It's Been a Minute
Is The Squad dead? Cori Bush on the future of progressive politics
Wed, 08 Jan 2025
Five years ago progressive Democrats seemed to be on the rise. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had just ousted a moderate Democrat, and Senator Bernie Sanders looked like he could win the party's nomination. Now, two members of the progressive group known as "The Squad" have lost their re-election bids.This week, Brittany sits down with one of them, former congressional representative, Cori Bush of Missouri. They get into what the progressive politics are in 2025 and what the future holds for Democrats and identity politics. Support public media and receive ad-free listening & bonus content by joining NPR+ today.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Chapter 1: What happened to Cori Bush after losing her re-election?
This is Cori Bush. And up until last Friday, she was a Democratic congresswoman representing St. Louis, Missouri. But today, she's back to being activist Cori Bush, organizer Cori Bush, private citizen Cori Bush. That's because last Friday, a new Congress began. And last summer, she lost her bid for re-election. And yeah, I know, the losers rarely get to write history.
But in this case, I think this loser and her story are a perfect case study for understanding why Democrats, and by extension, progressives, lost the House, the Senate, and the White House. Let's go back a few months to last August.
The dust is settling after one of the toughest races we've seen in the state, perhaps in the country. This big primary, a lot of outside money coming into the St. Louis area to help Wesley Bell unseat Cori Bush. It's Tuesday, August 6th.
Chapter 2: What were the challenges faced in Cori Bush's primary election?
Primary results are rolling in and the reality is setting in for Bush's reelection team.
I had just gotten dressed because I changed clothes from being out, you know, at the polls all day. And I just walked in the room and the team was just kind of frantically looking at their phones, just looking really somber.
And that's how I found out. It was clear that she was going to lose the race to her opponent, Democrat Wesley Bell. The primary between Cori Bush and Bell was the second most expensive primary in the history of this country, with close to $9 million of Super PAC money being spent on attack ads against Bush.
It was shocking because I did not expect the disinformation, the lies and the misinformation, the racism that came into play in my election to actually work.
A majority of that money came from the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee, better known as AIPAC. Bush vocally pushed for a ceasefire in Gaza during her time in office. And during her primary, AIPAC's funds were used to make political attack ads that used distorted images of Bush, like a bigger forehead and elongated features, that she called out as racist.
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Chapter 3: What role did outside funding play in the election?
It was disappointing. I mean, just losing a race already is tough. But when you lose a race based on lies, when you lose a race based on just this idea that billionaire corporations and donors that they can come into your district and decide the elected representative. That's what really was disheartening for me.
Here's the thing, though. Bush wasn't alone. Over in New York, Jamal Bowman lost his primary, too. Both Bush and Bowman were members of the Squad, a group of young, progressive Democrats that, to many, represented the party's future. But last year, the squad lost 25% of its members, which is why I wanted to sit down with former congressional representative Cori Bush.
I wanted to know what happened to the squad. Is it fizzling out? And is there a future for their vision of progressive politics? To flash back to your rise to Congress, progressivism seemed like it was growing in popularity at that point. There was the blue wave in the 2018 midterms, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had ousted a moderate Democratic incumbent.
In the 2020 election, when you were elected, just think about the progressive policies that all the candidates who were running for the Democratic presidential ticket used to tout. from packing the court to the Green New Deal. I mean, Bernie Sanders seemed to have a shot at winning the nomination. But here we are, almost five years later, and progressives seem to have lost momentum.
I mean, that seems to be the vibe, at least, just taking a vibe check of things. Your voices and positions don't seem to be cutting through like they used to.
Well, I'll say, I think progressivism is still very popular because we see all across the country where people vote for the progressive values. Like in my state, we were able to get minimum wage increase. We were able to get the abortion ban. We were able to overturn that in November. But progressive politicians, there is some struggle there.
