Is the Working Families Party an actual third party or simply a "left wing group"?

[lapucelle]

Asking for a friend.

[Voltaire2]

1. It's a real political party.

[brooklynite]

2. In NYS, it generally cross-endorses Democratic candidates.

I can't speak for other States: https://workingfamilies.org/candidates/

[lapucelle]

6. I remember the kerfuffle with Joe Crowley in 2018.

My question really concerns a member of a president's party representing a third party's point of view in a response to a SOTU speech.

[Voltaire2]

10. Oh your question is about Tlaib.

She is a Democratic representative from Michigan and she is giving the WFP response to Biden’s speech and you appear to have some unstated problems with that.

How about making your case clearly instead?

[msongs]

12. I'd like to make a response speech as well will she share her time with me? nt

[Voltaire2]

14. Are you a leader of the progressive caucus?

[lapucelle]

15. Having a question is distinct from having a problem.

At what point does an allied party become an opposition party?

[Voltaire2]

17. When it campaigns against your party.

As far as I know WFP generally does not do that.

[Demsrule86]

21. I personally don't care for Democrats who participate in anything with a third party.

I would of course vote for her if I lived in Michigan...but I value party loyalty.

[lapucelle]

5. You can register as a member of the WFP in NYS.

If you do so, you cannot vote in any NYS Democratic primary.

[Voltaire2]

7. That is generally how closed primaries work.

What was your point?

[lapucelle]

8. That was my point. Why do you ask? N/T

[TreasonousBastard]

3. We deal with them here a lot. They are recognized by NY as

a party, are on the ballot and have primaries.

OK, maybe not all of NY, but around here they got the signatures needed.

[PoliticAverse]

4. They are a real, left wing, political party

http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_Famlies_Party

[Crunchy Frog]

9. In NYS candidates can be listed on the ballot under multiple parties.

So Democratic candidates are usually also listed under the WFP.

In the past, we used to vote for the Dem candidates under the WFP listing, but got disillusioned when they ran someone else against John Katko, rather than the good Dem who was running against him.

It's kind of a confusing system, and my mother once accidentally voted for a Republican because they had listed themselves under both the Democratic and Republican parties.

I don't know much about them, apart from my experiences with the ballots.

[lapucelle]

11. I remember Crowley was still on the WFP line for the general even though AOC had won the primary.

I also remember Cynthia Nixon being on the WFP line in November 2018 in the governor's race.

I think what I'm really wondering is at what point does an allied party shift to a bona fide opposition party.

[Crunchy Frog]

13. Well, it's why we don't support them anymore.

[Voltaire2]

16. They weren't allowed to take his name off.

[lapucelle]

18. Yes, I know. N/T

[Demsrule86]

23. They support Democrats mostly because they need a certain percentage of the vote remain viable

in New York...they are an opposition party...as are all third parties. They do support certain Democrats like AOC and some others. In a close race, they could act as spoilers. Please note they do not support the current governor of New York...they support Jumaane Williams who is a Democratic socialist and IMHO could lose New York should he win the primary.

[lapucelle]

22. There will be a call for the President to sign an executive order to cancel student loan debt,

and the speaker is expected to "hammer moderate Democrats" and "name names" according to Politico.

Politico also says that the speech is being given on behalf of the "left wing 'group' the Working Families Party".

I wonder why Politico is characterizing the Working Families Party as a "group" rather than as a bona fide political party separate and distinct from the Democratic Party.

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/02/23/squad-member-to-deliver-response-to-biden-sotu-00010877

[Demsrule86]

24. Who cares? If thy hammer Biden about student loans...fuck them.

[Budi]

28. Because they're asking for Powers that Biden doesn't have.

It would be subverting Congressional Powers to the Executive branch, rather than go thru the proper process of writing a bill & presenting it to the Dept of Ed.

Biden doesn't have the power to do by Exec Order, what they demand he do.

[lapucelle]

29. There have already been false stories about candidate Biden having made (and broken) a promise

to immediately cancel $10,000 of everyone's student debt if elected. That false narrative has even appeared here.

Hopefully that misinformation will not be resurrected during or after the Working Families response to President Biden's SOTU address.

[Budi]

26. Jfc. Well, perhaps Bden will address the proper steps to get more student loans forgiven than he a

Hope he offers in his SOTU Speech that once Congress writes a bill & sends it to Dept of Education that's where all the magic happens, kids.
Other than that process, aside from what he's already done, its all political talk.

To demand Biden eliminate Student Debt by Executice Order, would mean Tlaib is asking for the Subversion of the Congressional Powers to the Executive Powers.

Perhaps Biden will clear up that small matter so we're all on the same page, during his critically important SOTU Speech.

Seems an important misrepresentation of facts needs to be publically addressed.
Just so everyone knows the proper process.
Thanks President Biden. Can't wait to hear him speak, considering the current state of world affairs.


💙

[Budi]

20. Why step on the President's national speech ?

A Rebuttal is what Republicans do following the SOTU Speech if a Dem President & vice versa.

Tlaib is seriously going on prime time to Rebutt the President's Speech?
WOW....

Why? Is she planning on supporting Biden's Speech to the Nation?

[lapucelle]

25. Politico said the speech will be live streamed on Facebook.

[Budi]

27. I thought Facebook was one of those dirty billionare Corporate exploiters of regular people.

Why make FB even bigger profits!
Oh welp!

[Hortensis]

30. They've done a response to the SOTU for the past few years.

From what I've read, they've been a regional alternative to the Democratic Party, somewhat more what's called "progressive" but similar enough that they most often endorsed Democratic candidates, and Democratic candidates almost usually also ran on the FWP ballot. This allowed this smaller party to avoid being a spoiler, splintering away LW voters and throwing elections to the Republicans.

In more recent years as extremism and populism have grown on the left, the Democratic Party has remained ideologically steady, and supposeldy some of the increasingly oppositional types saw the more strongly "progressive" WFP as an alternative to the Democratic, resulting in the WFP becoming somewhat more aggressive and oppositional than previously. That's pretty much history. I don't know enough to guess whether or not a radicalized faction of significant size has developed. I hope not of course.

[lapucelle]

31. The Politico story calls the Working Families Party a "left wing group".

Apparently that's not entirely accurate.

In the speech, given on behalf of the left-wing group Working Families Party, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) is expected to hammer moderate Democrats who have stymied Biden’s social spending and climate change package.

So, according to Politico, this particular response to the Democratic president's SOTU address is being given on behalf of a political party other than the Democratic Party. I just wanted to be certain as to exactly whose talking points this speech will represent.

[Hortensis]

32. Well, Democrats are left wing. Tlaib belongs to the roughly 10%

of Democrats who are farther left than 90% but register Democrat (@6% of all voters). (Farther left still outside our party, mostly anti- Democratic Party factions range anywhere from farthER left all the way to LW extremists who can be hard to differentiate from far right.)

As for which party Tlaib will speak for, the Working Families Party. Of course, since she was elected as a Democrat, she will also profess to speak for the approximately 10% of the farthest left Democrats and stress that she is a Democrat.

Fwiw, I'm guessing Tlaib wouldn't choose to be in our party if she could get elected to office by one that better represents her values; and to both speak from a party more in her direction, while representing that 10% or so in ours, she's borrowing the Working Families Party.