Any success of the Republican Party is a failure of the Democratic Party
The Democrats always capitulate, regardless of majority or mandate.
Donald Trump is in power, and so the Democrats are not responsible for whatever happens now. The Republicans are in power, so, they are the ones responsible for everything.
That’s a convenient myth. The Democrats have always enabled the Republicans, or at least not fought very hard against them. With Donald Trump in the White House, this is no different than it was before.
The Democrats confirmed Donald Trump’s cabinet. The Democrats voted for Heir Trump’s military budget. The Democrats could stop Sir Big Orange’s Supreme Court appointments, just like the Republicans did to them.
The Democrats could focus on issues that matter (according to public polls) like election integrity, economic justice, and big environmental solutions.
But again, they’re not fighting for real. They’re blaming Russia and the Republicans.
The Democrats could have changed after losing to Donald Trump. They didn’t. They elected Tom Perez to the DNC Chair, who purged progressives from party leadership.
After losing to Donald Trump, the Democratic Party could have said, “hey, what we’re doing is clearly not working. Let’s highlight a specific, unapologetic progressive platform — stuff that the majority of this country wants — like a living wage, universal healthcare, worker’s rights, an end to domestic spying, and an end to our wars around the world.”
Why haven’t they done that? It’s what they would do if they wanted to win and really “resist.”
The Democrats, if they were a real opposition party, would be organizing people into the streets. They aren’t. The Democrats, if they were a real opposition party, would be following in Bernie Sanders’ footsteps from his 2016 campaign — Bernie showed that you can tell the truth about the political opposition, stand for a popular agenda, and take on the entire political system. You can raise significant money from individuals, and also push for public funding of elections and a transparent political system — so that whoever raised the most money in the dark is not the most likely to get into political office.
Why won’t the Democrats do that? It would be all too easy if they did. I’m no paid political strategist, and I can see it. You can too.
Instead of blaming Russia, the Democrats could speak up about revamping the election system to make it secure and easy to vote. If election security were a real issue of concern, Democrats would be pushing frantically for paper ballots, more election observers, more polling places, open primaries, campaign finance reform, and so much else.
Nah. After losing to Donald Trump, and after the American people have endured two years of his abominable administration, the Democrats continue to shrug their shoulders and twiddle their thumbs.
The Democratic Party’s big secret
There’s a bit of rhetoric about the Democratic Party that even modern progressives buy into. It was once a “progressive” party, a “party of the people.” In support of this, progressives point to Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the New Deal. We refer to the “great American middle class,” which rose during the middle of the 20th-century and supposedly “became the envy of the world.”
But we are not often told that FDR and the Democratic Party were not responsible for the New Deal, and the New Deal was a compromise to labor and the left.
It took a combination of small parties, radical worker unions, and popular mass movements to force FDR and the Democratic Party to adopt political reforms.
Even still, these reforms were tame compared to what the outside forces wanted. The American Left and working class — once overlapping much more in a Venn diagram — won concessions from the Democratic Party. The party only gave concessions to quell rebellion.
As the Democratic Party passed the New Deal, and even afterwards, the party was still at odds with workers and the left. It was never a left or labor party — ever. The Democratic Party, as a party of the “ruling class,” was against labor and the left, and only surrendered the bare minimum to avoid being overthrown as a party.
Now, in an even more dire time, the Democratic Party won’t even go so far as the old New Deal.
Perhaps because progressives have been placated with a big lie. We have been tricked into believing that significant change comes through playing our enemy’s own game.
Entering the maze
Many progressives still look to Bernie Sanders and what he is currently doing, and fail to see beyond him. We look to Sanders, and how he is working within the Democratic Party, and we make a major mistake. We think this is what we must be doing right now, as well.
Bernie Sanders said, however, to use our own judgment, and not simply follow him. Anyone paying attention to his 2016 campaign surely noticed that, and must remember that.
But we make a mistake and see it as the only way. We look to change a political party that just a few decades ago, passed NAFTA, deregulated Wall Street, compromised “across the aisle” for endless war, built a POC-to-prison-pipeline, and consolidated the media into a corporate conglomerate.
There’s a reason Bernie Sanders remained Independent.
Instead of making something new, though, as a movement we are still trying to make the Democratic Party something different than what it’s always been. All power that remains in the hands of the super-rich, is concentrated into both major parties in the United States — including the Democratic Party.
We are begging a party to change, that has made it abundantly clear that they will do everything to keep progressives out, while co-opting their message to trick the masses. The Democrats project a popular message, very badly, and then, when in power, do virtually nothing good with it.
If the Democrats return to power in 2018, which is unlikely, or in 2020, which is slightly more possible, then progressives will be locked out of legislating, just as Nancy Pelosi recently and openly promised.
Why work in this party? The ones in power who will keep us out of power — they do not care if Trump wins or if anything changes.
It will not matter if Nancy Pelosi, or Tom Perez for that matter, is replaced with another individual. The party establishment gets to choose who is in power in the party. They will replace Pelosi, Perez, or whoever else is powerful, with different individuals, who serve the same purpose and do the same thing.
Do not be deceived, either, that the Democratic Party can, or even “should,” return to what it “once” was. The party may have grown more sickening in the past many decades — but it was never a party of the people. We need something new.
The real political revolution
Instead of simply reforming the Democrats, the strategy we must embrace is a mass movement independent of the Democratic Party. Preferably one that would culminate into its own, new party. This is how change happened in the past, and it is how change must happen now.
The party must be pressured intensely, from the outside, which we are not doing right now. It must be threatened with replacement.
This is no less possible than “reforming” the party. But it will require the kind of effort we have been pouring inside the party — and taking it outside the party.
No concession
What the people want is what the major parties will not give. Trying to replace the neoliberal Democrats from the inside will be unsuccessful, because they control the inside of the party. And if it is successful, it will take too long. So, it is not a viable strategy.
The Democratic Party is a sponge to any “progressive” wave — historically, now, and forever. It’s a trap, so we must do something else.
They do not control the outside of the party.
New left parties are replacing establishment parties around the world. Despite major challenges and setbacks, this recently happened in Mexico in just six years.
That’s about the time it would take to replace some neoliberal Democratic Senators, with progressive Democrats, if we continue working within the party. And that’s a big maybe.
Bernie Sanders in 2016 nearly built a new party. It took one year. If we harness that kind of energy we saw in 2016, into building a new coalition party, where we will not be stopped by our own “allies” — then like Sanders repeated in his 2016 campaign, there is nothing we cannot do.
The alternative is just to keep voting blue. Then we can get a few things we want… eventually, maybe. Then, when that is not enough, the far-right will take power, just as they have. And the Democrats, and all who continued to support them, will have their hand in a fake resistance and failed political revolution.
Help us build the new. Volunteer with Movement for a People’s Party.
