The Architecture Lobby (TAL) is endorsing Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders in the 2020 Democratic Party primary contest.
In a statement published to the group's website, TAL writes, "With this endorsement, we invite architectural workers to rise in the vision of a movement."
The statement adds, "Whether you are a graduate student balancing work in school with work as a TA and watching your student debt climb, a junior architect anxious over climate impact but powerless to make your supervisor act, a business development professional enraged by an RFP for an immigrant concentration camp, or a firm partner watching healthcare costs balloon every year, there is a place for you in this movement. We see a profession capable of change. With that vision in mind, The Architecture Lobby officially endorses Senator Bernie Sanders as the 2020 Democratic Party Nominee for President of the United States."
"Senator Sanders is a worker’s candidate," the memo continues, adding, "Freelancers, firm staff, architects, and designers in every workplace in the U.S. stand to benefit from Sanders’s universal policies, from single-payer healthcare to publicly-funded college to debt forgiveness and a Green New Deal."
"He has stood with the trade union movement his entire career, and as President he has promised to undertake a structural reshaping of the labor movement to double union membership and empower the entire working class. Sanders envisions a transformative Green New Deal that embraces decarbonization as a social justice issue and leverages federal funding to reorient the building sector away from private gain," the group states.
"Some of our primary goals," The Architecture Lobby writes, "include achieving workplace democracy through unions and worker cooperatives, as well as a Green New Deal to tackle the crises of climate breakdown and social inequity."
"To contribute to a just transition," the group continues, referencing Sanders' plan to simultaneously decarbonize the economy while providing a bounty of well-paying, green collar jobs to power that transformation, "the design professions must be more than service providers."
For the full text of the endorsement, see TAL's website.
For an architecture industry guide to all the 2020 US presidential candidates published by the American Institute of Architects, see here.
117 Comments
wow this is great! Super impressed with the Architecture Lobby lately. Never thought I’d see a proto union emerge in architecture but it’s clear its momentum has come parallel with Bernie’s rise and work destigmatizing unions and labor organizing in the public eye. So many friends have months and years of unpaid and underpaid work on their resume. This isn’t right in any way yet we’re told that’s the way the world works and that we should be thankful for the opportunity. That’s why I’m voting Bernie. I haven’t felt such optimism for a better world in a long time.
FOG has more hair now? fake news probably.
I'm less interested in the kind of big government solutions proposed by Bernie (ones that will end up burdening architecture practices further) than solutions that can grow the reach and influence of architecture (not just architects) on the wider public, and therefore higher pay for designers.
Bernie's not going to win anyway so it's all just virtue signalling anyway.
Which presidential candidates are proposing solutions that can grow the reach and influence of architecture on the wider public ?
Bernie - with his housing plan and the Green New Deal.
The Green New Deal sounds great, but first we'd need a new technology to highlight construction costs and keep them down. Otherwise it's going to be $1B for a few bike lanes. I've heard Biden say a few things about High Speed Rail, which should be our top priority.
I'm extremely pro-HSR, but it's not architecture.
Voters that truly care about advancing a progressive agenda should strongly consider joining the Sanders campaign right now. We need to unite around a single campaign in order to compete against Biden and Bloomberg. Splitting the progressive vote at this point only benefits the right-wing/centrist/anti-progressive flank of the party.
Please, if you have not voted yet and you care about advancing a progressive agenda, please unite with the Sanders campaign and vote for Bernie.
He's uncompromising and principled, but in three decades he hasn't accomplished anything legislatively. I am having a hard time voting for someone who has been successful changing peoples minds without actually changing any policies.
The idea that he doesn't compromise is a myth.
Sanders was the mayor of Burlington, VT, then congressman, then Senator. He is well-liked by his constituents because they know that he serves their interests. Tonight he is going to overwhelmingly win his own state. The AP will probably call Vermont for Bernie the minute after polls close. Contrast that with Massachusetts, Warren's home state. Bernie is polling ahead of her there.
If you care about getting this country to single payer, or to a climate policy that matches the scale and urgency of the problem, Sanders is the best option. Biden and Bloomberg aren't even concerned with making big changes. Warren is rhetorically interested in big changes, but she has failed to demonstrate that she can organize an effective campaign. She's not leading in a single state. Let's please get focused right now.
Don't get me wrong, I'll vote for Sanders if he is the democratic nominee. But what makes you think Sanders is going to be able to make (and not just talk about) big changes? Where did he succeed in even making a small change?
