I wonder if once elected she would be able to get taxpayer dollars directed in such a way, or if this is activity mainly enabled by the freedom and increasingly unregulated campaign system of American politics.
We don’t need more Glusencamp-Perez or Fetterman types in office, but if this campaign actually translates into real, meaningful policy towards the hungry and homeless (if only in Illinois)? Can’t complain, though that feels unlikely in this environment.
Once you’re in place and have access to tax dollars instead of campaign funds, you get them spent on things by putting that community infrastructure into place.
One problem with that is they’re running for a collective position. In their campaign, they’re captain of their own ship. A congresswoman is more a crewmate. Greater power, but more divided.
One thing they would be able to do, though, is never stop campaigning. They’ll be less active, as a congresswoman, but the campaign pivots to next election (which, let’s be honest, that’s already the norm, there is no break from politics anymore), and that next election can be focused on on-the-ground community campaigning the entire time.
So, no, you won’t see the same level of activism with tax dollars, they don’t lead, but she and others that follow her can do good consistently with their position through campaign funds and fight for good in their government while that happens.
Her videos and work at media matters are excellent as well.
Could Kat fix the backward ass US healthcare system and labor laws?
That right there is a beautiful woman
Shit no kidding inside and out
Knowing enough about the US this is probably highly illegal
Not only that she’s likely a Republican funded plant. She’s trying to run in my district, but she doesn’t even live here yet, and she’s planning to run for our congressperson. It’s horrifying tbh and I’m going to help campaign against her
What kind of anxiety do you have and how do I not get it?
Have you done any research into her? She’s an influencer type who has been posting progressive content for a while.
Anxiety? Yeah sure, someone who has never even lived in our district is trying to run being bad is anxiety.
She’s an influencer type
Yes, she’s influencer. That’s bad.faking your views is easy
She has a pretty well documented history of working in progressive media and pushing progressive points. If having conservative parents means someone is a conservative then my wife, myself and ALL of my progressive and liberal friends are faking it. Dang it.
No, alone it doesn’t mean anything. However, when you consider the other factors, is what becomes suspicious
deleted by creator
bad reasoning for both counts
I’d like to also add that on reddit she is known for astroturfing the evanston, Illinois, and cook county subreddits.
you can edit comments
I’ve had issues on some lemmies with edits not showing up. I was unsure exactly what caused the issue, so if it’s relevant I try not to just edit
It is not remotely reasonable to run for districts you’ve never lived in. There’s no good politicians who do it.
By that logic bet you think CO’s Lauren Boebert’s ® tenure is completely legit, then.
Typical.
That’s a complete fallacy. Me believing one thing does not mean I believe the inverted is true
She’s doing a beach clean up tomorrow. She’s invited everyone out to volunteer and ask her questions. It’s a little far from me and I’m but in her district but, still considering attending just to see what’s up.
I knew who it was before I even read her name. I hope she wins and does good things.
Her parents are rich Republicans. She’s unemployed. She’s coming in from outside the district she’s trying to run for, despite living in a contestable district. She doesn’t even live here yet and she’s trying to run. She’s incredibly suspicious even at surface value.
So I’m not from the USA and have heard the argument that she’s suspicious because she’s out of district a couple of times. So why is that bad? (I have no clue about american politics so I hope the question isn’t dumb)
Its not, they are making bad faith arguments because they dont like progressive politics where your views and policies actually help people. They want to continue with fascist politics
It is. Usa politicians are meant as representatives of their districts, never living there brings question to that.
I’m active in politics and extremely progressive. I just don’t want someone with blatantly suspicious origins to be my congressperson.
Usa politicians are meant to represent their districts, and be in tune with their issues. Others often fail at that, but our current one is extremely active replying to calls and fixing issues. As such, having one that isn’t from the district brings to question if they will be able to continue the actual connection, and draws question on if they’ll actually understand our district’s issues and goals.
That said, our current one is old af and does need a replacement. I just don’t want it to be from out of district.
Ok, that’s understandable! Thanks for the explanation.
This is HORRIBLE! We NEED to Make Sure this Person FEEDING THE POOR LOSES!
-Chuck Schumer and the DNC!
This is the way
Kat Abughazaleh is her name.
You can tell she’s to the left of the incumbent because her name doesn’t appear in the headline.
Also worth noting she’s running for congress in Illinios
Specifically, IL-9, against the incumbent democrat, whose name is “Kat Abughazaleh’s opponent.”
How do you pronounce it??
Kat’s great, but her opposition to traditional Democratic politics is going to tank her campaign. The Democrats only want old, rich
conservativescentrists.It is nice to see at least one Democrat who’s doing some real good, though.
An out of district plant is not great
I like to think the tides are slowly, but gradually, turning as more people realize how useless the democrats have been. I hope there will be more candidates like Kat showing up everywhere soon
I like to think the tides are slowly, but gradually, turning as more people realize how useless the democrats have been.
Yeah, I noticed it as well ever since Chuck Schumer rubber stamped the Republican budget bill-- which would disenfranchise millions of Americans from Medicare cuts-- without offering much resistance. Even some of the die-hard centrist Democrats here in Lemmy seem to sobering up as well. But hopefully my observation isn’t just contained in social media and my information circle, but the also throughout the US.
There’s a part of me that wants to be optimistic, but this is America.
Kat Abu is amazing and just the kind of grass roots candidate we need everywhere.
no use for supposedly honest people if the system itself is corrupt.
