Democratic Party Autopsy

An excellent article at Alternet:

Berniecrats Issue Report Criticizing the Democratic National Committee for Failing to Learn Lessons from 2016 The result is a deeply divided party heading into 2018.

A few highlights:

The national party hasn’t found ways to embrace those who elected 46 percent of delegates to 2016’s national convention. The DNC still does not know how to deal with these Berniecrats, even though some state parties have found ways to bridge gaps and cultivate relationships for 2018.

They still don't get it!

The DNC’s biggest failure has been to largely disregard the base,” he said. “And we can define that as working-class people across the board, young people, people of color, to instead focus a tremendous amount of political framing, of pitching, and of money to try to shake loose votes from Republicans.

This is a huge problem:

During the 2016 Democratic National Convention, the party agreed to reform the superdelegate system. But that concession to Sanders has gotten bogged down in meetings since then. As a state vice-chair told AlterNet last week, the superdelegates are never going to surrender their power, because that perk is a reward for the unheralded work those organizers and activists do between presidential elections.

Forget about Centrism!

One thing we tried to emphasize in the report is to say, this is about defeating Republicans and promoting progressive values. Presumably, we could unite behind all of that, and I think arguments need to be made that the conventional wisdom doesn’t work. It’s not a left-right divide per se.

Read the whole story:

https://www.alternet.org/activism/berniecrats-issue-report-criticizing-d...

And an internal link to a PDF of the Autopsy report:

https://democraticautopsy.org/full-text-of-autopsy-the-democratic-party-...

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Meteor Man's picture

This is from the PDF of the Democratic Party Autopsy. Pretty thorough report:

Contents

Introduction

Executive Summary

1 -- Corporate Power and the Party
2 -- Race and the Party
3 -- Young People and the Party
4 -- Voter Participation and the Party
5 -- Social Movements and the Party
6 -- War and the Party
7 -- Democracy and the Party
8 -- The Party and the Future

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"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn

thanatokephaloides's picture

Because “the superdelegate system, by its very nature, undermines the vital precept of one person, one vote,” the voting power of all superdelegates to the Democratic National Convention must end.

source

This is not optional. Had the Democratic National Convention gone as primary voters voted, Bernie Sanders might well be President today. But the non-elected superdelegates made sure that even if all the primary and caucus votes went to Bernie, Hillary would still get the nomination.

And, as I've said many times in 2016, when Hillary got the nomination, Donald Trump got the White House.

Bad

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Meteor Man's picture

@thanatokephaloides @thanatokephaloides
Especially with corporate lobbyists getting chosen to be "Super" delegates. I am perfectly ok with getting accused of throwing the election to Trump because I voted for Jill Stein. I also voted for Nader. Best votes I ever cast.

I look forward to reading the report later tonight. The path to reform and the necessity are clear cut. Will the DNC respond? I doubt it a lot, but I hope I'm wrong.

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"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn

Maybe I missed it but I did not see one word about policies we want.

First and foremost, not a syllable about anti-imperialism, anti-war, close our bases and bring our kids home. Not one.

This is the DNC panicking because their fundraising is down and offering a pretend olive branch to the Bernie Bros, that is, to us. They will be nice enough to PRETEND, and ACT LIKE, well gee, maybe the superdelegate system is not to good an idea but, y'know, those supers work awfully hard between elections. I bet they do. Especially the ones who are corporate lobbyists.

To continue, I also missed the part where they promise to stop taking cash from international gamblers, war profiteers and the biotech industry.

Haw about shutting down prisons for profit and reining in militarized police? That ought to be popular with their minority base.

Free tuition to public colleges AND vocational schools? Transactions tax on Wall Street?

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Mary Bennett

thanatokephaloides's picture

@Nastarana

Nice.

Maybe I missed it but I did not see one word about policies we want.

The document is an autopsy report. It's about what changes must be made if the Democrats are ever going to be able to back anything ever again.

And it's not the DNC who wrote it, either. As far as the DNC is concerned, all that has to happen is: do a better job of selling their Turd Way shit sandwiches to their alleged base, i.e., us.

Needless to say, it isn't going to work!

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

@thanatokephaloides change one needs to be they should stop trying to ram their identity politics patronage machine down our throats while expecting us nobodies to pay for it.

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Mary Bennett

thanatokephaloides's picture

@Nastarana

change one needs to be they should stop trying to ram their identity politics patronage machine down our throats while expecting us nobodies to pay for it.

Stercum nullum, amice! (No shit, friend!)

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Meteor Man's picture

@Nastarana @Nastarana

How about shutting down prisons for profit and reining in militarized police? That ought to be popular with their minority base.

That and shutting down America's wars of aggression. Until we achieve these two steps there will be no chance of accomplishing any other goals.

[Edit] I actually favor prison Abolition:

http://criticalresistance.org/

Prisons do not reform anyone and actually create more crime.

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"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn

lotlizard's picture

@Nastarana  

Transactions tax on Wall Street?

A senator from New York standing up to Wall Street? That’s as believable as choosing a senator from Delaware as VP if you want to rein in corporations.

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@lotlizard Progressive Dems or the Democratic Socialists or WFP or somebody needs to get a believable--please no ex gangbangers looking for redemption--candidate out campaigning, low budget is fine, just make sure the person is out there and visible, in the rural areas of the state about a year before Schemer's next election. Here's an off the top of my armchair strategist head, how about hiring a staff of New Yorkers rather than the usual beltway suspects so that when the new candidate visits some upstate town someone in town knows and respects someone in the campaign team.

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Mary Bennett

Bollox Ref's picture

And the likes of TOP and the Clintons are prepared to keep the corpse out of view, at least for a weekend or two.

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Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

The Aspie Corner's picture

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6e4vtSVFTA]

It's just too bad that Warren and Sanders turned tail and went along with the Clinton purge of anyone who wasn't DLC/Third Way.

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Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.

Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.

gulfgal98's picture

While I do not completely agree with the wording of this statement, it does capture the essence of something I have been talking about here and elsewhere for some time.

“That relationship to social movements has to stop being simply opportunistic in terms of symbolism,” Solomon said. “There needs to be substantive engagement 52 weeks a year, not just election season, and a recognition that for so many people, for good reasons, social movements are not, and should not, be a subset of campaigns. It should be the reverse, that election campaigns are part of social movements.

I am a firm believer in social movements as the drivers of real change. Politicians are the guardians of the status quo and are only willing to consider change when a social movement becomes too great to ignore. Social movements are based upon issues and policy, something that the Democratic party has consistently avoided. The Democratic party has shown itself unwilling to consider change. I doubt that they have learned one thing from the last decade of loss after loss.

They are too addicted to big donor money to change. The thing is that the big donor money will dry up when the party is dead. And it is barely on life support now. I personally am for pulling the plug on the Democratic party. It is far too corrupt to warrant resusitation.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy