cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/22077561
“I’m not interested in anyone who is moving further away from the center,” said Cindy Bass, a Pennsylvania committee member from Philadelphia. “The center is where we have to be.”
They’re not going to change a thing unless people make them.
Find your local state delegate and personally tell them how you feel a centrist is only going to guarantee another Republican victory. They are listed here: https://ballotpedia.org/Democratic_National_Committee
Bernie Sanders is working behind the scenes to get a progressive in there but he can’t do it alone.
I love how they think the best way forward is to become the embodiment of the election strategy that just failed so spectacularly for Harris. Brilliant.
2016: “We don’t need to change! Look at our opponent, Trump!”
2020: “We’ll pretend to be M4A. But the main thing is beating Trump! Worry about change later!”
2024: “We lost, but we did everything right. Americans are the problem. Anyways, Trump is in his last term, so why change?”
Then make sure to tell the people actually voting for the chair to give the pushback they need to see that’s a mistake. Change is only going to come when we speak up
I’m more interested in mobilizing people outside of the electoral process at this point.
I will continue to vote but, on a national level, I no longer believe that lasting meaningful change will happen at the ballot box.
I have even less faith in the DNC ability to drive that change regardless of who is the chair. I think the best hope in that regard is an insurgent campaign a’la Bernie 2016/2020, and even then…idk.
There is power where there is people, the DNC seem to see this as an inconvenience. People are where I’m interested in spending my energy now.
Spending meaningful political capital on the DNC seems about as effective as that billion dollars in donations was for the Harris campaign this cycle.
Not discouraging anyone from doing it, as much as encouraging y’all to put the work in outside of the electoral process.
You do you.
And Clinton
Jesus. They’ve learned nothing:
He added, “Trump really kind of ran up numbers everywhere, you know what I mean? There was clearly a strategy not focusing on one place or another. And as a party we have to do that.”
THATS NOT WHAT FUCKING HAPPENED.
Trumps numbers barely moved.
Harris’s numbers PLUMMETED compared to Trump’s 4 years ago. Start there. That’s where you need to start this postmortem.
I really wish they would put out a survey for voters. Some way to collect data about what people actually want. Like a huge survey, let every registered dem fill it out.
If they’re talking about running some bland business-as-usual candidate then that’ll lose. People want change.
Based on their track record I have no faith in progress.
As they begin to dissect their collapse in the presidential election, some Democratic National Committee members are concluding that the party is too “woke,” too focused on identity politics and too out of touch with broad stretches of America.
From the bottom of my heart, fuck these people. They’ve moved so far towards neoliberal policy positions that they no longer have an economic message to give their working-class base. In the absence of a coherent economic vision for the party, they keep doubling down on, “identity politics,” to keep the the Obama Coalition happy; they have nothing to unify their base, so their only option is to take up any position that is important to the demographic groups that make up the party. Now that this strategy has been thoroughly and decisively defeated, their reaction isn’t to return to the progressive economic policies that won them these groups in the first place, but instead to figure which minorities are, “unpopular,” so they can abandon them. What a bunch of stupid, shortsighted cowards.
Respectfully, when you wrote
They’ve moved so far towards neoliberal policy positions that they no longer have an economic message to give their working-class base. In the absence of a coherent economic vision for the party, they keep doubling down on, “identity politics,”
It seems like you agree with
some Democratic National Committee members are concluding that the party is too “woke,” too focused on identity politics and too out of touch with broad stretches of America
I also think that if the Dems want to win, they need to simplify their platform and messaging to focus on what will help working-class people the most. I agree that abandoning people is not the answer, but the messaging and focus needs to be more universal.
You’re right, but the nuance you’re discussing is not what’s being discussed here. Listen to this bit:
“The progressive wing of the party has to recognize — we all have to recognize — the country’s not progressive, and not to the far left or the far right. They’re in the middle,” said Joseph Paolino Jr., DNC committeeman for Rhode Island. “I’m going to look for a chair who’s going to be talking to the center and who’s going to be for the guy who drives a truck back home at the end of the day.”
Or as one DNC member from Florida put it: “I don’t want to be the freak show party, like they have branded us. You know, when you’re a mom with three kids, and you live in middle America and you’re just not really into politics, and you see these ads that scare the bejesus out of you, you’re like, ‘I know Trump’s weird or whatever, but I would rather his weirdness that doesn’t affect my kids.’”
These speakers aren’t distinguishing between socially left and economically left, and reading between the lines, it is very clear that the member from Florida is talking about dropping support for trans people (in a thinly veiled and very offensive way, I might add). They lost the working class because they don’t have a working class message, but they’re blaming the social policies for their loss.
There is an argument to be made that the way they are approaching socially progressive issues is hurting them. Kamala Harris telling the ACLU that she supports transition surgery for migrant detainees painted a very large target on her back for a policy that would have effected a very, very small number of people. That probably should have been a, “pick your battles,” moment for her.
