How and when do you start a mass movement for universal health care if it isn't now during a pandemic when millions of Americans are losing their health benefits and becoming unemployed. Have a vote on it because that is all they are asking AOC for. I think Dore is right on this. The arguments against are weak or lies.
First you withhold your vote for speaker unless you get a vote. If Pelosi doesn't put the vote then I'm pretty sure that one of the other democrats will offer one to become speaker. If you lose Pelosi I don't see the down side as she is adamant she will not support MFA anyway.
Then you stand progressive candidates who do support MFA in seats where democrats didn't vote for it and of course Republicans too at their next election. This is what a mass movement does it puts the issue front and center. AOC stood for election on MFA and has called for a vote many times in the past. I don't know who bought her off or what if anything she is being paid but she has been found out to be an absolute fraud on MFA. The system corrupts and it seems to work faster than anyone imagined.
If you don't agree with this plan to get a mass movement going and actually get universal health care then fair enough you are entitled to your opinion but lets not pretend this isn't the time for it or that there is plan to get it some other better way because there isn't. I don't get the opposition to holding people to their word. This is the only leverage real progressives have and if they are not going to use it to even get a vote on the issue what is the point in calling yourself a progressive.
Point by point:
1. I agree that Pelosi is vulnerable. I agree they should demand something in exchange for their vote.
I disagree that another speaker willing to give in to their demands is waiting around the corner. The last person who challenged her was from the right. Literally everybody in the party leadership is like her or further to the right. They would sooner work a deal with Liz Cheney and other anti-Trump neocons, because that's been the instincts of the party, including the new president, for decades.
2. I agree they should primary. There are 100 Democrats who didn't even co-sponsor M4A (legislation which already exists). Nice long list to start with.
3. What I disagree with on all this is the importance of a M4A vote.
118 Dems, out of ~220, and 0 out of ~210 Republicans support M4A. Similar numbers in the senate. The incoming president openly opposed it and promised to veto it. The outgoing president ran against it. The insurance companies oppose it. The pharma companies oppose it. The hospitals oppose it. All these coompanies finance individual politicians and the party. There is no actual pressure on any politician to vote yes - 20 people showed up to a FTV rally in DC today. There is money, safety, continuity, and backing from party leadership on voting no. And there will be media cover if they do so (the very obvious headline will be about kween Pelosi losing speakership because of these brats, with little mention of the M4A vote). Now, all those obstacles are fine, if there is a concrete plan. But nobody has said anything about the ~100 extra votes - all outside the progressive caucus or "squad" that are needed for this to pass. Nobody has put forward an alternative name for speaker.
Humane healthcare (and less murderous foreign policy, and everything else) died with Bernie. While many of these obstacles would have existed with him as president, there would be differences. An electoral win for a M4A presidential candidate would switch a few Democrats looking out for re-election. It would prove that corporate opposition isn't enough to sink a candidate. A president can cut through media fog and connect with his base better than a presidential candidate or representative, as Trump has shown. He can hold up bills till he gets what he wants. Bernie promised to primary right-wing Dems if he won, and that threat from the president would also be a decent motivator.
But he lost -badly - and the senator from MBNA won. It's not a question of having enough will or having loyalty. It is a question of power and money. And all the power and money is on the other side.
I don't know - or particularly care - if the "system has corrupted" AOC or the others (I think her tweet quoted above is bad). Because her election wins are based on left-wing organising from within her district, not PAC money, so whether her heart is set on becoming Hillary or not, that's where the pressure will come from. Ideally, those groups are to her what DuPont and MBNA were to the Biden family.