In the wake of this month’s devastating election loss for Democrats in Indiana and at the federal level, we’ve seen a whole lot of finger-pointing (and a whole lot less self-reflection) from prominent Democratic pundits, consultants, and elected officials. I talked about this a little bit last week. Biden loyalists think they could’ve dragged their guy to one more win, like Weekend at Bernie’s takes Washington. Nancy Pelosi’s people think Joe hung on too long. The K-Hive thinks they were dealt a bad hand. Clinton and Obama machine cogs all have their own take. Of course, few take responsibility for their part in driving us to the precipice.
Some folks - who I happen to agree with - like Senator Bernie Sanders, argue that Democrats have failed to stand up for the working class by adopting neoliberal economic policies. Mainstream liberals like Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy are beginning to see this, and even stereotypical elitist conservative pundit David Brooks is writing populist class analysis in the New York Times.
Some, in the professional centrist class, blame the party for going too “woke” - MSNBC’s Morning Joe spent a whole week throwing trans folks under the proverbial bus and backing over them repeatedly. New York Congressmen Tom Suozzi whined, “The Democrats have to stop pandering to the far left. I don’t want to discriminate against anybody, but I don’t think biological boys should be playing in girls’ sports.” Seth Moulton of Massachusetts bleated, “I have two little girls. I don’t want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete, but as a Democrat, I’m supposed to be afraid to say that.”
To Joe and Mika, Suozzi, and Moulton - fuck you, fuck you, and fuck you. Look, you can stand up for the working class without betraying the most vulnerable among us. Watch. “I believe in freedom. I don’t think the government should dictate what medical treatment is appropriate for an individual. That is a private matter between a person, their family, and their healthcare provider. The real question is, why do Republicans want to direct your anger at such an incredibly small and powerless minority, less than 1% of the population, when it is a different 1% of the population - their donors - that are hoarding the country’s wealth and actively making your lives more difficult.” See? Not so hard. Assholes.
Some are giving up on elected politics, and the Democratic Party, entirely. With top Democrats embracing Goldman Sachs economics, the Cheneys’ hawkish militarism, and Israeli genocidal impunity, many progressives feel like they don’t have a home. They’ll continue their activism and organizing outside of the party system.
To those people, and other disillusioned Democrats on the left of the party, I offer you this: the party is an empty shell. It is morally ambiguous. It is a superstructure that is no better or worse than the people that make it up - a hulking, rusty battleship locked in eternal struggle with the other hulking, rusty battleship in our two-party system. Current leadership at the DNC at in the Indiana Democratic Party has let us, and the nation, down. They can, and should be removed and replaced with real progressives. But that doesn’t happen on its own - it will take a vanguard of likeminded people like us to overtake the controls.
I spoke with Monroe County Democratic Party Chair David Henry in February of this year. We talked about his day job as a Homeland Security Instructor at the IU O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, and his campaign for a seat on the County Council, but spent most of our time talking about the inner workings of the Democratic Party. How is it set up and how could a new generation of economic populist progressives commandeer this vessel and steer it on a new course?
The interview has been remastered with improved sound quality and now there’s video, too. Before we jump to it, PLEASE consider supporting HoosLeft with a paid subscription.
Once again that was Monroe County Democratic Party Chair David Henry, and he won that seat on the County Council in this year’s general election. This, with only minor revision, is what I said at the end of the original episode.
I come across way too many partisan cheerleaders and not enough Democratic leaders willing to focus a critical eye on those at the top of the party. This is a guy who gets it, a progressive who came into the party from Indivisible, from the Sanders camp. And he understands that this is a very long game. I’m glad we have someone like him here.
And we all have to understand that. There are no quick fixes. And I reject the premise we have to blow the whole thing up and start over. I think that leads down the road to an openly Christofascist dictatorship. Accelerationism is doom. Especially in the face of an unconstrained 2nd Trump presidency, all of us are going to have to pull together.
Republicans built the machine that is currently chipping away at our Democracy over more than 50 years. In 1971, Lewis Powell, whom Nixon would nominate to the Supreme Court the following year, drew up the blueprint for complete corporate oligarchic control of the country in a memo to the US Chamber of Commerce. Through a series of think tanks and foundations - and with LOTS of money from the Koch, Olin, Bradley, DeVos and Coors families, among others - economic elites shepherded the power of, as David mentioned, white evangelical Christian extremism using race, and then abortion, as a wedge issue. They understood this may take decades and the oligarchs finally got what they wanted - legalized political bribery - in 2010’s Citizens United case. The religious zealots had to wait a dozen more years for Dobbs.
The left better damn well understand this, but we don’t need to reinvent the wheel. The party’s foundation is rotten, but the house has good bones. Let’s not waste a ton of time, energy, and money building a new structure from scratch. By the time we have the skeleton built, MAGA extremists might burn it down.
I know it might not be a popular opinion, but if leftists like us want to remake this country in our image, we restart by remaking the Democratic Party in our image. Do you live in a county with no party chair? How about you? Is there an opening for precinct committeeperson where you live? Fill it. There isn’t? Run next time. Show up. Make calls. Stop waiting for a savior. It’s you. You’re the savior. Together, we must save ourselves.
Look, say you’re out on a hike and it starts to rain. Torrential downpour. You and your hiking partner each have a tent. Theirs is a pop-up and sets up in no time, but its a little leaky and not very big. Yours is nicer, brand new, all the features you wanted. But it takes some time to set up. They’re both big enough for two people, but just barely. You both cram into the pop-up, right? It might be uncomfortable and you might get a little wet. But you won’t get soaked. The sky is looking might dark come January. Get in. The only way to weather the storm is together.
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