Oh yes, the Democratic Party is an antidemocratic capitalist party that will fight democratization to its death. There is actually an even better example, which is lefties taking over the party in Nevada via their own official process, simply organizing people to jump through the hoops Dems had set up. In response, the Dems defunded the party and built shadow campaigns with the money, then changed its rules so they could remove the lefties.
At the same time, Americans only understand politics in terms of electoralism. So the fact that they are doing the exact opposite of what a voting block should be doing to establish itself short circuits the pro-genocide “but actually it’s smart to vote blue no matter who” self-defeating logic.
Yes! Thisis from when there was a primary fight for Bernie and there were a lot of new people trying to figure out how things work and organize. The DSA in the state did a decent job organizing people to follow the primary process to gain seats exactly by the rules. Dems fought them for years and years, making it very clear that there is no space in the party for any left contingent with any influence. The first thing they did was mass quit and then take/hide the funds. This was from the “unity” group in the state, too, lmao.
I had to go back and google a bit to find examples as I followed this in real time, more or less. I’m sure there are better ones. But here are some examples.
It’s an important lesson that unfortunately must be taught over and over again, viscerally, for people to actually believe it: liberals will fight the left far harder than they will fight overt reactionaries.
Oh yes, the Democratic Party is an antidemocratic capitalist party that will fight democratization to its death. There is actually an even better example, which is lefties taking over the party in Nevada via their own official process, simply organizing people to jump through the hoops Dems had set up. In response, the Dems defunded the party and built shadow campaigns with the money, then changed its rules so they could remove the lefties.
At the same time, Americans only understand politics in terms of electoralism. So the fact that they are doing the exact opposite of what a voting block should be doing to establish itself short circuits the pro-genocide “but actually it’s smart to vote blue no matter who” self-defeating logic.
This story sounds familiar but I’m struggling to remember when it happened? Was this a 2020 thing?
Yes! Thisis from when there was a primary fight for Bernie and there were a lot of new people trying to figure out how things work and organize. The DSA in the state did a decent job organizing people to follow the primary process to gain seats exactly by the rules. Dems fought them for years and years, making it very clear that there is no space in the party for any left contingent with any influence. The first thing they did was mass quit and then take/hide the funds. This was from the “unity” group in the state, too, lmao.
I had to go back and google a bit to find examples as I followed this in real time, more or less. I’m sure there are better ones. But here are some examples.
An article from 2021 talking about how the bureaucrats in the party mass-quit: https://theintercept.com/2021/03/08/nevada-democratic-party-dsa/
And a liberal follow-up of how the party reasserted itself two years later: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/democratic-socialists-swept-power-nevada-judith-whitmer-rcna72905
And a neo-Trotskyist take that from both periods: https://socialistcall.com/2021/04/24/dsa-democratic-party-nevada-takeover/ and https://socialistcall.com/2023/08/02/independent-party-dsa-convention-proposal/ . If you’re not used to neo-Trotskyists, one of the things they love to do is write long essays and what “should be done” without funneling frustration into practical work. But they do have okay insider info sometimes.
And more neo-Trotskyists lol sorry for listing so many, other groups with better ideas are generally dismissive of the attempt and don’t write long-winded articles on it like Trots do: https://www.socialistalternative.org/2023/06/29/pulling-out-the-rug-what-happened-after-dsa-and-bernie-supporters-took-over-the-nevada-democratic-party/
It’s an important lesson that unfortunately must be taught over and over again, viscerally, for people to actually believe it: liberals will fight the left far harder than they will fight overt reactionaries.