How a Sanders 2020 Endorsement Will Hurt DSA
From my perspective as a DSA member and leader, it seems everyone is talking about Bernie Sanders 2020 right now. I receive emails from DSA at the national level excitedly promoting his campaign announcement and telling us how urgently we should endorse him. There are proposals to relegate a large portion of DSA resources into a Sanders run, with what seems to be the assumption that a DSA endorsement is both inevitable and the best course of action.
What I’ve seen from general membership in chapters, however, diverges from the narrative of grassroots excitement. Members that openly support Bernie’s run have concerns with what an endorsement means for DSA’s limited resources and their expectation for general membership, especially smaller chapters. Members who can’t find enough to agree with in the Sanders platform are confused and frustrated with the push for accelerated endorsement.
It is worth taking the time to discuss concerns with the Sanders 2020 platform, Bernie’s history and potential, and to deconstruct some assumptions that a pro-endorsement stance makes.
Sanders will win or lose regardless of our endorsement
While DSA certainly has recently shown that we can punch above our weight class in the arena of political activism, the fact is that we are 55,000 people — virtually entirely volunteers with lives, jobs, families and responsibilities outside of DSA. Sanders and his campaign will have the support of much larger, better funded organizations that actually can make a difference in the election. As an organization with limited resources at our disposal, understanding the level of impact we can have on the working class per dollar or hour spent must be a vital part of our decision making. DSA would not make a significant impact and therefore should focus on issues where we can create change and build socialism.
When Sanders flounders, it will destroy organizations who attempted to build their entire membership and organizing around him
Since DSA has no practical influence over Sanders and his policies, and he has shown that he will give in to the Democratic Party if pushed enough (remember, he did endorse Clinton in the general), it is reasonable to assume that if he does manage to win the presidency he will not meet our expectations and will not bring sweeping change to the material conditions of the working class in the United States or abroad. If we build DSA around one single person and their campaign, we will suffer along with the candidate when they lose public trust and attention. An organization not so strongly focused on one fallible person is a stronger and more adaptable one — one that can continue to grow and effect change far beyond any single election.
Even if Sanders is somehow seen as successful — If he wins, and is relatively popular (which granted is all rather unlikely) his victory will constrain what socialism could actually be, and limit DSA in our ability to move towards worker control of the means of production — which is our ultimate goal as socialists.
Electoral focus should be on local candidates
Socialism is built from the bottom up. Regardless of the proportion of our work that is electoral, that work should focus on campaigns where corporate propaganda and mudslinging are easier to overcome — where we can push genuinely socialist candidates and ballot initiatives instead of half-measures and compromises. While compromises are sometimes necessary to a degree in electoral politics, they are inherently demobilizing, and more prevalent in campaigns for more powerful positions.
Local chapters are more likely to succeed and grow pursuing local elections. Members of locals develop practical electoral skills in campaigns where they have more access to the candidate and organization of the campaign — something that is unreasonable to expect in a presidential election.
Smaller chapters are already feeling overlooked — A Sanders endorsement will only exacerbate the issue
Much of the frustration with the Sanders endorsement process seems to come from smaller chapters and chapters in rural areas. These chapters already feel left out, overlooked or misunderstood by the organization as a whole. This rushed endorsement process where chapters and membership get little to no actual say is only increasing the disconnect between our smaller and newer chapters and DSA as a whole.
Our smaller chapters are also worried about the expectations that might be placed on us by a National Bernie Sanders campaign. We do not have sufficient political power to influence a national campaign, and are already struggling with finances, engaging members, and building our chapters. The fear that a Sanders endorsement would become a priority over the needs and priorities of smaller chapters is not without precedent. Even if the endorsement ends up happening, it needs to be exceedingly transparent, specific and democratic in order to involve the voices and concerns of new and small chapters.
Bernie Sanders and his policies are contradictory to the goals of DSA.
Sanders is not a socialist. We can debate all day and night about whether he was a socialist at one point or if somewhere deep in his heart he is a socialist, but the reality is that his policies are not socialist in nature. Many of his policies and statements are directly contradictory to building socialism and to the priorities of DSA and the working class. His support for United States imperialism is a particularly timely example of an area where Sanders consistently fails socialist movements. While many points on his platform would genuinely improve the material conditions for the working class while also removing some power from the ruling class, they are social democratic reforms and not something that should cause us to overlook his problematic aspects. An endorsement is accepting the candidate wholesale. DSA should continue to fight for the issues that matter to us, and support Sanders where they overlap, but this does not need to involve an endorsement of the candidate.
A Sanders endorsement does NOT guarantee a massive surge in membership
During the last presidential election, DSA experienced unprecedented membership growth. Generally speaking, this growth is attributed entirely to Bernie Sanders. I think it is fair to say that the majority of that surge in growth was directly or indirectly related to his campaign. I think a lot of the growth also has a lot to do with Donald Trump, the general political climate at the time, and leftists seeking a leftist organization in their area and wanting to find a place to organize. Also, many chapters saw a surge in growth with membership that then fell off the radar shortly after the presidential election. Members that show up to a meeting or two and disappear are not the members we should be dedicating so much time, labor and money into finding. While there is something to be said for retaining active membership being the responsibility of the local, the burden can’t be placed solely on brand new chapters.
That was 2016. A major political turning point in the United States. With how rapidly situations are changing and how different DSA has become, assuming that repeating one variable from 2016 will lead to identical results for DSA is foolish.
Additionally, DSA is still reeling from the massive growth of 2016. While this growth is a positive change, we are still learning how to adapt our dated structures to accommodate tens of thousands more members across a much wider geographical and ideological range while maintaining a grassroots, democratic organization. I do not believe that we particularly need another membership surge of that size until we have adapted and made the most of the membership we already have.
We should look more towards methods of strengthening and growing our membership from the ground up — this means more support for smaller chapters, organizing committees and local elections as well as bridging gaps between national and local levels of organizing. Some of these issues we can work through at the National Convention this year — where I fully expect to see a lot of changes voted in. Therefore, while I am entirely against an endorsement at any time, I am also in support of delaying any final decision until the convention in August where delegates will have the opportunity to make a decision that will affect the organization much more in the time following the convention than the time between today and August 2.