"For all the agita around Sanders’s all-or-nothing rhetoric, his behavior as a longtime member of Congress (and before that as a mayor) suggests a much more pragmatic approach to actual legislating than some of the wilder “political revolution” rhetoric would suggest." https://www.vox.com/2020/2/22/21148907/nevada-primary-results-bernie-sanders-establishment
I suppose that is the answer - he probably won't do much himself, but can act as a standard bearer and provide rhetorical leadership for legislators and policy makers who are doing the actual mechanics of governing. In a lot of ways it's a more grown up version of the model Trump has been using.
That's quite exactly what the role of a modern president is.
Obama was lr
e-modern?
Of course they do.
I totally respect TAL's endorsement of Bernie. I'm voting for Warren because I think she's a better leader and brilliant implementer.
Same.
...if she's still in the race at the end of May. Living in Oregon has many benefits but meaningful participation in national democracy isn't one of them.
Please Donna and tduds, rethink this. The stakes are extremely high. Warren isn't leading in a single Super Tuesday state. She isn't leading in her own state. We need to unify behind the only progressive campaign with a path to winning. Now is not the time for symbolic votes. We progressives need to win this. If Biden or Bloomberg win because progressives were divided, we will not get single payer, meaning thousands of americans will die every year because they lack healthcare. We will have a president that is more hawkish and more pro-incarceration than Obama was. This would be a huge step backward. Biden would shut activist organizations out and bring corporate lobbyists into the process of shaping climate policy.
In a Sanders administration, Warren would likely have a major role as an implementer. But she doesn't have the political operation and following required to win the presidency. Sanders has an enormous army of volunteers, the broadest base of support across the country, the most support from unions and grassroots activist organizations. That is what we will need to beat Trump.
If Sanders wins the nomination - hell, if he ends today with a clear lead - he'll have my full support. If I'm answering honestly who I think would make the best president, it's Warren.
Not my words but quite exactly my sentiment: "Bernie has 3% of the delegates needed to win a majority and Biden has 2.7%. You do not have to lay down your first choice for a man when there are 3826 delegates still out there. Pick who you like best, and then fight for them. It's a primary. It is not your job to make it easier for the current front runner with just 4% of the total delegates assigned, and it is not "irresponsible" to vote for the person you want to be President most. The only people responsible for Biden or Bernie's success are Biden and Bernie's campaigns."
Pete and Amy, both centrists candidates, dropped out in order to give Biden a boost in votes as well as an air of "inevitability" or "consensus" ahead of Super Tuesday. The right/center-wing is unifying. The progressive wing remains divided. Warren has no democratic path to victory. She's making it less likely that we will have a progressive nominee. Perhaps she would be an amazing president, but this is a political process. A good nominee needs to demonstrate that they can get out the vote and energize voters. Otherwise we'll end up with the same electoral map as 2016.
And if that's true it will largely play out over the course of today regardless of who I vote for.
What state do you live in?
Oregon. I said this above.
Anyway, counterpoint to my own point: https://www.vox.com/2020/3/3/21162527/what-happened-to-elizabeth-warren
Yeah, I'm with tduds. I voted for Bernie in the 2016 primary. I'll vote for Warren in the 2020, and then for whomever wins the nomination.
A vote for Warren is a vote for Biden, and ultimately a vote for Trump because Biden would lose.
No one knows whether or not Biden would lose to Trump. No one thought Clinton would lost to Trump. Nothing is predictable, so I'm voting my heart and mind, which is Warren.
It's very telling that my first two conversations with coworkers were both with young women in my office who are terrified of the prospect of a Biden nomination.
I wish Biden had not chosen to run, that said, asking seriously and a very directly: Is there a realistic argument *against* the idea that Biden would get us so-called "back to normal" and somewhat unified?
Donna: Mitch McConnell.
Can you explain that a little further, tduds? Do you think Biden or Bernie would be more able to break Mitch’s Dementor-like stranglehold on this country?
Neither. Amy McGrath has a shot, though.
As long as McConnell is majority leader, it doesn't matter who the Democratic president is.
I agree with that, tduds! I don't donate to political campaigns unless I'm actually at an event with the candidate in the room, but my husband donated to Amy McGrath!
The Dems slim hope is to go to a brokered convention and pick someone new who is not named Hillary Clinton.
Warren FTW. She has a lot of similar policies to Bernie, but a bit more realistic. Also, shes not an old white male, and is not going to croak after one term. Oh, and shes not as cranky either.
I think the final nominees are going to be Biden and Sanders, but I think Warren is better than both of them.
The hope is that the Bernie Bros. dont start blaming the DNC if they lose, and dont stay home for the general election.
I do not understand people who constantly try to vilify Sanders supporters as "Bernie Bros". It erases women and non-binary supporters. It erases people like the culinary workers, mostly women of color, who caucused for Bernie in Nevada. It erases the many surrogates and campaign staffers who are not "bros".
