Stop trusting the DNC
We have no reason to believe their gestures and promises.
Two months ago it was reported that the Democratic National Committee (DNC), which structures the rules and bylaws of the Democratic Party, was “quietly” passing a measure to ban money from the fossil fuel industry.
This should have immediately raised suspicion (and it did among some) because why would the DNC do this “quietly” when such an action would gain party support among progressives and independents, the voters who are desperately needed by the Democratic Party to revive itself and win elections?
Indeed, that was the question asked by so many progressives on my twitter feed: Why would you do this quietly, @DNC, when it’s such a good thing, and would also improve your party’s position in the eyes of the public??
Progressives were boggled by the action, and I understand the confusion, because it seems to defy all logic.
And yet despite the confusion, the fossil fuel ban was something we wanted to believe. Many were quick to adopt the belief. It’s really happening, and so despite that it was done “quietly,” this is a good thing.
The DNC is going to ban fossil fuel money! That would be a real act and gesture of change. Maybe they are starting to “get it,” maybe they really are the “good guys” in this battle — who are finally seeing the error of their ways, and trying to make amends with progressives and independent voters.
The desperate eagerness and quick acceptance explains a new round of surprise and confusion when yesterday, it was reported that the DNC overwhelmingly voted to reverse this ban on fossil fuel money.
The resolution was supported by DNC Chair, Tom Perez, but not only that, it was sponsored by him. Tom Perez and others in the DNC also cloaked this resolution in pro-labor rhetoric, as if this measure was being implemented to help workers of the world and “unite” the party.
Ahh, how brief it was that the DNC was sensible. But that overwhelming vote to re-allow fossil money into their coffers shows that the DNC and Democratic Party never intended to ban fossil fuel money in the first place. It’s not a “pro-labor” act, it is simply to keep a stream of dirty fossil fuel revenue flowing into the Democratic Party.
If you weren’t skeptical of the initial resolution to ban fossil money, this quick and overwhelming reversal should revive a heavy skepticism of the DNC and Democratic Party.
Not just because it’s the truth. Also because it hurts. It’s not fun, it’s quite painful and disappointing actually, to be fooled like this over and over again.
It is upsetting and discouraging to be let down, so many times, by what you believe is the only option and the only hope for political change.
Anyone who believed the DNC when they first reported the ban on fossil fuel money… well, frankly, shouldn’t have. On these matters it is better to be skeptical of the powerful and trust your instincts. The first tell-tale sign that shouldn’t have been ignored, or swept under the rug, was the DNC’s initial taking this action “quietly.” It was bizarre, and there’s a reason why it was bizarre.
It was a lie! It was fake. It was a fake-out, to trick people into supporting the party just enough — without having to give up their close ties to big industry money.
The Democratic Party is not only willing but eager to take dark and dirty money — even if it’s from the industry that is one of the prime drivers of ecosystem collapse. The fossil fuel industry is causing harm to millions of people around the world right now who are already feeling the devastating consequences of climate change. The fossil fuel industry has known about climate change and its consequences for decades, and yet covers it up and carries on.
Climate change has already destroyed and will continue to destroy wildlife around the planet, and climate change calls into question the very future of human life of Earth.
This is not “pro-worker.”
The Democratic Party, and thus its central ruling committee the DNC, are not on our side. They are not going to stop taking big money, they are not going to help us or save us. They are going to keep us out and stop change. Because that’s their job! And it benefits them, and especially those they answer to.
It’s not impossible to make political change. The point is that we must do things differently than what we’ve been doing, because what we’ve been doing isn’t working.
The only reason the people in power would ever change is if they were pressured intensely to change. And if they still don’t change, they must be replaced.
I’m not just talking about the party officials. I’m referring to the entire Democratic Party.
The party elite and the party itself do not care a whole lot about winning or losing elections. We cannot accept the false narrative that they will simply do what it takes to win.
It is obviously not true. If the Democratic Party really did care so much about winning elections, the party would have changed a lot by now — after losing so many legislative seats under Barack Obama, and after losing the presidency to Donald Trump.
If they cared so much about winning the support of the American people, this fossil fuel reversal is just another one of so many things they would not be doing right now.
What should be clear by now is that the ones at the top of the Democratic Party would rather ally with Republicans and big industry than progressives, the left, and the American people.
They’d rather have Republicans in power than progressives. So that’s who they would rather lose to, even if it means losing.
Because losing elections is not really “losing” to them. Their life conditions will not change very much, if at all, if those elections are lost to Republicans. But if they lost those elections to the people of the United States — then their power, privilege, and position would be lost.
That’s why winning elections and winning support is not their number one priority. “Doing the right thing” is certainly not their high priority, either.
The DNC’s good-will gestures — like their short-lived ban on fossil funds — and just like their “major step to reduce the role of superdelegates”— are lies. They’re lying. And they are going to keep lying.
To those of us who know better, they know we know better. And they are still lying, straight to our face.
When we realize, however, that Lucy is gonna pull the football back from Charlie Brown — every time — it is not only personally relieving, it allows us to move on and forge a better strategy.
We stop trying to kick the football. We stop believing them entirely. And when we stop that, and when we build something better in its place — that will be the political revolution, for real.
“In so many ways we are taught to think small… but now is the time to think big, not small.”
— Bernie Sanders, (I)
