Shaun King: Why I'm Leaving the Democratic Party
Sometimes I wonder if Shaun King reads what I wrote here or on dkos, because I'll see him posting my exact thoughts on twitter. Other times he posts exactly what I'm thinking before I have had a chance to post it. I didn't follow him at TOP, but do see him on twitter.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/king-leaving-democratic-party-a...
Give it a read.
ALso, King had a tweet we can all agree with. The Hillary/TOP/DNC response to Sanders supporters has been "fuck you, we don't need you anyway, don't let the door hit ya". Yet they paradoxically claim that we must also vote for Hillary or else we are voting for Trump. They want to eat their cake and have it too.
In the class war, the Democratic party has abandoned the working class (and middle class, for the most part). They see Americans as idiots to be exploited by big money politics. The DNC has not learned the lesson of Donald Trump, which is: establishment politics as usual is no longer enough to win. Having ceded all of Middle America to the Republicans, the Democrats are content with holding offices on the two coasts and giving up on state legislatures.
"But we must elect progressives down ticket" , the sellout TOP bloggers opine, even as Markos sells user data to the DNC and PAC's for over $400k. The fig leaf they feebly hold in front of themselves is this claim that they care about the entire progressive movement, even as the Hillary Victory Fund launders $$ for her.
Back in February, Michelle Alexander, the law professor and author of “The New Jim Crow,” made a similar declaration. Her words struck me to my core.
“The biggest problem with Bernie, in the end, is that he's running as a Democrat — as a member of a political party that not only capitulated to right-wing demagoguery but is now owned and controlled by a relatively small number of millionaires and billionaires,” she said.
“Yes, Sanders has raised millions from small donors, but should he become president, he would also become part of what he has otherwise derided as ‘the establishment.’ Even if Bernie's racial-justice views evolve, I hold little hope that a political revolution will occur within the Democratic Party without a sustained outside movement forcing truly transformational change. I am inclined to believe that it would be easier to build a new party than to save the Democratic Party from itself."
One of the comments that got flagged at TOP, and marked me as 'the enemy' to admin and Hillary supporters, was a comment I made about CLinton and mass incarceration. I wrote that "I will never vote for clinton, since she supported the lockup of so many of my people for marijuana". Some of you may have read my story back on TOP about doing 9 months in prison for marijuana possession. After I got out, I read books on the legal system including Michelle Alexander's "The New jim Crow". It lifted the veil from my eyes about the Clintons.
Like many, I regarded the Clintons positively. After all, the 90s were better than the 2000s. But when I read about how Clinton expanded the funding and police powers for abusive drug task forces (as did Obama), it was obvious that the public image of the Clintons was much different than their political decisions. Even in 2016, black voters with warm feelings for Bill Clinton flocked to vote for another Clinton in the primaries. Even Jon Stewart, whose recent comments on Hillary would get him banned at TOP (and i posted that remark on TOP to their discomfort), had a soft spot for Bill Clinton.I remember one daily show episode where stewart told bill that he wished he could trade brains with him for a day. There's no doubt that bill is very smart. But not always ethical, clearly.
A decade after leaving office, Clinton became more forthright about his failed drug war policies. More than 7 years after voting for iraq war, hillary finally acknowledged her 'mistake'. But all of us who do/did prison time for nonviolent drug offenses need no apology from the Clintons.
We need to keep them out of the White House.
----
Meanwhile, in the Good Ole Boys club of the US Senate, failed leader Harry Reid and his corporate cronies conspire to marginalize Bernie.
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/280445-how-senate-democrats-are-tryin...
also : markos gets away with talking a lot of shit on twitter and no one cares. he's not that popular on twitter with active users. but someone must have hotlinked his tweet yesterday to a 3rd party site because he is getting BLASTED on twitter in a way that I've never seen happen to him on twitter before, (and i know, because lately I'm the one consistently on there checking him)
Comments
seth meyers put hillary trolls on check
http://www.salon.com/2016/05/20/seth_meyers_blasts_democrats_process_rul...
did 9 months in California prison, because Neoliberal Democrats and GOP maggots work together to profit off the drug war
what WEB Dubois said about the two party system
https://twitter.com/ShaunKing/status/733849633919623171
also, I saw and copied from a poster on TOP yesterday who said he was going to leave TOP and not return. he made a good point about how much of a sellout TOP is , and put it into context historically:
bernie isn't the first champion of the people who's been attacked by the Democratic Party. Check the history:
did 9 months in California prison, because Neoliberal Democrats and GOP maggots work together to profit off the drug war
W.E.B Dubois "Why I Won't Vote" is so apropos for right now,
and a must-read.