It's the "Basket of Deplorables" thing again. There are a lot of absolutely abusive online bullies who are rallying behind Sanders (just as there are a lot of abusive racists who are rallying behind Trump) but no one is suggesting that all Sanders/Trump supporters fall into this group other than Sanders/Trump supporters who don't fall into this group and feel attacked.
There are abusive people of all political inclinations. All you have to do is look at the hateful comments that follow any tweet by Linda Sarsour, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, or Susan Sarandon (all Bernie supporters). But I feel that there is strategic decision to weaponize those instances of abuse in order to lump people into one big bunch and vilify them. It also tends to backfire. When Hillary made her "basket of deplorables" comments, many people who she did not intend to include in that "basket" assumed she was talking about them. Ironically, this is also what Trump does when he points to an individual crime committed by an undocumented immigrant and exploits that crime as an opportunity to imply that it's a trend and not an exception.
"When Hillary made her "basket of deplorables" comments, many people who she did not intend to include in that "basket" assumed she was talking about them." ...right, that was my point. I don't know how one goes about countering that reflex.
davvid, dont be full of shit. No one is erasing non binary people and people of any denomination by using a phrase that, well, Bernie supporters coined themselves. Good on you for campaigning for Bernie, but the bigger point is that it is time for us to unite and beat Trump, no matter who the final nominee is. I wish it will be Warren, for the reasons I pointed above, but if not I will vote for the Dem nominee. And I hope Bernie supporters do the same.
" dont be full of shit." Do you see yourself as a unifying force right now?
Nice to see all the BERNIE BROS come out of the woodwork.
"The hope is that the Bernie Bros. dont start blaming the DNC if they lose, and dont stay home for the general election." This is what happened in 2016, and I have no doubt it will happen in 2020, and we'll have four more years of Trump. the problem will be with people like Miles, who won't vote blue no matter who because they think they're somehow above it all.
This stuff is not hard. If people feel that the Democratic Party establishment is working to subvert the will of voters, they will protest. If Biden has more votes going into the election than Bernie, there will be less protesting from Bernie supporters. But superdelegates should not exist at all.
FYI, if Biden is nominated, we will probably have another 4 years of Trump. Biden has an incredible amount of baggage and he performs horribly under pressure in debates. Biden is enjoying the comfort of respectful opponents and a sympathetic media. It won't be like that during the general election.
Biden has an incredible ability to conceal or apologize away his past. Imagine writing the disastrously racist 1994 Crime Bill, which Biden used to refer to as the "Biden Crime Bill", and which led to the mass incarceration we see today, and destroyed countless lives of black and brown Americans... Then 25 years later, he gets to portray himself as some sort of champion of civil rights. It is absolutely mind-blowing.
Miles: even if the vote is against the worst of two bad choices, you still vote against the one you think is worse, no matter what South Park taught you.
I am starting to figure out why some people give up on electoral politics entirely. There is so much social/media/political infrastructure designed to squash dissent and maintain the status quo. And frankly, there are so many dull people out there who are watching MSNBC or CNN and just assimilating, adopting talking points as their own, ignoring the uncomfortable truths about capitalism and US imperialism. I don't blame people for realizing how dysfunctional and dishonest it all is and choosing to opt out of the entire shit show. I'm not at that point yet. I still have some hope. But it is exhausting and it feels like a fucking Hitchcock movie or a David Lynch movie.
Miles, not everyone is like you - White male that got it all from his family. A lot of us cannot sit down and vote for the most utopian shit, because quite frankly, those policies scare us too. Biden was in big part responsible for Obamacare, which has saved the lives of millions of disenfranchised people. Sure its not Medicare for All, but if you actually decided to read on it, Medicare for All has a lot of learning from the ACA. So on and so forth. The minorities and states with republican governors spoke up for Biden, and they got him. My choice was Warren, but I am not going to hold it against Biden...
Seems like the minorities that Biden apparently voted against ended up voting FOR him. They grew up, and I suggest you do too, Miles.
Refusing to vote for the lesser of two evils is a vote for the greater of two evils. There is no viable third option so pretending there might have been one that would would have voted for is some self-defeating virtue-signaling.
Pretty sure I've posted this before but Chomsky really drives the point home, and he's way farther left than me or Miles. https://chomsky.info/an-eight-point-brief-for-lev-lesser-evil-voting/
Sticking Obama's name on a Republican policy that other Republicans weakened and still other Republicans have been dismantling for a decade was a massive propaganda win.
Luckily, Miles, you still have a chance to stump for Bernie in the New York prim ary next month.
If I have a choice between a toothpick attack on my self-interests or a nuclear missile attack on my self-interests which should I choose, given that *not choosing* guarantees the nuke?
