 Alright folks, so we've got to talk about something that happened over the weekend on Twitter Which is where I think 95% of all of the divisions and factionalizations along the left Occurs if there's any progressive infighting usually it's happening on Twitter and this is no exception So this is a bit of a controversial subject to even be discussing but I think that it's worthwhile to talk about this because I Feel like there is something happening on the left that to me as someone who is a leftist I find very disturbing. I think that we have to once in a while Recenter ourselves and ask ourselves why we're so engaged why we care about all of this in the first place But first let me give you the details So Green Party presidential candidate Howie Hawkins took some shots at AOC via Twitter So he tweeted out an interview that she did with Jake Tapper where AOC explains how her Disagreement with Joe Biden when it comes to the issue of fracking doesn't necessarily bother her But you know, she is going to try to lobby him should he become president now Howie Hawkins responded to this saying AOC has repeatedly refused to call for an immediate ban on fracking or a halt to new fossil fuels She took my Green New Deal added 20 years to the timeline and stripped out our call for public ownership Of our energy system and a massive cut in the military budget to pay for it now when I saw this tweet I felt I felt discouraged because it seems to me that Leftists have lost sight of what matters because Howie Hawkins and the AOC are allies She may be in the Democratic Party He may be a member of the Green Party, but they are allies. So if I'm Howie Hawkins I am a presidential candidate. Here's what I say if I think that maybe she has watered down the Green New Deal Hey AOC, let's talk about ways that we can improve the Green New Deal I am the architect of the Green New Deal, and I have some disagreements with you. Let's talk about it But what he does here is he accuses her of taking his Green New Deal which Is interesting now first of all, I don't necessarily know that he's representing her position correctly because she has been Against fracking from the very beginning just a couple of weeks ago during the vice presidential debate She tweeted out fracking is bad actually when Kamala Harris was saying Joe Biden is not going to ban fracking now That doesn't necessarily mean that AOC is above criticism I do think that it is healthy for Leftists to debate one another But I think that what he's saying here isn't necessarily correct because she drafted the Green New Deal Not as a specific piece of legislation But as a policy framework as a blank slate to be filled in with the goal to meet the IPCC's 12-year deadline, so when he says that she added 20 years He has to be more specific, but overall like this doesn't this doesn't seem helpful I don't know how this is going to further dialogue among allies But the worst thing to me is the accusation that she took the Green New Deal Because do you want to know what I say to that? Good if a politician who is very popular who has a really large platform Takes an idea from you know a lesser-known politician or political party That's a victory because guess what I don't care which politician passes a particular policy I just care that that policy gets codified into law Now he can nitpick specific provisions about her iteration of the Green New Deal I think that's perfectly legit legitimate, but to just say oh well you took my Green New Deal a Piece of legislation a policy solution is not like a song where you know This is your creative piece that you've written and anytime someone mentions it you get paid royalties a solution is a solution and You know if you believe she took your Green New Deal and that a Democratic Party politician shouldn't take anything that the Green Party Comes up with well then isn't that a little bit hypocritical if you are making this argument because the New Deal is something that the Democratic Party Originally came up with this was FDR's policy So if she can't take a Green Party policy, then why are you able to take a policy from FDR? That doesn't necessarily make sense to me And so my question is if you both agree on 95 96 97 percent of the policies What is the point of this? What is the point of this infighting because you're angry that she took your policy? I mean look Ilhan Omar came up with her own piece of legislation That cancels student debt. Do you want to know the first popular politician who came up with student debt cancellation Jill Stein? I don't hear Jill Stein complaining that Ilhan Omar took her policy. And do you want to know who wouldn't care? Whether or not which politician stole an idea from another politician the people who get their student loan debt canceled That's who wouldn't care and I'm sorry But Howie Hawkins is polling at zero point five percent Nationally a new poll that I saw today put them at zero percent. So if you have zero name recognition But you have good ideas this is a victory for you if somebody else takes your idea and Popularizes it if the Democratic Party was smart It would take the entire Green Party platform because they would be unstoppable and do you want to know who agrees with me? Former Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader who said the exact same thing I think the Democrat Party should take the third-party agenda away from it They should have a living wage just cracked on a corporate crime full Medicare for all. What do they Expect to do they have the third party supposed to help them a Democracy is only democracy if it has competitive elections contested election not a two-party duopoly dialing for the same Corporate dollars that it is a First Amendment. That's where the political bigotry comes in But you're right. There are a lot of other things 300,000 Democrats in Florida in 2000 voted for Bush You're gonna blame the Green Party for that the Secretary of State and Jeb Bush shenanigans You know all about that with the ballot you're gonna bring the Green Party for that criminality That's why I call it political bigotry Democratic Party stop look stop scapegoating look in the mirror and ask yourself why you cannot landslide the worst The most ignorant the most corporate indentured the cruelest Republican Party in history And he's right if the Democrats were smart they would copy and paste the totality of the Green Party platform because it's a great platform So we have to stop for a moment and ask ourselves at the end of the day What are we here for? Why do we even care about all of this? Why why do we stay engaged? Why do we care? It's because of the policies It's because of the policies and the left to me as of late seems to be somewhat losing focus of The policies and it's because we are eating ourselves Alive, I mean just from AOC's twitch stream of among us. I saw like so many leftists Brigade and just like criticize her Because you know she is she's supposed to be a politician. She's supposed to be fighting for us She's not supposed to be treated like a celebrity Okay, but like do you not want progressive politicians to be popular? Like of course we have to make sure that she stays humble and she stays committed, but as far as I know She's still Pretty fantastic one of the best lawmakers in Congress. So we're mad that she's getting popular It's like we build up politicians like AOC. We we help get her elected and as soon as she's elected We break her down Like you have to understand guys this type of