Here it is, and an excerpt:
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
This is a bad article
It repeats the lie that "Sanders supporters caused a ruckus." It also attempts to shut down caucuses.
Let's be clear--caucuses are anachronistic and complicated. But they are also more difficult to rig invisibly, b/c people are there in person. When you rig a caucus, it's obvious, as in NV.
The movement to end caucuses is supported by Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, which should clear up immediately whose interest it's in to end them.
States w/caucuses should hang on to their caucuses if they can.
Also, blaming caucuses for "people feeling like they're being cheated" implies that people aren't really being cheated--they're just ignorant of arcane rules. But they *are* being cheated.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
shots fired at bernie campagn office
https://twitter.com/BernieVolunteer/status/733698855196229632
did 9 months in California prison, because Neoliberal Democrats and GOP maggots work together to profit off the drug war
Shaun King is nailing it.
In article after article, he speaks truth to power. His words need to go viral as they disclose so much valuable information. The people must be educated on this issue. A new party must be born.
I am an Independent. I left the dem party a dozen years ago. Unfortunately, I had to reregister as a dem to vote on June 7th. But I'll go right back to indie once the primary has been certified. I reject the dem party and what it represents, today - the 1%, not we, the people.
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
Considering how tough he was on Sanders
in the early days of the campaign, especially in the wake of the #BLM protests at NN, I give King a lot of credit for doing his homework and his willingness to give Sanders a chance to "come correct" -- which he did.
if shaun king still worked at TOP
he'd be banned by now for speaking truth.
did 9 months in California prison, because Neoliberal Democrats and GOP maggots work together to profit off the drug war
Changed my party affilation, cancelled NPR, stopped going to TOP
After the NY primary, which I'm still steamed about (saw graffiti in NYC that summed it up for me, "Hillary Stole NYC" and was inspired to follow up with my own - how does one post a photo in a comment?), I immediately removed myself from the Democratic Party rolls. I also wrote a scathing email to WNYC about their blackout on Bernie, choosing instead to run something called, ready for this, "This Week in Trump." Told them to remove me and that they would never get another dime from me. And TOP, well fuck those mind-numbing, stunted pricks; I've had no desire to even peak over there, especially as we grow as a leading liberal progressive site.
So pleased to see Shaun King has the fortitude to call it like it is. He always has but lately has become even more of a leader in calling out the widespread institutional fraud of the media/two-party system keeping the statue quo intact.
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
"Hillary Stole NYC" ;->
"... stopped going to TOP" - Better for your mental/spiritual health
"(... how does one post a photo in a comment?)" - Use the 1st button in the upper-left of this window, the brownish button (that looks like a sunset photo)
"Hillary Stole NYC" graffitti in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Far too many people I've run into have relayed horror stories of disenfranchisement and suppression. Have a half-finished blog that just keeps growing with more notes, including firsthand stories told by people on the street, friends and acquaintances.
Lee Camp, a comedian and Occupy compatriot, seems to be the only one doing any reportage on this (The Young Turks also are doing amazing work this whole season). Which is just one in a litany of examples of why people are finally seeing through the ruse of "the news" and journalism, by understanding who owns the institutions (i.e. Twitter suppressing Bernie friendly and Hillary negative hashtag trends, and the actual CEO of CBS saying because Trump was good for his network's rating we should expect to see more of him. All bow to the almighty dollar...) and how the reporters and editors belong to the same DC class of elites who live in a self-perpetuating bubble. The kids smell the fraud like we progressives do and are not down with it.
Ain't many folks round here believing the results as far as I can tell. They fucking stole it, is right (thanks for the photo tip GW!).
30k in the South Bronx, 40k in and around Washington Sq Pk. Other big rallies in Greenpoint, Coney Island, Prospect Pk, Long Island City, etc. No way, man, that it didn't translate into votes. Let's not forget also the amazing march for Bernie here that attracted thousands into the streets on a cold winter day, even before one single primary had taken place (unprecedented in itself!), winding up symbolically at the appropriate location of where Occupy Wall St began.
This place was gaga for Bernie.
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
And 3 million independents
couldn't vote! Such a shame!
nice pic nt
did 9 months in California prison, because Neoliberal Democrats and GOP maggots work together to profit off the drug war
I would have no problem with Michelle Alexander's thesis
except that Bernie would not have gotten where he is relative to the general public by running as an independent. Part of his attraction is that he directly challenged Clinton on "her turf". The fact that it shouldn't be "her turf" is irrelevant as far as the establishment and the status quo is concerned.
We wouldn't be here discussing all this if Bernie hadn't run as a Democrat. And, while I hate mentioning Trump in any connection to Bernie, I believe it's also true about Trump's running as part of the Republican primary/caucus process.