If the argument was, “We’re not going to focus on trans people in sports for now, because a lot of people still don’t support that, but we’re going to talk about how Medicare for All helps everyone, and we’ll make sure that gender affirming care is covered,” OK, there’s a case to be made for that. But what they’re actually saying is, “Well, the economic policy is set by the donors, so there’s nothing we can do about that, but the trans stuff seems to be costing us more votes than it’s winning us, let’s drop that.” They’re trying to jettison the progressive groups they think aren’t helping them instead of building an agenda for progressives to rally behind.
Please spread, cross post, share, whatever; wherever you can. People should have input into the democratic policy platform, but they’re so brazen as to say the “center is where we need to be”.
These people, these few hundred people, are a big problem with the democratic party.
We need to take the narrative back from centrists. It can be done by telling the DNC what to do, not the other way around.
Does the article tell us how to cast a vote? I skimmed it and couldn’t find a link to where I could at least send an email.
It’s not voted on directly, you are going to want to talk to your state’s party chair to try to convince them vote on the type of chair like you would a congress person on a vote for something. In the body of the post, you can find how to find your state’s party chair
Here’s the table copied over:
State Chair | State Chair Alabama Randy Kelley | Montana Robyn Driscoll Alaska Mike Wenstrup | Nebraska Jane Kleeb American Samoa Patrick Ti’a Reid[15] | Nevada Daniele Monroe-Moreno Arizona Yolanda Bejarano | New Hampshire Raymond Buckley Arkansas Grant Tennille | New Jersey LeRoy J. Jones, Jr. California Rusty Hicks | New Mexico Jessica Velasquez Colorado Shad Murib | New York Jay Jacobs Connecticut Nancy DiNardo | North Carolina Anderson Clayton Delaware Elizabeth D. Maron | North Dakota Adam Goldwyn District of Columbia Charles Wilson | Ohio Liz Walters Florida Nikki Fried | Oklahoma Alicia Andrews Georgia Nikema Williams | Oregon Rosa Colquitt Guam Anthony Babauta[16] | Pennsylvania Sharif Street Hawaii Derek Turbin | Puerto Rico Charles Rodriguez Idaho Lauren Necochea[17] | Rhode Island Liz Beretta-Perik Illinois Elizabeth Hernandez | South Carolina Christale Spain Indiana Mike Schmuhl | South Dakota Shane Merrill Iowa Rita Hart | Tennessee Hendrell Remus Kansas Jeanna Repass | Texas Gilberto Hinojosa Kentucky Colmon Elridge | U.S. Virgin Islands Carol M. Burke[18] Louisiana Randal Gaines | Utah Diane Lewis Maine Bev Uhlenhake | Vermont David Glidden Maryland Ken Ulman | Virginia Susan Swecker Massachusetts Steve Kerrigan | Washington Shasti Conrad Michigan Lavora Barnes | West Virginia Mike Pushkin Minnesota Ken Martin | Wisconsin Ben Wikler Mississippi Cheikh Taylor | Wyoming Joe Barbuto Missouri Russ Carnahan | Democrats Abroad Martha McDevitt-Pugh Texas’ Hinojosa, when asked about Democrats’ willingness to stand for trans rights, said the only part out loud: “I think what the Democratic Party has to realize is that there’s some things that we can support and some things that we cannot. And when we’re pressed upon to take votes of these kinds that we need to be cognizant of the long term consequences of these kinds of votes.”
He has since announced that he will be resigning effective March 2025, which is after the party elects a new chair. He has no incentive to listen. Not that he ever did. At least he’s leaving. Good fucking riddance. It’s a shame it didn’t happen years ago, but he will not stand with trans people, and he absolutely will not move to the left under any circumstances.
I’m still going to do my bit and contact his office, but I harbor no illusions about him. What other avenues do Texans have?
Reading more about DNC chair elections, the state party’s vice chair usually also votes for chair too (among others). For Texas, that’s Shay Wyrick-Cathey (shay@txdemocrats.org)
For what it’s worth it looks like his comments about trans people are what produced a large push to get the Texas Democratic party chair to step down. He said he was stepping down the day after he gave an apology
Reading more about DNC chair elections, the state party’s vice chair usually also votes for chair too (among others). For Texas, that’s Shay Wyrick-Cathey (shay@txdemocrats.org)
Thank you. This is useful information.
Can’t find a way to contact CA guy, only a way to give him $
chair@cadem.org or also rusty@cadem.org seemed to be listed on various California Democratic Party documents for him
If anyone else is having any issues finding the contact emails, reply to me with a state and I can try to help you find it!
It’s not like that boat will be tallied or even looked at, If you don’t have millions of bucks to give them, you don’t have a voice in government.