You know, looking at the election 2024, I would say that conservatism in many ways won out. This is not just something that we're seeing that's on the rise in politics, but like all across culture. You know, I'm thinking about the rise of, say, traditional wife content online or the dominance of country music. It seems like conservatism is what is really hitting with people.
And lining that up with the fact that Donald Trump won reelection and Republicans won both chambers of Congress online. Do you think that, by and large, progressive policies are really what the public wants right now or is asking for?
Well, I actually do believe that progressivism still should win the day because... What we're talking about is partly due to messaging. And so, like you said, you know, what we're seeing on social media, the whole quote unquote trad wife, you know, all of that. There are people who that's that's their thing. Absolutely. Absolutely.
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Chapter 4: Is progressivism losing momentum in the Democratic Party?
We want each and every person to have access to transportation and college, you know, if they choose to go. You know, we want to close the racial wage gap, but we also want to close the gender wage gap. We're talking about human rights for each and every person.
I wonder, what do you think is causing that disconnect? A lot of voters don't seem to be receiving that message. And there are some voters who went for the Democrats, voted for Biden and Harris in 2020, and voted for Trump and Vance in 2024, feeling like their concerns around the cost of groceries, for example, are heard. What's beneath that?
Well... But the thing is, we dropped all of these investment that we spoke so much about. We just dropped it and said, hey, well, one day we'll come back to this. We've talked about being the party of civil rights and human rights and the party of peace, the party of justice. But we have not delivered on that.
People have said, you know what, you all talk about being the party of justice, but you couldn't even get George Floyd Justice and Policing Act done. We talk about peace and you say you're fighting for a ceasefire. You say you're fighting tirelessly for a ceasefire.
But then when you say you're fighting for the ceasefire, but then weapons and money is flowing at the same day that you say that money and weapons are flowing to go and bomb children. And so what they see is us having saying one thing and then doing doing another. But I'll say the one thing that has stuck out to me the most, Brittany, is what people have said to me is, Corey,
At least we see them talking about the Republicans, talking about Donald Trump fighting. I have people in my district who would never have voted for me before, who told me that they initially, you know, back a few years ago, oh, I didn't vote for you. But I changed my mind to start voting for you because I see that you are a fighter. We might not agree on all of the issues, but you fight.
And so that's another thing. What they what people have seen is, you know, they feel like they see Donald Trump fighting. They feel like they don't see the Democrats doing the same thing as a whole. But what they have seen is us move based on corporate interests. They have seen this. They've called it this elitism that has started to push out regular everyday people. And we have to reverse that.
You know, there's a lot of hand-wringing, as I'm sure you know, happening over what Democrats should do next. People are saying Democrats need to let go of identity politics. Some are saying that Democrats should be more moderate and adopt some conservatism. I wonder, what do you think? Based on how voters voted, how do you think Democrats should organize?
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Chapter 5: Are progressive values still popular among voters?
We should... not fight one another. We should be who we say we are. So I think that's the first thing. Pick who, pick, like, let's pick who are the Democrats going to be now and then be that so that those folks who feel like, well, then this is not my team can go find their team. Because if progressives aren't wanted in the Democratic Party, then If we're not wanted, then tell us that.
Let that be clear that this we've decided to move this this other way. But if we are this, you know, bigger tent that that, you know, we hear sometimes and I won't say big tent, I'll say bigger tent. If that is the case, then we have to show it. You can't push out the younger generations and say, well, you're not ready yet. It's not your time. We don't need to listen to you.
We don't need you in places of leadership. We can't do that and then say, but we want the youth. We want the youth movement. We want the youth vote. We want the youth to feel engaged because you're showing us a different thing. So I think that Democrats, it should not be, yeah, we need to move more to the right because you need to be who you say you are.
So is that actually who you are? Really quick, I want to step aside and note that following the election, there was a lot of commentary and debate over whether Democrats should abandon so-called identity politics. And I wanted to know, should they?
We allow these folks that have no clue what they're talking about to build a narrative and then we go run and we all scatter. Oh my goodness, we got to do something different.
The former representative's answer after a quick break.
