Growl #4 Movement for a People’s Party

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On today’s show, we hear from Nick Brana, Founder and National Director of The Movement for a People’s Party. You’ve likely heard him on Democracy Now! and the Jimmy Dore Show. I spoke with him this summer, before all hell broke loose around here, and I’m glad, finally, to be able to share our wide-ranging conversation. Brana will explain what’s at the heart of this movement that continues to gain momentum as the gap between voters’ concerns and elected representatives’ willingness to act continues to widen.

About the Movement for a People’s Party

* The following info comes to us via the Movement for a People’s Party.

The majority of Americans are progressive and want a major new political party.

Despite Bernie Sanders’ monumental efforts to reform the Democratic Party, it remains firmly in neoliberal control. The Democratic Party has made it clear that it will not be the vehicle for the political revolution. Now the choice is ours: do we submit to the establishment parties and allow the spiral into oligarchy to continue? Or do we form a party for the progressive majority?

Affiliation with the major parties has been declining for a decade and there are now far more independents than Democrats or Republicans. Trump’s attacks on working people and Bernie’s immense efforts to bring people into the Democratic Party should be expanding the party. But Gallup figures reveal an alarming trend: since the general election, affiliation with the Democratic Party is declining while the Republican Party is holding steady, even growing slightly.

Despite the collective efforts to expand the Democratic party, more and more people are leaving and becoming independents. The American people are leading the way to an independent alternative. Instead of struggling against the progressive current in an effort to save an establishment party, we should swim with the progressive current and create the new party that most Americans want.

As Americans grow more progressive, they realize that the Democratic Party doesn’t represent them and are not inspired to vote. Only a new party built on the progressive views of the majority can inspire the turnout necessary to defeat Trump and his agenda.

The Movement for a People’s Party, “is the best-organized of several efforts to turn progressives away from the Democratic Party. It has the endorsement of Cornel West, perhaps the 2016 Sanders surrogate most adamant about leaving the party; and it has two clear narratives, which suggest that to stay inside the nation’s major liberal party is to accept permanent decline.”

Nick Brana Bio

Nick Brana is the Founder and National Director with the Movement for a People’s Party, the major national nonprofit at the helm of the rapidly growing movement for a new progressive political party. With more than fifty thousand members and coverage in more than a hundred mainstream and independent media outlets, the Movement for a People’s Party is building a coalition of progressive organizations for a nationally-viable party for working people. Formerly Draft Bernie, MPP was founded last year by Bernie 2016 staff, delegates and supervolunteers.

Nick was the National Political Outreach Coordinator with the Sanders presidential campaign, where he lobbied the superdelegates and elected officials for Bernie, organized his political meetings and planned convention activities. He went on to become a founding member of Our Revolution and its first Electoral Manager, where he created an endorsement plan and assembled the candidates.

Before that he was the Deputy Director of Voter Protection on Terry McAuliffe’s gubernatorial campaign and worked on then-Sen. John Kerry’s PAC. He earned his BA in sociology and environmental policy at William & Mary and lives in Virginia.