-- in, you guessed it! Commondreams.org! As usual, though, it's hard to tell whether or not he's talking them down or building them up. One thing remains clear: joining the Democratic Party is still a fool's errand, All the political class needs to do is say the magic words, "who are you going to vote for, Republicans?", and we will be blessed with four years of liberal quiet while the world goes to hell in a handbasket. Thus, much as I might be greatly sympathetic to most of Solomon's message (judging by word count), ultimately he argues for an approach that might convert the Democratic Party some time around the year 2050, when it won't matter.

Let's start with Solomon's headline:

Progressives Made Trump's Defeat Possible. Now It's Time to Challenge Biden and Other Corporate Democrats.

Uh, no. Donald Trump made Trump's defeat possible. The Trump campaign (key slogan: "Make Liberals Cry Again") was the worst possible campaign to pursue in an election run-up, seizing upon a trivial motive ("hey, let's troll the liberals") in a time in which all sorts of needs remained urgently unfulfilled across a very large cross-section of America. Do we really want to count on Republicans to self-destruct like Trump did?

Onward and upward! Solomon's subtitle:

Without a strong progressive program as a rudder, the Biden presidency will be awash in much the same old rhetorical froth and status-quo positions that have so often caused Democratic incumbents to founder, bringing on GOP electoral triumphs.

Yes of course, because this is what happened with Obama. The fact that the nice liberals with big egos need to be told this should make you wonder about Solomon's audience. Solomon suggests a remedy:

...it’s time to engage with the battle that must happen inside the Democratic Party.

That battle is over. The good guys lost. Ooh but the size of the Squad doubled! Yeah, that's eight instead of four, out of 435. Meanwhile, AOC said she might quit politics, as some centrist Democrats blame progressives for House losses, NYT says. No, Alexandria, none of those Wall Street shills likes you. Bernie Sanders has been pretending all along. They all want you gone. Stop clinging to the Democrats. Join the Movement for a People's Party.

Solomon argues:

The realpolitik rationales for the left to make nice with the incoming Democratic president are bogus.

Yet everyone follows them. Solomon still hasn't told his audience what he would do when the Biden administration utters the magic words, "so what are you going to do, vote for Republicans?"

Solomon then suggests his remedy as regards the Democrats:

And if they’re serving Wall Street instead of Main Street, we should show that we’re ready, willing and able to “primary” them.

And if we lose the primaries, then we endorse them? It's this Bernie Sanders approach, limiting dissent to primaries and then conceding to Wall Street candidates, that has made the Republicans into the party of populist dissent in small-town America. It didn't help much that, for instance (as Jeffrey St. Clair pointed out about two Senate races), "combined Amy McGrath and Jaime Harrison raised $199,004,686. They lost to Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham by a combined 35 points." The Democrats are never finished proving that they've got plenty of rich people's money to burn on candidacies that are politically pointless. In this regard the fact that the Republicans are a really bad party of populist dissent was, is, and will be of no consequence to small-town America, the small-town America which voted for Trump.

Big-city America is just fine with Democrats as such. They are fine with the Bicoastal Party of Rich People. For the big-city Democrats who matter, "I supported Bernie" or "I supported Joe" serves as a convenient alibi, and what really matters in life is that they own 3br 2ba houses worth $1.1 mil. each and that the homeless are a nuisance. But this is the curse of being a nice liberal with a big ego. You must wrestle, endlessly, with your own pretenses, because your audience wants those pretenses.

-- skipping --

Solomon then dares to criticize Biden, while others appeal fruitlessly:

Biden did not energize working-class voters as he lip-sunk populist tunes in unconvincing performances.

That's the kind of neoliberal approach that Bernie Sanders and so many of his supporters were warning about in 2016 and again this year.

My approach would be more blunt. My approach would be to say: "Bernie Sanders endorsed a neoliberal for President this year. Get it through your thick skulls, nice liberals with big egos."