Frankly more people were excited about Tim Walz then Kamala Harris. Let’s get more MN politicians in there instead of people from the coasts. The focus on getting someone from the Midwest is the only good news I see. We need someone from Minnesota, Wisconsin or Michigan to lead the party from the inside. They might be fully progressive but understand how to organize and message to everyone. They can’t just float by on politics as usual
Yeah get a progressive Minnesotan.
They described him as a moderate in the article but I say we got a progressive agenda here in MN when we had our trifecta.
I was excited qbout Kamala back when she grilled Biden, but then she got tame, and was tampered down by the Biden admin.
Its Biden’s fault.
deleted by creator
I’m sure that the same people who couldn’t deliver Bernie Sanders an overwhelming win in 2020 can suddenly become savvy pols who can just put together a national third party.
If you want action, do what AOC and the others in her squad did. Work inside the Dem party.
Take a lesson from the right. Back in the 1970s Jerry Falwell decided to take control of the GOP. He did it from the ground up. If the local GOP club had had twenty people show up to the last meeting to pick the next county clerk, Falwell’s people would show up with fifty people. Soon those county clerks and sheriffs were becoming Congresspeople and Senators.
Politics is a game and the left sucks at playing it.
They lost the election by running an essentially republican candidate. Fingers crossed for a progressive chair.
Fingers crossed for a progressive chair.
“The best we can do is Debbie Wasserman Schultz.” -DNC
That’s funny that you believe that your voice will be heard if you’re not amongst the donor class. They only answered the money, something none of us have.
Remember when they picked Tom Perez, the croaking geezer, over Kieth Ellison. Your voice won’t be heard because that’s not who they’re listening for.
The DNC can lick and tease my disgusting Perinium.
That’s not a constructive approach. Doing nothing just means Republicans completely disasemble what remains of democracy in the US.
We need a new party that isn’t the Green Party. The Progressive party. Anyone left of center.
Why not just orchestrate a takeover of the Green Party? Then extract concessions from Democrats in exchange for not running.
Of course, this would mean that Democrats care about winning instead of donations.
I got a text message from the DNC an hour before the polls closed hitting me up for last minute money.
I think people should have to donate to a single bucket that gets split to all the candidates evenly.
If you do that, you will just split the vote, giving Republicans another win. I’m not sure if your democracy will survive thus term, but another… forget it.
If Democrats are so damned serious about making sure Republicans don’t win, THEY can stay out of the race.
My democracy? I’m not taking advice from you
The DNC during their campaign to save democracy refused to compromise with their base on genocide.
To reiterate, genocide.
And after they lost, they threw trans people and the left under the bus.
So what makes you all think they’re going to change their stance on anything now? They’re already screaming that the DNC was too far left during this campaign, this campaign, where they unapologetically and unconditionally showed support to a fascist and his genocide.
They had Republican after Republican parade across their convention stage, but had zero Palestinian Democrats come speak despite requests from the Uncommitted Protest movement.
What’s that thing all of Lemmy is always saying, “When people show you who they are, believe them?” They’re showing you who they are and who they want to be, so believe them. There’s no saving the DNC, it’s just a slow march to fascism under them versus the speed run with the Republicans.
So uh, why is there an NY representative in the CA seat again? So much for local representation I guess.
Side note: what happened to all the 3rd party chuds after the election? I guess they’re all just going to sit on their hands and do fuck all until 4 years from now when they need to heroically arrive on the scene and convince everybody to toss away their vote for someone they just heard about because they’re mad at the inevitable Dem centrist pick.
idk man, if the DNC won’t run a progressive, why can’t we get a grassroots movement behind one?
Honestly, I at this point wonder if progressives would be better off running as Republicans. Trump has largely, at least on messaging, distanced himself from a lot of traditional Republican economics. His base doesn’t really care much about traditional Republican policies like tax cuts or even deregulation. It’s mostly just driven by grievance and raw rage against vague elites. Mostly that is directed against cultural elites, but that same movement could be directed against wealth inequality. And the Republican Party has proven itself much more receptive to new ideas than the Democratic Party has. The Republican Party can be taken over by charismatic figures, while wealthy donors and special interest groups largely control the DNC. This isn’t likely to change any time soon. The existing Democratic leadership has more to gain by losing as a centrist than seeing a progressive win and force through change in the DNC.
I say progressives should try running as Republicans. Call yourself a “radical Republican,” hearkening back the historical radical Republicans in the post-Civil War era. Say you were going to stick it to the wealthy, give the little guy a shot, and not do any DEI. Hell, repeatedly hammer the nepotism and social advantages the wealthy have as “wealth DEI.” Rail endlessly against big business and elites. Vow to not appoint anyone who went to an Ivy League school to any position in your administration. Promise not to even talk to a single Wall Street Banker.
Looked mine up… There’s part off the problem…
Compensation
Base salary $174,000
Net worth (2012) $54,251,531.50
They must never order avocado toast. /s
They’ve already decided who’s taking over, nothing the progressives do will shift the needle.
Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory is the Democrat way.
