Delia Ramirez, a real progressive congresswoman, wants us to speak clearly and progressively.

I interviewed Congresswoman Delia Ramirez (D-IL-3) at Netroots Nation 2025 in NOLA. She made it clear that we are now a fascist state. She wants progressives to speak up unabashedly.

Delia Ramirez, a real progressive congresswoman

Watch Politics Done Right T.V. here.

Podcasts (Video — Audio)

---

Summary

Representative Delia Ramirez speaks with clarity and courage at Netroots Nation 2025, warning that America faces a creeping authoritarianism while Democrats must shed their passivity and become a true opposition party. She argues for unapologetically progressive policies—Medicare for All, housing affordability, student debt relief—because they are not fringe ideals but mainstream demands of working families. Her insistence on truth-telling and her call to confront both Republican extremism and Democratic complacency stand as a blueprint for principled leadership.

• Ramirez identifies the present political climate as fascism, not just the risk of it.
• She criticizes Democrats for normalizing corruption and failing to fight aggressively enough.
• She demands progressive policies like Medicare for All, family leave, and affordable housing.
• She calls for defunding ICE and condemns racial profiling and profit-driven detention centers.
• She stresses that silence and normalization equal complicity in the erosion of

Delia Ramirez represents the voice of a rising progressive movement that refuses to equivocate. She speaks the truth without fear, insisting that Americans deserve leaders who fight corporate capture, authoritarianism, and systemic inequality. Her clarity reminds us that the path forward requires courage, solidarity, and a refusal to normalize injustice.

---

Premium Content (Complimentary)

Congresswoman Delia Ramirez offers a rare and uncompromising clarity in today’s political landscape. At a moment when much of the political establishment tiptoes around Donald Trump’s authoritarian tendencies, Ramirez refuses to sugarcoat reality. She states plainly: “We have entered fascism.” This isn’t hyperbole—it’s a sober recognition of the consolidation of power, the normalization of corruption, and the silencing of dissent that increasingly define American politics.

Ramirez calls out the failure of too many in Congress to name this crisis for what it is. When leaders normalize corruption, accept daily outrages, and hide behind the language of minority-party weakness, they allow authoritarianism to metastasize. Her rejection of the term “minority party” is decisive; she insists Democrats must act as an opposition party, actively resisting, obstructing, and holding accountable those who attack democracy. This framing matters because language shapes political imagination. To call oneself “minority” is to accept powerlessness. To call oneself “opposition” is to embrace responsibility.

At the heart of Ramirez’s message is a commitment to progressive policies that uplift working families. She names what most Americans already know: that the rent is too high, healthcare is too expensive, student debt crushes opportunity, and workers are forced into multiple jobs that barely cover the bills. Medicare for All, family leave, affordable housing, and student debt relief are not radical demands—they are basic human needs. Yet corporate interests have corrupted both parties, ensuring that the demands of lobbyists and donors consistently override the will of the people. Ramirez recognizes this structural corruption and refuses to play along.

Her critique extends beyond economics into civil rights and immigration. She boldly calls for the defunding of ICE, denouncing racial profiling and profit-driven detention centers. She understands that ICE has become a tool of authoritarian control, profiting private contractors while terrorizing immigrant communities. The fact that ICE’s budget would rank it among the world’s largest militaries underscores the perverse priorities of this government. Ramirez does not shy away from naming this truth, even as establishment politicians recoil from it.

In addition, Ramirez emphasizes the danger of silence. Every time leaders or citizens shrug off an injustice because “that’s just Trump,” they normalize authoritarianism. Silence is complicity. She calls on her colleagues—and by extension the public—to confront their own reflection: are they doing everything possible to resist? If not, they are part of the problem. This moral clarity cuts through the fog of political gamesmanship.

Her insistence on accountability extends to her own party. She criticizes Democrats who prioritize establishment politics over the will of the people, citing examples like suspension bills that give Republicans victories without extracting concessions for constituents. She recognizes the danger of establishment Democrats who consistently refuse to support progressive leaders chosen by voters (e.g., Zohran Mamdani). This isn’t about partisanship; it’s about consistency, courage, and integrity.

In the end, Ramirez represents a new generation of leaders who refuse to be intimidated into silence. She speaks truth to power, challenges her colleagues, and reminds the public that progressive values are mainstream values. Her vision is one where elected officials are accountable not to corporations, not to lobbyists, but to the people who put them in office.

If America is to resist authoritarianism and rebuild a democracy that works for all, it will require more leaders like Delia Ramirez—leaders who are not afraid to say the word “fascism,” not afraid to demand Medicare for All, not afraid to challenge their own party when it fails, and not afraid to confront injustice head-on. History will not be kind to those who looked away. Ramirez reminds us that this is the defining moment of our time: to resist normalization, to fight for progressive policies, and to reclaim democracy for the people.