappointed. Like individuals who helped these folks get elected, you're just not challenging leadership enough. You're not challenging leadership enough. And so what this is a cry for is for you to just do something, fight harder. And I get it, right? There are these interpersonal relationships, there's pressure. And part of the reason why the left is losing is because they always get steam rolled by the establishment. I mean, look at what happened with the Negotiations for the Heroes Act. Primila Jayapal and Mark Pokan did actually fight Nancy Pelosi to include a paycheck replacement provision in the Heroes Act, but they got steamrolled and they just kind of were left hanging. Like even if you don't win this battle, be vocal and try to use this as evidence for the next fight to kind of set yourself up. Well, since we didn't get this, I want this this time. Like the problem with the left in Congress is that they just don't challenge leadership enough. Nancy Pelosi does not get the resistance that is deserved for someone as out of touch and corporatist as she is. And Kyle Collins, he made a really good point. He said, like, look at the way that the Tea Party put pressure on Republican leaders. You had two Republican leaders step down because, you know, the Tea Party was so uncompromising. And we just, we don't have that equivalent on the left because there's just, there's, I don't know if there's the block isn't big enough. So they don't feel confident. But you have to fight. Like you have to put these things out there. Like don't just accept that Nancy Pelosi will be the speaker. Now, if all you need is like 10 to 15 votes to deny Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House in that position again, do something to get her to bend to your will, get some more concessions. And behind the scenes, you know, maybe that's happening. AOC says that we are doing this in terms of, you know, committee appointments and whatnot. And that's fine. But the overall thing that I want, you know, leftist members of Congress to take away from this is that we need to see some life in you. We need to know that you're willing to fight because, I mean, for all the great things that they do, the good policies that they advocate for, they just don't challenge leadership enough. And them leadership, they're the problems. So if you don't fight them, you will never get the policies that you want, regardless of how many members of, you know, Congress we elect that are leftists. So I just want to see some fight. Like if you don't agree with Jimmy Dore's Medicare for All Demand and a floor vote on that, that's fine. But fight, show us some signs of life. And look, I actually do agree that the floor vote on Medicare for All is probably a really good thing to do. Just going forward, we had a campaign on this. We could show, you know, the constituents here when we primary corporate Democrats that they denied health care to their constituents. Now sure, if they know it's not going to pass, they could vote for it. And that kind of, that strategy could fail. But I mean, look, I just want them to fight. I want you to fight. No more calling Nancy Pelosi, Mama Bear. No more playing 40 chests in politics and actually show us that you're fighting. And, you know, the counter argument from AOC and members of the squad will be, well, you don't see it, but we are fighting. Behind the scenes, there's negotiations that are taking place that you're not privy to. And sure, we don't know what's happening behind closed doors. But after time and again, you keep losing and you're not getting any say in bills that are popular that Democrats vote on. Whenever Pelosi continues to reject you in favor of more centrist Democrats, that's evidence to me that whatever you're doing behind the scenes is not enough. So fight. Show some signs of life. Show us that you're there to put pressure on leadership and fight. And if you don't want to fight in this specific way and you don't agree with this particular strategy, do something else. Just challenge leadership. I don't think that is too big of an ask for a movement that got you in Congress. Challenge leadership. And that really is the biggest takeaway. I want them to challenge leadership. They don't do it enough. I don't want to hear you call Nancy Pelosi mama bear and appear on magazine photo shoots with her. I want to see you fight these individuals because Nancy Pelosi is an objectively terrible human being who is denying millions of Americans Medicare for all during a pandemic. And yes, it is the case that Mitch McConnell will vote it down. But Nancy Pelosi is complicit because she won't even allow a vote on it. So look, I really, I give credit to Jimmy Dore for this. He was actually trending on Twitter because of this campaign. And ultimately at the end of the day, we need to acknowledge that we are the bosses of politicians and it's not unreasonable for us to ask for more even for members of Congress that we respect. This isn't unreasonable. We're not being unreasonable. The individuals who deny Medicare for all to their constituents during a pandemic, they're the ones that are being unreasonable. So I'll leave that there. I think that expecting politicians to do better, even ones that we support, that's a good thing. And I'm never going to disagree that we shouldn't always ask for more because we should.