Saluting Jamarl Thomas

Jamarl L. Thomas has a website, The Progressive Soap Box, but he also has a YouTube account, Jamarl Thomas, in which his YouTube-uploaded videos cover current topics. He is a progressive who has been especially direct in stating that the Democratic Party, in its current form, is not a worthy political party for people who are actually progressive.

Jamarl Thomas’s statement reminds me of a scene in the 2005 documentary An Unreasonable Man, which is about the life of consumer advocate Ralph Nader. It comes to a moment in which MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell states he has worked in Democratic Party politics. O’Donnell mentions that the people in charge of the Democratic Party does not listen to The Left (meaning, the faction supportive of not Hillary Clinton but Bernie Sanders). O’Donnell continued with (but this is not an exact quote): The Democratic Party [figures it] doesn’t have to listen to The Left. The only way the Democratic Party will listen to The Left is if The Left shows the Democratic Party they are willing to not vote for the Democratic Party.

That was the summary, in that documentary, from Lawrence O’Donnell. And all these years later, but with a different summary, comes the same conclusion from Jamarl Thomas. I appreciate it. I appreciate it because it is accurate. It is a motivating approach to how I handled my voting during Election 2016. If a major political party is not representing, no amount of saying the opposition party is dangerous makes that non-representative political party—even if it is the one I tend to prefer—worthy of one’s vote. That, when voting, I am voting for; not against. (After all, for are what is in the vote totals.)

Here is one recent video I really like from Jamarl Thomas. He gives focus to the U.K.’s Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn. At one hour and four minutes, it is long. But, if you are up for at least some of it, you should take in whatever you figure is comfortable and sufficient enough with understanding how intelligent, insightful, and progressive is Jamarl L. Thomas.