cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/22940159
Bernie Sanders caused a stir last week, when the independent senator from Vermont and two-time contender for the Democratic presidential nomination sent a post-election email to his progressive supporters across the country. In it, he argued that the Democrats suffered politically in 2024 at least in part because they ran a campaign that focused on “protecting the status quo and tinkering around the edges.”
In contrast, said Sanders, “Trump and the Republicans campaigned on change and on smashing the existing order.” Yes, he explained, “the ‘change’ that Republicans will bring about will make a bad situation worse, and a society of gross inequality even more unequal, more unjust and more bigoted.”
Despite that the reality of the threat they posed, Trump and the Republicans still won a narrow popular-vote victory for the presidency, along with control of the US House. That result has inspired an intense debate over the future direction not just of the Democratic Party but of the country. And the senator from Vermont is in the thick of it.
In his email, Sanders, a member of the Senate Democratic Caucus who campaigned in states across the country this fall for Vice President Kamala Harris and the Democratic ticket, asked a blunt question: “Will the Democratic leadership learn the lessons of their defeat and create a party that stands with the working class and is prepared to take on the enormously powerful special interests that dominate our economy, our media and our political life?”
His answer: “Highly unlikely. They are much too wedded to the billionaires and corporate interests that fund their campaigns.”
Change that to take over the Democratic party and you got a good idea.
First past the post kills third parties mathematically.
Then people need to abandon the DNC and form another option. Reform from within is fantasy, the current power structure will never allow anything that’s a threat to their existence
How do you plan to avoid the problem of abandoning the DNC causing Republicans, who are worse than Democrats, from gaining unmitigated power while said other party is gaining momentum?
Republicans are only worse in their rhetoric. They will openly declare their intent, then do it. Democrats omit the declaring part.
Protecting the status quo prolongs everyone’s suffering
That already has happened. What else you have to lose
Right now I live in a state with a Democratic governor, a Democratic state senate, and a Democratic majority on the state supreme court. And these three things are preventing major catastrophes here. So no, this has not already happened, and what I have to lose here is quite literally my life.
Then you have nothing to worry about, you’ve got yours, moving on then
“you can’t blame the voter! The DNC is at fault for not changing”
– literally any 3rd party lemming after the election
“Then people need to abandon the DNC and form another option.”
– literally any 3rd party lemming after the election
so which is it? can we blame the voters or can’t we?
Only if it helps to the narrative, if not, no
Dan Osborne ran competitively in a neglected Nebraska Senate race. It’s very common for Dems to entirely neglect seats, even whole states, and let winnable races languish.
Sanders candidates can (and did) win races like this in 2018 and 2020. The problem is that once a seat is “winnable”, lobbyists state money bombing primaries. Then you get shitty corporate Dems pushing leftists out and promptly losing those seats again.
I mean, running as a progressive within the Democratic Party already means you have to fight both parties. You have to fight the Democratic Party during the primaries, and you have to fight Republicans if Democrats somehow fail to keep you from winning the primaries. If you do win the primaries, you cannot count on the support of the Democratic Party in the general, as they prefer the Republican to beat you so they can run a centrist next time.
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