Bingo.
Miles, people tend to forget how bad things were before Obamacare. I used to pay $1100 per month before the ACA for a family of 2, and now I pay $1200, for very similar benefits. You probably have a high premium as you make more money. Which would also happen under Medicare for All.
But a thousand cuts takes a lot longer, giving you time to keep fighting back. This isn't hard, Miles.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/amandalitman/what-to-do-if-youre-democrat-who-hates-the-nominee
Miles, without the ACA we would be in a much worse place in regards to health insurance. You dont need to agree but this is the common truth. Stay home for the elections, we wont miss you.
Interesting article:
Why Elizabeth Warren is losing even if all your friends love her
"White college grads are living in the Warren bubble."
https://www.vox.com/2020/3/3/2...
"Warren is a strong fit for her adopted home state of Massachusetts, which famously has the most educated population of any state."
And Warren came in third in her home state (which famously has the most educated population of any state) on Super Tuesday.
It seems like the centrists should be called progressives because to actually make progress, you need to compromise.
Biden will not beat Trump if he is nominated.
Trump is already hammering Biden about his apparent dementia. Democrats are walking right into this.
Whatever Davvid, you earned your time-out.
For all of the Bern spin, the facts, are the facts; Black voters said no. And the youth vote has not grown, at all. Prove me wrong. Because from where I sit, all of you selling the "listen to black folks" mantra, you ain't listening, your raisin potato salad ain't wanted at the cookout it seems.
this.
sounds a bit racist, no?
No.
mmm, no.
It sounds very racist.
OH NO!
https://politics.theonion.com/sanders-supporter-urges-importance-of-listening-to-mino-1842094286
Ha! i NO, write?
It's going to be four more years of Trump probably followed by eight years of Nikki Haley or Tim Scott, either of which may be Trump's running mate for 2020.
OMG is the POTUS dropping the VPOTUS because the VPOTUS is wrapped up fighting the war on COVID-19?!?
This. Is. Part. Of. The. Problem.
There's active listening, and roll your eye listening. The audacity of white people to not understand our connection to the problem is striking.
We so much want Black Americans to trust that we'll do the right thing, to do what's right by black people, well, that ship was never here. Trump's election proved that whites will do what's in the best interest of their own interests.
Now the next shoe will be the one where white people pit black people against latinx, Central and South Americans.
To wit, my point;
@michaelharriot
MUST. LISTEN. 2. BLACK. PEOPLE, PEOPLE!
To listen, or not to listen? That, is the question!
First, check skin color ...
interpol, your first good point; to listen, or not to listen. Can you "hear" Jimi, or do you just listen to Jimi?
i hear and listen to everything Jimi does, but for some reason his entire rhythm section is silent to me. no one should ever listen to Jimi's rhythm section, no matter what they do or say. they are deplorably invalid.
Way to miss the point.
b3tadine[sutures],
You're circulating a screenshot of one random comment on reddit. Meanwhile, Anti-Bernie bigots and misogynists receive paychecks from MSNBC and a national platform to spew hate.
The flaw isn't the message, I want everything Bernie wants, the flaw is the messenger, and it might be fatal.
I don't know about the JJ thang but the Chris Matthews thang is so laughable - I can't believe anyone got worked up about that. And I like Chris Matthews about as much as beta likes Tucker Carlson.
I like how Sanders is building a movement to counter the Reagan Revolution's outdated philosophies. However, both Trump and Sanders have a ceiling on how much support they can reach because their movements are more philosophical than tangible. It's up to the next generation to figure out how we can actually build some of these ideas. How can we make housing less expensive? And build high speed rail? All of these allude to some kind of construction transparency. Not bigger or smaller government, but smarter government. Socialism? No thanks. Hypercapitalism? no. Architecture? Yes please.
Elizabeth Warren just cancelled her campaign.
Bummer.
I'm very sad. She was far away the best candidate, but the US tends to be far and away the dumbest electorate, so...oh well. Moving on, I will vote for whomever Warren endorses.
can i get me a Dr. Jill Stein? Amen, sister!
She was by far the smartest candidate even though the media decided Pete was the smart one. I really hope she endorses Bernie to create a unified progressive ticket.
back to attacking the DNC again .... idiot leftists prefer unilateral disarmament against GOP billionaires, Facebook algorithms, foreign autocrats and shameless politicians
I could vote for Tulsi Gabbard. She could reign in the military and end the wars that are killing and making crippples out of our fine young people. She single-handedly destroyed Kamala Harris' campaign with one debate response. I could vote for her for doing that alone.
Idiots that still blame the DNC for everything, your camper van is out of gas, go fill it up before you hit the pipe again.
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