In a sense, running as an independent by either of these candidates would have been anemic. Both parties are a problem to their supposed
"constituents". The only way to challenge this was by "in your face" actions. Bernie has done it with directly arguing policy differences, maintaining integrity and dignity of himself, his campaign, and his supporters and their aspirations. Trump, meh, has done it by poking the Repubs directly in the eye.
It's only by being a direct threat to Hillary that we are all here today to discuss this.
Perhaps, although I am not so certain of this...
First and foremost, gotten so far is only relevant to the primary system which is a party apparatus. No one has voted for the actual presidency yet. Second, I am not convinced that the debates helped him that much. His political revolution is primarily online in my opinion. This is why he does poorly with the oldest demographic, those that also use the internet the least (40% of seniors do not use the internet at all). 97% donations from online contributions.
The one thing that probably has helped more than anything is access to voter rolls. This is where the duopoly exerts the most influence. But considering 43% of nation is Independent and not on these rolls makes me question its value even here. Hell, Perot got 20% of the vote and he had nowhere near the enthusiasm as Bernie.
Bernie has built his own army of donors and voters from his online campaign. With a big chunk of Democratic support and a massive chunk of Independent support, I think he could have been the greatest Independent campaigner in history.
Frankly, I think Bernie's success caught his own campaign by surprise. I still recall them saying how they hoped to have about 20 million by January when they first started out. He obviously shattered those expectations and I think if they had realized how much his message would resonate they may have made a different decision initially on how to run his campaign.
I agree that Bernie did the right thing running as a Dem.
I never thought I'd say this, but if he loses the primary, I really want him to run as an Independent. I don't think there's anything to lose if he does.
The other candidates would have to address the policies and issues he stands for. And I think he might have a chance to win.
Shirley, I agree with you.
And I've commented about this several times within the last week. Many replies are saying it's too late for Bernie to run independent. Things look pretty discouraging
It may be too late for him to run
as an Independent, however, he could spearhead the growing restlessness that is demanding a new party. I believe Senator Sanders is in a prime position to actually break through and start a 3rd party that has a huge swell of people behind it and would give both parties a real run for the money. No offense to the green party, but there just isn't any... excitement? to it.
We should all do a Coordinated Party Switch...
In Connecticut we can switch on-line I'm sure other states have that setup as well...
We should all go on-line and switch just as Hillary accepts the nomination...
Crashing as many servers as possible to make it noticeable...
I'm the only person standing between Richard Nixon and the White House."
~John F. Kennedy~
Economic: -9.13, Social: -7.28,
I'm switching
Immediately after convention. Am open to doing a coordinated switch out of Democratic Party. Am staying in until convention in case it is a help to Bernie to do so.
The day after the convention.
I'm sure that they will give us plenty of reasons.
somebody talked about a national day to dump
the democratic party. I'm waiting until after the convention is over.
Another Voice For Genuine Reform
The Democratic Party is corrupt to the core. The entire M$M is corrupt to the core. TOP is corrupt to the core. (I hope Meteorblades is ok. I fear that Armondo has him chained to the ceiling upside down in an abandoned warehouse) The Political Animal has gone full DWS. Hopeless.
I hope we can discover a path to freedom at The People's Summit and/or The GreenConvention. Our tree of liberty has many branches. We must lay a solid foundation on common ground.
https://youtu.be/kYUYnoWqct0
"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
Shaun doesn't go far enough
...nor does Robert Reich.
1) WHY WAIT until after November to leave the Dem Party ? if your state has already held its (likely rigged) Primary, no reason to remain a registered Dem, really.
2) Reich: why should a 3rd Party WAIT until after November to form ?
This is the problem I have with talk of a New Movement.
There's enough water under bridge already to clearly illustrate Bernie will NOT be securing the DemNom...regardless of any FBI findings, regardless of the remaining Primary results. DNC will not allow it.
So, as momentum is almost unstoppable now...there's no particular reason to sit around and spectate a 2-party, Corporate-sponsored General Election season...then assume we can 'restart' a revolution in December 2016.
Makes no sense.
The movement needs to go beyond just
the White House -- I like that part about what Reich is proposing. As we've seen, the party insiders by and large are the ones supporting Hillary, thus making her nomination a foregone conclusion; a lot of voters just want to be on the "winning" team so they'll vote for whomever is leading regardless of their agenda as long as they have the requisite "D" (or "R") after their name. We need to get our own people in places of power to speak out -- we've got a few in the Democratic Party but not nearly enough.
The movement
started before this election (OWS) and will continue past it. I think that a lot of the media are so conditioned to the sport of election cycles that they are completely missing the big picture. This election is important as it marks an important turning point but as to who wins it - that is now secondary.