Anyone trying to overhaul a corrupt system would know that infiltrating it is a highly effective opposition tactic. You’re not speaking for progress, you’re speaking for contrarianism.
Edit - besides, she’s using political donations to feed people. Corrupt systems absolutely have uses for honest individuals, because your potential allies in poverty are starving to death and she is feeding them.
infiltrating capitalism to ‘defeat it from the inside’ is famously ineffective.
This isn’t infiltrating the vague concept of capitalism, it’s infiltrating congress. She’s not trying to climb some corporate ladder here.
What, exactly, has been more effective in the US? Capitalism still isn’t defeated, as far as I can tell.
What the fuck do you want her to do, stop? Go home?
If you want heroes, if you want martyrs, if you want real people with real power and real megaphones, you need to work with the tools you have available. Whatever else you’re doing hasn’t worked any better than what she’s doing. Unions are still operating under the umbrella of capitalism - they sign deals with capitalists all the time. Do you think we should stop unionizing?
yes. infiltrating capitalist institutions famously doesn’t work. we call those entrists.
i don’t care for lone wolf martyrs. be them entrists or shooters or bombers alike. those can be cathartic but this is it.
leftists organizing their own institutions is what historically works, and is a better use of talented people’s time and abilities.
and yes, it has worked in the US to give workers better wages, and famously the right for workers to have a weekend and the 8hour-maximum workday. entrism on the other hand never did much of anything.
If by grassroots you mean suspiciously funded by 80% out of district and living off her rich republican parents money to do it
You seem to be literally the only one who is saying this …
… If you had some type of proof we’d be willing to see it
Here’s proof. Basically entirely outside funding.
It’s interesting how no one else is saying easily findable information.
Minor Internet Influencer uses minor internet influence to raise funds for campaign.
No mention of her parents was made in the article linked.
Do you think her tiktok audience is all local? Because that’s what’s happening lol
Hope I’m wrong, but I don’t trust anyone who wants this kind of power.
There is no way to change power without taking it.
Although I agree with you, we will not get out of the hole we’re in if we don’t support people like this to overtake the ones that are legitimately hungry for power.
On the flipside, there’s always the possibility she’s doing this as a stunt and doesn’t mean any of it. Plenty of Gen-Z pretend to feed homeless people on TikTok, could just be a glorified version of that.
She’s got a beach cleanup going on this weekend. From what I’ve heard, she’s been at every event she’s hosted and she’s actually out there getting dirty. I’m not in her district but it’s not far from me. I might go just to see how it all works.
Definitely not normal, excellent. I wish I was closer to IL, I kinda want to see for myself as well.
She just started a discord server to organize volunteer work. Katforillinois.com I guess. Haven’t checked it out myself but just saw it.
My to do list is a mile long so idk if I’m gonna be able to go but I wanna!
I do genuinely hope I’m wrong, but even at a very basic level here - she’s using funds people donated to her campaign for a purpose other than campaigning,.did she make this clear to people before they donated? If it is just being done for campaign clout then it’s kinda disingenuous by definition. I do hate that I’m this cynical fwiw.
Yes, she’s been very upfront about it. She makes it clear at her fundraising events that the proceeds are going to charitable organizations. Her campaign has been soliciting canned goods and menstrual hygiene products, instead of cash, in exchange for yard signs and stickers.
I get your cynicism, it’s a well-known adage that anyone who seeks power doesn’t deserve it. But for as long as we have elected federal representatives, I’d prefer to elect representatives who actually make tangible efforts to take care of people. Even if you see it as self-serving, to me it’s refreshing to see a candidate appeal to voters’ compassion instead of appealing to their fears and prejudices.
It’s all good, I’m in a similar cynical boat. By default I don’t trust anyone that’s in the spotlight by choice.
However, if shitty people start doing things like this just for clout, well it’s better than the Nazis that are taking things over right now I guess that don’t even try to pretend to be a good person.
At least it’s a better platform than “Everything is that other groups fault, let’s hate on them and be angry!” that s eems a bit too common.
Yeah you’re not wrong and it’s not like I have any suggestions or solutions either.
This candidate’s skills seem to be in communication and I’m glad they are using it for good.
I hope this inspires a new generation of politician candidates that put action ahead of the politics in their messaging, because I admit that action alone without messaging means no one hears the good work you are doing and gives free reign to culture war misinformation and billionaire funded hate campaigns.
It has worked. Here in Vancouver, we got a city councillor whose day job is a dishwasher, because of their progressive vision and their concrete action over rhetoric to help people in our communities. He and an anti-automobile candidate beat out the incumbent party’s cop candidate and the NIMBY candidates by a wide margin.
could this be seen as bribery of the public?
By the same people who didn’t think Elon was buying votes, yeah.
Absolutely. She’s in the pocket of Big Homeless.
It’s misappropriation of campaign funds, are you kidding me?
If she’s using the money and her campaign feeds homeless people to attract attention then I can’t possibly imagine how it would be misappropriating money.
Should she be paying it as a salary to one of her cousin’s, maybe she should be buying ad spots on network television?
We’re talking about her and she used the money. What the hell do you want?
“hey if you elect me I’ll buy you stuff” is the same as elon’s gifting of money.
she should be buying ad spots on network television
It’s literal years before the election. She shouldn’t even be running a campaign yet.
Exactly. Imagine donating, expecting it to go towards a hard-working advertising firm, only for it to be frittered away on charity that nobody even notices.
I thought she’s asking for food/goods donations rather than money
New rap name, called it
Are Gen Z the chosen ones? I hope so.