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Before we get back to the conversation, I want to remind you that this episode is out on a Wednesday because It's Been a Minute is now publishing three days a week. There are new episodes every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. It's my New Year's present to you. Hope you like it. Now, back to my burning question for Cori Bush. I have a question.
You know, as a black woman, I'm curious what your thoughts are on the future of identity politics. That is something I know you've heard it. It's come up time and time again in these weeks and months following the election. You've heard it as much as I have, probably even a thousand times more about how Democrats should move away from identity politics or so-called identity politics.
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Chapter 6: What disconnect exists between voters and Democratic messaging?
In other ways, oftentimes, it's just that they've been pushed out because our leadership is not being acknowledged. So identity politics was a way of saying, hey, you got to pay attention to the fact that black women don't. You know, we're just as amazing. We're just as brilliant, if not more, you know, than this candidate that you have. And so pay attention to that.
And then we need to also celebrate the fact that, yes, Cori Bush was the very first black woman to ever go to Congress from the state of Missouri in the United States history. That is something to be celebrated and it's something to be pissed off about that it took this long to get the first one. So we shouldn't push it aside.
We should we should be able to say, you know what, we made a mistake here. So I'm not getting rid of identity politics, but I'm not just pushing up people because of what they look like and because of what they believe. I'm not doing that either. We need the best person for the position. But the best person is not always default position. a white male.
That makes me think about how you got into politics in the first place. You, as you have described in other interviews and in your book, are not a cookie cutter establishment politician who came up through all of the traditional halls of power. You got into politics basically Because you were an organizer. Because of what happened in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014.
You know, there are so many moments after that, which culminated in the Black Lives Matter movement, which, you know, importantly, you were elected on the heels of. You were elected right after. Ferguson is something... people don't talk about as much anymore because there are, unfortunately, sadly, so many other names we've had to learn in the time since. Black Lives Matter has faded.
A lot of people are losing faith that movements or institutions can better their lives. As someone who just spent a lot of time within one of our biggest institutions, what do you say to people losing faith that change can come?
You know, change doesn't come easy and change may not happen overnight. But one way that change does not happen is when we stop. It's OK to get to feel discouraged, you know, on a Tuesday. But by Thursday, pull it together. We cannot allow the destruction, devastation that could happen in our communities anymore.
The harm that could happen to our loved ones because people who don't have our best interests at heart, people who don't understand our pain are the ones in power making the decisions and they have no pushback. I understand feeling disillusioned. And I'll say this as someone who just, you know, who lost her race built upon and based upon lies. I get it. But. My kids have to live.
I have four beautiful kids and a grandson. They have to live in this world, this legacy that will be left to them. You know, my dad, my mom, my family, you know, my friends, I have to do the work because it's in me. I have to do the work to make sure that I can build for them. So I don't care who the president or the administration is. I don't care who the mayor is.
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Chapter 7: How should Democrats organize in response to recent elections?
Yes, and I absolutely do. But Brittany, I'm going to take some time to look my husband in his face to spend time with my kids and, you know, and my loved ones, because we worked hard for St. Louis. I mean, I physically made myself sick multiple times, not taking days off, going for weeks physically. you know, working, you know, really, really hard for St.
Louis, and now I'm going to take some time. But I will be able to help my colleagues, and I'm especially talking about the squad, Representative Ayanna Pressley and Ilhan Omar and Summer Lee and others, Rashida Tlaib. I will be able to push from the outside to help the work that they're doing on the inside.
Well, Representative Bush, thank you so much.
Thank you for having me.
That was former Congressional Representative Cori Bush. Up until last week, she represented St. Louis, Missouri in Congress. This episode of It's Been a Minute was produced by Barton Girdwood. This episode was edited by Jasmine Romero. Our executive producer is Veralyn Williams. Our VP of programming is Yolanda Sanguini.
I'm Brittany Luce, and I'll be back Friday with another brand new episode of It's Been a Minute. See you soon.
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