Some in the establishment realize this and that is why they have the likes of errand runner Markos and other water carriers publishing such cognitively dissonant crap
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” -Voltaire
Markos is jealous of Bernie.
Bernie IS crashing the gates, something Markos wrote about but never achieved.
Markos
doesn't like Bernies demo - older white males - unless they are lining his pocket. He has made that quite clear over the years.
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” -Voltaire
i said this to their face at TOP
and boy oh boy did they not like me for saying that.
did 9 months in California prison, because Neoliberal Democrats and GOP maggots work together to profit off the drug war
A quick aside
Not meaning to mess up this excellent diary and thread. But, what the heck does TOP stand for?
We now return you to your regular threading...
Prof: Nancy! I’m going to Greece!
Nancy: And swim the English Channel?
Prof: No. No. To ancient Greece where burning Sapho stood beside the wine dark sea. Wa de do da! Nancy, I’ve invented a time machine!
Firesign Theater
Stop the War!
TOP{the other place}=daily
TOP{the other place}=daily kos=GOS
TOP="The Other Place, AKA Great Orange Satan
The Other Place
Otherwise known as Great Orange Satan. Also DKos, but no one refers to it as the latter.
There is no such thing as TMI. It can always be held in reserve for extortion.
The Orange Place (Daily Kos) which I just left by dumping
all the information I could from my profile & switching my email address. I was a "life-time" member starting in 2002.
I also sent Boxer an email to tell her that I was leaving the Democratic Party--lifelong member there since JFK.
The Clintons, Obama, & the DNC have destroyed the party of FDR--I will have nothing more to do with them.
Boxer's performance at the NV convention was disgusting. She is just another corporate whore like her pal HRC.
chuck utzman
TULSI 2020
I changed my email address at gos when I found out
they were selling email addresses. I changed it to a bogus address.
Chris Reeves has a diary
About King's article. He takes the stance that Shaun is wrong, must stay and fight for the good of the Party sort of thing. I kinda see his point, given his position. I respect Chris, but I don't have his position, so I think he's wrong. Like it has been said over and over, we didn't leave the party; it left us.
There is no such thing as TMI. It can always be held in reserve for extortion.
Why should Bernie supporters or any progressives be
concerned about the "good of the Party" that been been actively trying to decommission liberalism in favor of neo-liberalism for decades? IMO opinion that's like nursing your own mugger back to health after he slipped and fell by swinging too hard at you.
" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "
lmao nt
did 9 months in California prison, because Neoliberal Democrats and GOP maggots work together to profit off the drug war
Great posting bikingforkarma
And thanks for sharing your story.
I often think about how many lives are being wasted because of these unnecessarily oppressive ans twisted puritanical laws. The origins of the so-called War on Drugs to me is completely class-based and partly if not mostly aimed at keeping apart the coalescing of would-be comrades in the black power movement and white radicals. So may lives ruined for nothing. It's such a travesty. Add in mental illness, unemployment and emotionally impaired people who really need compassionate rehabilitation and the whole thing just seems more and more Dante-esque.
It's good to see, however, how the mass consciousness seems to now, thankfully, been shifting away from accepting these highly punitive laws and apparatus being used to round up black and brown folks at alarming rates, toward a more just and empathetic society no longer fearful about certain drugs (e.g marijuana).
There's such double-standard hypocrisy in this country, that tens of millions have become addled by prescription drugs while minorities and poor folks wallow away in prison for about the same thing, the only difference being what is deemed "legal" and "illegal." And we all know who writes the legislation, the campaign donors and revolving door of lobbyists. Which brings us back to square one and Money In Politics. Bernie has been masterful at making it the center of his campaign. It is from which all else is connected.
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
wholeheartedly agree
after i got out and studied the CCPOA union , which i wrote about a lot on TOP, it was obvious to me that $$ was driving these policies. some prison guards in CA make over 100k a year, even back in 2009 when teachers were being laid off en masse.
follow the $$
did 9 months in California prison, because Neoliberal Democrats and GOP maggots work together to profit off the drug war
Someone posted this on Markos' Twitter.
i love it nt
did 9 months in California prison, because Neoliberal Democrats and GOP maggots work together to profit off the drug war
Clinton would be a sitting duck
It seems odd that no one recorded any of the Clinton speeches to Wall Street. They probably asked that people not do so, but it's hard to believe that in a group that feels that rules are meant to be broken that no one didn't record the, even if just the audio. Since the audience was likely GOP-leaning, we'll have to figure that the audio is more likely going to end up in Trump's little hands; it'll play right into the bought-and-paid for attack that Trump will certainly use.