One Democratic lawmaker sitting in a battleground district told CNN that they are so concerned about the rise of the Democratic Socialists of America that they have recently begun having serious conversations with donors about leaving the party altogether.
The fact that their impulse is to get their donors opinions instead of their constituents is why they need to be primaries.
leaving the party altogether
Don’t let the door hit you in the ass.
All these Bloombergcrats just piled into the party a few years ago, then realized Epstein wasn’t around anymore and decided to bail.
Exactly, the only question anybody needs to be asking them is who’s interests do you actually represent? Because it’s become increasingly obvious that donors of certain Dems have basically hired them to fumble the ball and enable Republicans stay in power.
I think American Oligarchs realized decades ago that creating the conditions that lead to voter apathy and provide credibility to “both sides” arguments, would probably be a cheaper and more effective strategy than convincing a majority of people to actually vote against their own interests.
Not to mention this threat to leave the party bullshit is basically the same as the threat to leave California and NYC bc of wealth tax. Fucking go then and don’t let the door hit you on the way out, because you’re probably responsible for ~95% of the problem. All you’ve done is exploit people and help weaken democracy.
Anybody who believes it makes a lick of fucking sense to keep pretending the U.S. is the greatest country in the world and social safety nets are unnecessary, (while most Americans are now struggling to afford groceries, let alone healthcare and education), has already switched teams. They might as well put on their “corporations R people 2!” jersey and own who they’ve been representing this whole time.
Anybody who believes it makes a lick of fucking sense to keep pretending the U.S. is the greatest country in the world and social safety nets are unnecessary…has already switched teams.
YUP. And the most infuriating part is that, since about Reagan, the left bave been the ones that been told we must acquiesce to centrists, that we couldn’t win elections without, “moderates,” that we had to accommodate Clinton and the third-way crowd.
Now, after a decade of slow declined followed by a decade of rapid collapse, it’s clear that the centrists can’t win in this political landscape. Do the party leades see where the wind is blowing, listen to the voters, follow the progressives’ victories, and tack to the left? Nope! They act as though pushing for social spending and welfare programs, AKA what the Democratic party stood for since FDR, is some sort of betrayal.
Moving to the right? “Look, we need a big tent, but we’re all on the same team!” Moving back to the left in the slightest? “Fuck you, I’m quitting the team.”
who’s interests do you actually represent?
Hmm, let’s see
they have recently begun having serious conversations with donors about leaving the party altogether.
Not a word there about constituents.
“Are we going to let them take over the party?”
They fuggen better
They’re not going to “let them” do anything. The progressives are taking over the party whether the establishment want them to or not, because the progressives are the ones with their voters’ needs in mind, who serve their constituents over corporate donors.
The mandate from the masses, the consent of the governed, all those lofty ideals that underpin democracy give the advantage to progressives. The only way the Democratic Party establishment holds onto power over the next few election cycles is by abandoning democracy.
They don’t have a choice. They are part of the machinery at this point.
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable.”
– Franklin Deleanor Roosevelt, leader of the Democratic party at its most popular and most powerful
They should try to heed the wisdom of their predecessor, or they can instead demonstrate how far the party has fallen.
Delano*
His wife was Eleanor, which I think is why people fuck up his middle name all the time.
Who was a brilliant god damned mind in her own right!
Let them take over? You must not be familiar with how a republic works.
Well therein lies the difficulty of the timing of this matter. If the Dems decide that democracy isn’t working out for them they might be open to Trumps plans to dismantle the democracy.
Seems like they already are.
Democratic elections happening and selecting candidates that aren’t from your carefully prepared inner circle? Unbelievable! It was the their turn?!!
Guards!! GUARDS!!!
Ideally? Yes! This needed to happen when the Tea Party took over the Republicans, it’s long overdue!
AIPAC and fascist Israeli interests are not welcome. Bye Felicia
Lmao no you stupid idiots, you killed the party through years of hard work.
Lack thereof.
If you want to win the next election, I’d advise you to seriously consider it.
Controlled opposition cries that actual opposition is taking some Ws. Keep them crying. Or just hang them.
“Let”
Who is the party? The constituents or the blowhards at the top and the army of consultants suckling off the teet of their donors? Great litmus test to admit Democratic voters don’t matter. Let’s see how many wanna commit to that.
They’d better
“Oh my God! What if they take over and start doing things that actually benefit people?”
Won’t somebody think of the rich donors!?
sharpening guillotine blade
Mmm rich donors.
Democrat Socialists should just form a new party on their own.
Nah, the tea party, and later maga, showed us the way. You can get tangible results taking over the party pretending to be on your side.
Why?
To break free of all the existing notions of what people think the Democrats are about.
I don’t believe it can work. Parties with ideas more popular than the Democrats or Republicans have cropped up many times in the past, but have never won in large numbers or in a way that lasts primarily because:
- The electoral system in USA is such that 3rd parties cannot gain traction because in a “winner-takes-all” system, there is no possibility of partial wins so the new party can’t ramp up.
- Election wins rely almost entirely on name recognition and popularity, which takes much more than one election cycle to build. Democrats and Republicans have a 250-year headstart on their media apparatus; villagers in huts on remote islands even know of those parties.
- Propaganda has lead to constituents regarding their party much like their religion. They often do not take lightly the idea of voting outside of their party.
- US federal politics is not financed publicly and takes a constant fortune to maintain. Our campaign financing laws have been gutted, and the remaining ones have little enforcement, so now even one rich guy can finance a pet candidate while other candidates have the pound the pavement searching for financing, and need to make a solid sales pitch for each dollar they get. Investors do not like uncertainty, and they like consumer protections and taxes even less, so the people that have the money will not finance the people nobody’s heard of or they think might implement those things on them.
So, if you want to actually win and make a difference without being in one of those parties, you have to conquer them then say you are them.
Bad idea. The system in the US is so bad that more than two parties aren’t viable and the brand recognition of the Democratic party is so huge that it’s better to take it over.
If you can’t take over the Democrats, then you can’t politics.
The problem is that the current two parties have so much money coming in from our oligarchs. That’s why the Republicans have turned to fascism because they were even more susceptible to corruption than a lot of the Democrats.
I don’t know if there’s a single Republican that isn’t beholden to our oligarchs. Maybe there is but I’m just not aware.
I am aware of a couple like AOC and Bernie, who as far as I can tell are really not beholden to the oligarchs.
And that’s also true of this new social Democratic movement.
The problem is that the oligarchs gives so much power to those that they’re able to corrupt that it is an uphill battle, even with the support.
The propaganda countering real progress is so strong because it is so friendly supported by our oligarch.
So I just don’t find a statement like yours fair. Because it’s such an uphill battle and an unfair battle. If it was a fair battle I would agree. They should be able to win if they get support.
But even if they get support, the oligarchs are able to throw so much money against them that I don’t know if we can take over the party. I hope they can but I don’t know if they can
Counterpoint, there wasn’t always a dem and Republicans party. There used to be different parties in the two party system. If the brand recognition is good, but it’s seen as bad, then making a new party to turn the existing one fringe isn’t such a crazy idea. Let’s see if it’s actually necessary though
The system in the US is so bad that more than two parties aren’t viable
More than one is barely viable. The idea of a two-party system hasn’t been practical since Obama won in '08. Gerrymandering and voter caging has isolated the minority party in nearly every state. US is a confederacy of single-party dictatorships, for the most part.
Just call themselves the New Democratic Party. Maybe make their colours orange.
You sneaky Canadian.
Socialists should actually just have a revolution and rewrite the constitution to prevent reactionaries like the DNC and GOP from ever holding political power ever again.
Without securing a popular mandate through an election? People are tired of elites rewriting the rules, how exactly is a vanguard going to be viewed as legitimate?
If that’s what the people want, yes.