factionalization Is not good for the left and I say this as someone with enough self-awareness to acknowledge that I am also part of the problem Like we all fight each other But we have to find a way to be united as leftists because if we stay divided then guess who's gonna win the Santrists and the fascists so we can't let these petty things Divide us and I'm not saying this as someone who is you know attacking Howie Hawkins to defend AOC I'm not a Green Party hater. I voted for Jill Stein in 2016 I defended the Green Party from the Democratic's effort to get them removed from the ballot a month ago and on top of that I posted an hour-long interview to this channel with Howie Hawkins himself, and I think he's a brilliant guy I'm currently supporting Lisa Savage a Green Party candidate in Maine, but guess what policy overrides everything I don't care about politicians or political parties. I care about policies Whatever is going to get us from point A to point B in terms of getting those policies passed. That's what I want I don't care who does it. I don't care who steals the policy ideas. I don't care. I want Medicare for all I want a Green New Deal I want very specific policies and the way that we get there doesn't matter. It just matters that we get there I don't care if we get a Green New Deal But you know the proper politician who came up with the idea in the first place doesn't get credit Should we try to credit that person? Well, of course we should but I'm not going to tear down someone Who's trying to take a good idea and popularize it because then we're just hurting our own our own goals Howie Hawkins and AOC are political allies regardless if they want to acknowledge that or not you agree on the policy your allies So why do we divide ourselves? I mean after 2016 It was already bad enough that you really started to see factionalization among the left You had some people say we have to pursue a third-party option because we just can't take over the Democratic Party It's not possible. You had some people saying we have to do both you had some people saying We can only take over the Democratic Party and that was like the start of factionalization and within these factions You see even more factionalization. So just take like the third party supporters now within the third party, you know Proponents you see Factionalization to where you have some people saying no we've got we've got to build up the Green Party of others saying no We need a new people's party. You have others saying no, we don't need political parties We need independence and what I have to ask ourselves is What are we doing this for? Are we doing this because we're committed to a specific strategy that we have to be proven right on or Are we actually trying to get policies codified into law? and So we have to recenter ourselves and remind ourselves of that and ask ourselves is The actions that we're taking is the infighting helping us get closer to those goals. I mean you see some Leftists just like non-stop bash AOC Baster like all the time and she's not above criticism I've criticized her because I don't like that she referred to Nancy Pelosi as mama bear I want her to fight them. I want them the Democratic Party establishment to actually feel repercussions for their actions and inaction but having said that though, you know You don't build up people and then immediately break them down Hypothetically speaking if we got a people's party actually viable and we got electoral reform and got them, you know Elected how long until we we break those people down who get into Congress too like we have to ask ourselves How do we actually achieve the goals that we want and every once in a while? We just get too caught up in our own Factionalization and our mini little like communities that we craft for ourselves online on Twitter and it's not helpful to the overall movement A leftist is someone who supports the same policies that I support Who supports social democracy or socialism like we have to know who our allies are And so if the Republican Party out of the blue surprised me and said I support Medicare for all not going to be mad at them That'll never happen, but I wouldn't be mad at them I would want them to do that because again, this is about policies That's it And so while we attack each other and then attack like the few politicians who are actually fighting for us For no good reason it makes me feel incredibly discouraged because I mean, what is the goal ultimately? And I think we all know what the goal is. It's that we all want the same thing We all want policies So what's the point of tearing each other down? Holding each other accountable is important But that's different than just like needlessly shitting on people especially like AOC like she's the target of leftists Oftentimes and again, she's not above criticism But like you're you're shitting on the one politician who's actually fighting when there are hundreds of other politicians in Congress Who couldn't care less about you who are further away from what you want? And so hold her accountable as an ally as a leftist But at the same time don't lose focus on who the real enemies are right don't turn away our own allies If they don't agree with us on 100% of things like as Michael Brooks said don't stand But don't cancel like we have to understand that politics is going to be a messy thing We're not going to expect that everyone who we get elected to Congress is going to be 100% perfect Is going to meet all of our expectations So, you know the goal in making this video is for us to just like ask ourselves every once in a while Why are we doing this? Why are we doing this and when I say why are we doing this the this that I'm referring to is Fighting trying to get ideas, you know that we want could have had into law. It's because we're right We have the moral high ground. So don't let ourselves become so divided and factionalized That we're each in our own individual factions that are basically Microscopic and have zero impact Nationally speaking the left is more strong when it's unified when there is camaraderie among all leftists Ranging from communists to socialists to social democrats and even some liberals We have to make sure that We don't Let ourselves get bogged down by bullshit Twitter drama Okay hold leftists accountable if they actually Backtrack if they actually move away from policies that we like but if they are still your allies If they're still committed to things that we want them to be committed to let's just like Not tear them down. It just it doesn't make sense. So this made me feel like man, we're never gonna get ahead We're never gonna win. This is why centrists and Republicans keep winning because you have like a green party presidential candidate attacking one of the few Democrats in Congress who actually agrees with the Green Party's agenda and is trying to make that agenda more popular like if we're attacking AOC I Mean it just it doesn't make sense now one more time She's not above criticism. So if he has some genuine grievances about Her green new deal and the way that she is trying to get that implemented that I think that it is justified for him to reach out to her But you do it from a place of like trying to get your mutual goals accomplished not saying Well, you you took my green new deal. That's mine. You don't get to claim it. I mean, I don't care at the end of the day I don't give a shit support the policies that I want and I support you. That's as simple as that