Reuters news photo
The Democratic Party establishment hacks (such as the ones pictured above) always have told us progressives that we have nowhere else to go. That’s funny, because a viable, actually progressive third party might put the Democratic Party in the position of having nowhere else to go by siphoning off enough votes from voters who are beyond fucking sick and tired of having to hold their nose and take an emetic to be able to vote for the Democratic Party establishment’s endorsed candidates (such as the ones pictured above…).
Fellow leftist Ted Rall writes in his most recent column:
There is no room for progressives in the Democratic Party.
No matter how many votes he or she gets, no progressive will be permitted to be the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party.
Progressives who try to work inside of, contribute to and support the Democratic Party have no real chance of moving its candidates or policies to the left.
Remaining inside the Democratic Party achieves nothing; to the contrary, it is insidiously counterproductive. Working for “change from the inside” strengthens centrist politicians who oppose progressivism with every fiber of their being.
If American electoral democracy has a future, and progressives want to be part of that future, there is only one way forward: create and build a new party in which progressivism isn’t merely tolerated or partly accommodated as some fringe or necessary nuisance but is its core mission.
We need a New Progressive Party.
The reason is simple: progressivism and corporate centrism are not parts of an ideological spectrum. Centrism isn’t watered-down progressivism; centrism directly opposes progressivism. Centrists want wars and don’t care about the poor; progressives want no wars and care deeply about the poor. There is no room for compromise between the two.
A New Progressive Party will go nowhere if, like the Green Party, it is poorly funded and disorganized and unable to field a slate of candidates across the board, from city council to state representative to congress. It must begin robustly, it must grow quickly, and it must be the only viable outlet for real progressives. Go big or go home.
This could be done. Now is the perfect time. …
Hmmm.
For the most part I agree.
Take over the Democratic Party from within, we progressives have urged each other for years now. We’ve tried that, twice, with Bernie Sanders. As Rall notes, “No matter how many votes he or she gets, no progressive will be permitted to be the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party.”
I think that’s true. The Democratic Party’s plutocratic, corporatocratic funders won’t allow that, and therefore the corporate whores who call themselves “Democrats” — such as Hidin’ Joe Biden and his endorsers and supporters — won’t allow that. They want that corporate gravy train to keep chugging along for them.
For years I was registered with the Green Party, since its platform most closely has matched my own values and priorities. I had hoped that Ralph Nader might make the Green Party a strong, viable third party, but that never materialized. (I’m now registered with no party, as no viable party represents my values and worldview.)
Yes, it would be preferable — at least easier, I think — to change the Democratic Party from within rather than to create a third, actually progressive new party.
But the Democratic Party as we once knew it, under the tutelage of the likes of FDR, long has been dead. It’s now the Repugnican Lite Party. And it shows no signs of even being capable of reforming itself. Just when you think that it finally might — might — go in a new, actually progressive direction, such as with Bernie Sanders, it then reflexively, defensively snaps back to its old, tired, centrist bullshit, such as with Hidin’ Biden.
Sure, after the old fucks (such as Hidin’ Biden and his supporters) all finally kick off (the coronavirus is not lethal enough…), younger people might rise to power within the Democratic Party and make it much more progressive.
But the key word there is might. There’s no guarantee that that ever will happen. I mean, already I’m watching for signs that U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez already has been co-opted by the calcified Democratic Party establishment.
As far as creating a third party is concerned, my concerns are purely logistical. Where is all of the money, the time, the talent going to come from? I mean, would, say, most of Bernie Sanders’ base more or less be automatic members (so to speak) of a New Progressive Party?
I would be on board, especially if someone of Bernie’s caliber (or even Bernie himself) headed the effort, but my disappointment with the Green Party gives me some reservation about the viability of a New Progressive Party.
As far as the Democratic Party establishment hacks go, fuck them. Fuck them all.
I wouldn’t care in the fucking slightest if a New Progressive Party meant that the Democratic Party lost some elections, even many elections, to the Repugnican Party. I would not.
Why?
Because at this point I have to surmise that the only way that the Democratic Party would reform itself is if a new, progressive party actually formed and caused it to start losing some elections by splitting the vote. Only an actual existential threat to the Democratic Party would induce it to change for the better, methinks.
(I mean, don’t get me wrong: I see Hidin’ Biden probably losing in November, Billary Clinton-style, despite how disastrous “President” Pussygrabber has been at all levels and in all areas. Pussygrabber is wrong, wrong, wrong, but he attacks, attacks, attacks, at least acts as though he comes from a position of strength, whereas Hidin’ Biden — well, he hides, and he still uses words like “malarkey.”
In short, it seems to me that the Democratic Party already faces a threat to its very existence, since, first with Billary Clinton and now with Hidin’ Biden, the Democratic Party establishment is wholly incapable of producing a presidential candidate who excites people to vote for him or her.
This, to me, is enough of an existential threat to the Democratic Party, but the Biden-supporting “Democrats” are all of a bunch of fucking lemmings headed right for that cliff in November.
One wonders how many times they must lose winnable elections before they finally consider taking any responsibility for their bullshit at all and finally changing their ways.)
At this point, the Democratic Party establishment hacks just aren’t afraid enough of us progressives enough to stop their centrist, corporate-whoring, Repugnican-Lite bullshit. They believe that we progressives always can be co-opted — to infinity.
Again, I’d love to think that once the current crop of old fucks who call themselves “Democrats” finally die, the Democratic Party naturally will become more progressive, by demographics.
But I don’t think that we have that kind of time to wait for something that’s far from a sure thing.
Therefore, I’m on board with the formation of a third, actually progressive political party in the United States of America if a viable effort can be made.
P.S. If you wonder what I mean by “viable,” I more or less mean, at least in part, capable of drawing enough votes to get the Democratic Party’s attention. There is no such viable progressive party today.
And I didn’t make it clear above, so allow me to do so now: I don’t believe in creating a viable third progressive party only to spook the Democratic Party into reform (even if such reform were possible). I believe in creating a viable third progressive party because the Democratic Party isn’t doing its job of fighting for the people. It serves corporations and plutocrats instead.
The best-case scenario is that the Democrats actually would have to join the new, actually progressive party — because they would have nowhere else to go.
If we progressives held out on the Democratic Party — if enough of us steadfastly did that for however long it took — then, and only then, probably, could we see an actually progressive viable party in the United States of America.
Robert's Virtual Soapbox 