Democrats Need to Change if They Want a Future

Since the 2016 loss of Hillary Clinton the Democratic establishment continue to be asked who is the leader of the party? Most are reluctant to answer because they know in the eye of the constituents the only acceptable answer is Bernie Sanders. The Vermont senator continues polling more popular than any other political figure in America, and has for 2 years now disproving the claim his popularity was unsustainable. Sanders is also the only politician that consistently receives positive favorability ratings by not only among Democrats, and Independents, but Republicans as well. In addition to his personal popularity, the progressive policy ideas he advocates are just as popular, if not more popular than the senator. There is one number that stands out above all the rest 80, that’s the percentage of Democrats in favor of Bernie Sanders.

Despite Senator Sanders popularity within the party the Democratic Establishment has been far less accepting of his ideology. Unfortunately for Democrats their reluctance to move in a progressive direction accompanied by nonstop Russia talk is costing politically. According to a Washington Post-ABC poll (4/17-4/20) 67 percent of Americans believe the Democratic Party is out of touch, including 44 percent of their own base, and 81 percent of Independents. Even worse when voters are asked if they would vote for Hillary Clinton again only 85 percent says they would. In comparison 96 percent of respondents that voted for Trump said they would still vote for the president, meaning he would win by a larger margin if the election were held today.

So why the stark difference, and why does Bernie outperform the other so handily? Well, to progressives the answer is quite simple, policy matters to Americans at least that what polls show. In contrast Russian conspiracy theories, blaming voters, and baseless sexism claims against Bernie Sanders supporters are pushing them away.

For example Senator Sanders proposed single-payer bill that would expand Medicare to all Americans is supported by 62 percent of all voters including ¾ of all Democrats. In fact during the 2016 Democratic Primary Vox conducted a poll showing nearly all Bernie Sanders policies ideas were popular with the majority of Americans, the exception being his stance opposing the death penalty.

The Democratic Establishment continue to refuse to accept responsibility for the decimation of the party, furthermore they are in denial that the party actually suffered such losses. Corporate Democrats have been allowed free reign over the direction of the party without any accountability the losses accrued over the past 8 years. It's time to begin holding Establishment Democrats accountable for their failures, and refusals to back popular progressive ideas.

The popularity of the Progressive Movement has reached an all time high, and groups like Justice Democrats, and Brand New Congress plan on taking full advantage of this in the 2018 primaries. Corporate Democrats reacted with panic over the possibility of being challenged by progressives in the primaries with baseless attacks, and fear mongering. Unfortunately this panic isn't leading to the Democratic Establishment making any real change, instead they continue to offer cliches and platitudes while begging for unity. What the establishment fails realize is that their constituents are not going to rally behind the ideas of the donors that control them. Going forward progressive will no longer compromise their values in order to back candidates running on losing ideas, because issues matter to them. Democrats are either going to have to change the policies they are in favor of or face a primary challenger who represents constituents instead of big money donors. It's important to look at the Democrats who are facing reelection in 2018 and see how they react to the will of the people.

One of these Democrats that is facing reelection in 2018 is Senator Claire McCaskill. A few weeks ago McCaskill tried to get Bernie Sanders supporters who she +chastise in primaries to back her, begging them for support. Unfortunately for the senator Sanders supporters not only remember the poor treatment she dished out, they actually pay attention to her current actions, and comments. There are some big problems progressives have with McCaskill, and they are all policy related. The big 3 for progressives are corrupt money in politics, single payer, and universal college.

Although the 3 issues are important to winning over progressives McCaskill opposes all of them, and uses weak excuses to defend herself. In a recent town hall a constituent asked if the senator supported single payer Medicare for all, her response was insulting. McCaskill responded with Republican talking points, saying there is problems paying for it right now

The Democratic Party, and DNC have some major internal leadership problems standing in the way of progress. Tom Perez isn't a real leader, he only ran for chair after Obama, and the corporatists gave him the order. Additionally the party needs to coalesce around a real message, and ditch the nonsensical platitudes, and clichés that have caused Americans to lose interest in the party.

Then there is the all-important issue of campaign Finance reform you cannot claim to be a party of the working class when you take large donations from Wall Street Banks and large corporations. As a result they suffered significant losses across all levels of government over the last eight years leaving the party decimated. For this reason, these issues must be addressed immediately. Democrats have two big issues that must be corrected in order to run successful campaigns. First, they might change the way campaigns fundraise; The Establishment Democrats will continue losing for the foreseeable future as long as they continue to take corporate money.
Otherwise recapturing majorities in state, local, and federal government will remain a challenge for the search foreseeable future.

Trump is absolutely beatable, in fact if the right progressive runs a landslide is likely. Unfortunately those running the party currently are so incompetence the still haven't figured out Hillary Clinton lost because she was a weak candidate. Democrats can blame Russia and James Comey all they want but these are little more than distractions and the American people have caught onto this already. Fooling conservative voters it's absolutely easy, fooling Progressive voters practically impossible.

The Democratic Party continues to lose more and more seats despite having a huge demographic advantage. That's specifically because The Democratic Establishment refuse to run on a progressives message. The polls continue to show Bernie Sanders is not only the most popular politician in the country, he's the only one with a positive favorability rating. The time has come for progressives to draw their own Line in the Sand. It's time to issue an ultimatum to the Democratic establishment fall in line or leave office. Progressives must demand specific issues all politicians and candidates must support from here on out these non-negotiable. These issues consist of legislation, financial limitation guidelines, and a personal ethical code of conduct. All Democrats need to be forced to stop taking money from Wall Street, billionaire donors, and multinational corporations without exception. Otherwise nothing will ever change, and politicians will only remain loyal to their rich donors.