DSA continues to rack up wins
It's become trendy online to declare that there is no difference between Mainstream Democrats/Republicans, The Squad, Christian Fundamentalists, Bernie Sanders, Libertarians, etc.
And if that is your position, then good for you.
It's not mine.
Despite this growing online consensus, the Democratic Socialists of America continues to gain in popularity.
In 2015 their membership was less than 12,000. Now it's 92,000.
In 2015 they held 20 elected offices, all of them local. 36 DSA members won office in the 2020 election alone.
There's four DSA members in the House. Eight in upper state houses. 32 in lower state houses.
I don't know how many at local levels.
The DSA has raised the bar twice in 2021.
First they did it in Nevada.
All Nevada Democratic Party staff members have quit after every seat was lost in a recent internal election to Democratic Socialists of America candidates, according to a report by The Intercept.The article describes the newly elected slate as a “coalition of progressive candidates backed by the local chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America,” who swept all five posts in the Party. When Judith Whitmer and her socialist coalition won the Nevada Democratic Party election on March 6, they received an email from former Executive Director, Alana Mounce, announcing the resignation of herself and each staff member and consultant of the Nevada Democratic Party, effective immediately.
Which is exactly how you'd expect people to react when there is no significant difference between progressive and mainstream Democrats, amirite? This is all perfectly normal for when nothing would change.
She was quitting. So was every other employee. And so were all the consultants. And the staff would be taking severance checks with them, thank you very much.
... The establishment had prepared for the loss, having recently moved $450,000 out of the party’s coffers and into the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee’s account.
The DSA raised the bar again today in Buffalo NY.
A socialist candidate is poised to defeat Buffalo's four-term Democratic mayor after scoring a major upset in the city's mayoral primary on Tuesday.India Walton, 39, led incumbent Mayor Byron Brown 52% to 45% as of Wednesday morning, putting her on track to make history as the city's first female mayor, the first black female mayor, and the first socialist mayor to hold office in a major U.S. city since the 1960s.
I love the look on her face. Something about it strikes me as both mischievous and authentic.
I know a lot of you think that all of this means absolutely nothing, and there is nothing I can say that will change your mind. So I won't try.
But there IS something going on here. That is not something that can be denied.
Comments
I hope you're right
People have grown pessimistic; it's not healthy, but after so many betrayals and surrenders, it's quite understandable (what I don't find understandable is why they themselves surrender, rather than start taking action outside the law - are they just that weak and cowardly? No wonder the enforcer caste holds us in contempt).
You are dead-right that what happened in Nevada was glorious and encouraging (and funny as hell, if only laughter itself hadn't become verboten); I have heard mixed reports. I have given up on Cortez and Sanders, but that doesn't mean I'm going to give up on everybody.
Individuals matter more than groups, and everyone should be judged as one; this should NOT be necessary to say out loud, and nothing creeps me out more than the apparent fact that it somehow has become so over the past 6 years.
In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.
Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!
I agree on both statements
It's important to show how the DSA continues to rack up wins because it means that the cynicism on the web isn't representative.
And in related news:
Maybe that's why
people in Washington are calling socialists "violent extremists."
On to Biden since 1973
Yep, that's a good sign
If the establishment wasn't screaming then the cynics would be right, and nothing is changing.
"If it looks worse, that means it's getting better"
You have to admit, EVERY side is starting to sound like 1984...
In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.
Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!
Yes, hyperbole, essentially no difference, or
no material difference or no relevant difference to date or whatever modifiers apply.
In my pocket I have two nickels. They are not at all identical even though they are very, very similar and have the same value. The fact that they have the same value is what is critical. Even joined together they won't buy a decent meal at retail. I can take either to a coin dealer and they will laugh. I can take either to the grocers and they will through me out for being a nuisance.
Perhaps some here will live long enough to see some sort of coalition between the DSA and the Peoples' Party and the working Families Party enact some major legislation to benefit the public and or the average citizen. I do not expect to be among them. In the meantime I will watch for the next "force the vote" opportunity and see if any of them do so. I will not hold my breath.
be well and have a good one.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
me, too, El...
actions speak louder than words.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Your skepticism is well founded and I am right there with you.
"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin
Do you oppose capitalism, or corporate globalism?
I'm aware
"In an unjust society the only place for a just man is prison."
― Henry David Thoreau
In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.
Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!
Who knows?
Maybe things would improve if there was less screaming from both sides. All it ever seems to do is further inflame and divide populations who lack the power to produce much of real value on a large scale. I wish it were different, but I still hold hope for the future, because on some small individual level we are all confronted with the question of how to improve life. What I wish most for, is for all people to find a place inside where they can experience some sense of possibility.
People scream about the culture wars
...not about things that actually matter.
The worse the inequality gets in this country, the more the media stirs up the culture wars.
Because the ruling elites don't want us talking about the only two things that matter - money and power.
Instead we have liberals that see racism everywhere, and if you don't agree then you are racist. While conservatives thinks cancel culture and antifa actually have some impact on their lives.
If we started having real conversations about money and power I bet there wouldn't be much screaming - except by the 1%.
I don't think it's hopeless
but there is a huge machine constructed to stop any "socialist" leaning platform. It's almost impossible to imagine the turn around ever happening. Ideology has infiltrated down to school board level, backed by darker and darker money. Everything is now viewed through partisan glasses and even the smallest differences are subject to the whiplash of split second zero to absolute outrage politics. Whatever subject, there is always the machine ready to drop phosphorus bombs, sowing random fires to distract us.
Meanwhile Sanders, the DSA and other progressive groups put forth ideas and policies that most of Americans embrace, but so many fires to fight. We're hard on Sanders, but in the end he isn't a democrat even though votes predominantly d. It's been pointed out little of his legislation gets passed, but he rarely gains co sponsors either. I can only surmise democratic leadership wants it that way, that it's part of the machine.
I can't see the democratic party ever being changed. If we want it's power, to work for us, it's going to have to be pried from it's cold dead hands. Can't happen fast enough.