Progressives Have the Answers to Transform the Democratic Party
Progressives Have the Answers to Transform the Democratic Party
The Democratic Party cannot afford to continue losing its connection to the working class. Failing to respond with bold action, clear reforms, and a commitment to the priorities of working families will all but guarantee further electoral losses.
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The DNC and the rest of the Dem establishment would rather lose than adopt any meaningful progressivism or allow for a progressive candidate.
Their primary motivation, and quite possibly their only motivation, is collecting as much soft money as possible.
And that interest is actually well served by losing, and in fact, that appears to be their preference. If they lose, then they don't need to run in the next election on any platform other than stopping the Republicans from causing even more harm, which saves them having to promise their supporters things that they'll then have to arrange to somehow fail to deliver even if they have a majority. It's easier just to lose, then to run merely on being "not Republicans."
And the one thing that would upset that gravy train is ending up with an actual progressive in a powerful position. A progressive would not only promise things the establishment democrats would prefer to not even mention, but would mean it. And even worse yet, they'd then try to actually deliver on their promises. And that would alienate the big money, which pays for policies that favor themselves, and most assuredly NOT policies that favor the common people.
So yes - if the Democrats want to win, they self-evidently need to appeal to progressives. But that's been the case since 2016, and it's made zero difference and it's going to continue to make zero difference, because they'd rather lose than adopt any meaningful progressivism.
Need a third party so so badly. Even if not to win just to make the point that neoliberalism isn't a progressive cause.
It's fledgling, but check out https://www.votelabor.org/ It's a small but growing group of Americans who want to start a party that advocates for the working class. I jumped in yesterday and am gonna try to do my part. There's channels for every state to organize amongst their state peers, national channels for overall organization, policy discussions currently under debate, and desire to start getting people on ballots and in seats as soon as possible
There's nothing on that website about who runs that party.
It had better not be the unions. Most US labor unions are just as compromised as the Democrats. That's a lasting legacy from the Red Scare and also working-class white racism.
I'm probably not the best person to explain the party's structure because I am just some degen who finally got mad enough at the world to pull out of my depression doomscrolling, but my understanding is that it's not a party specifically owned/run by unions. Rather, the people running for office must run with the endorsement of at least one labor union, if not more. It was founded sometime in November by 3 people but they are currently working on registering the party and filling out structure, and plan to flesh out platform and policies post-holidays. FWIW, when I popped into the discord to see what was going on, it was like 580 people there, now a couple weeks later it's at 717. Their goal is to start getting people on ballots at the local levels as soon as possible, ideally challenging unopposed Rep/Dem candidates, and only later after there are many Labor Party candidates in offices nationwide will they try for a presidential nominee. Until then, there are channels for every state so people can organize with their state peers. I recognize that it is a young party and it's hard to say how things will go, but it feels better to work with them on what the workers in this nation need instead of melting further into my couch while reading yet another headline about Dems not following through and Repubs being sadistic pedophilic billie-sucking fucks.
I really got swept up in the stop trump fever the last 5 years and really forgot about this. For some reason I was convinced they were the good guys.
What do you think can realistically be done, or will likely happen
Any solution to the Trump/MAGA/fascism problem is not going to involve the Democratic Party. It's too compromised. Their so-called centrists are already trying to cut deals with the Republicans (fuck you, Fetterman), and the rest are doing all they can to block the small progressive faction. They're like those teams that play the Globetrotters.
100% all of this