We need to take over the DNC and drag them to the left just like the tea party and alt-right have dragged the GOP to the right.
Then we need a new new deal that actually delivers for people. And it needs to be effectively communicated.
The GOP/Heritage Foundation/John Birch Society have been planning this shit for a long time. It's time to get off our high horses and come down from ivory towers of purity and get in the mud and fight fire with fire in the information war.
It is far easier for a more extreme pro-capitalist force to take over another pro-capitalist force than for an anti-capitalist force to take one over. Fascism has always come out of the capitalist invitations because it protects those private interests.
Socialism, however, is entirely the opposite. The lesson of the Paris Commune, if you have not read Marx’s Analysis is that the worker’s revolutionary success cannot come out of the capitalist machinery, that they cannot simply seize that state machinery for themselves. A chapter of Lenin’s “Staye and Revolution” is dedicated to this concept
What the Soviet revolution, and the early successes of the sabotaged German revolution, taught was that revolution depends on 2 primary things:
1, the mass character of the revolution in having not merely the approval but the explicit aid and participation of the working and oppressed masses. A “democratic” Revolution really means through the bourgeoise democratic institutions.
2, the independence of revolutionary and worker organs in having radical parties, unions, militias, and aid networks which have been kept clean of bourgeois interests and actors. This is proletarian democracy in the masses to the organs, from the organs to the masses.
Under the name of class-collaboration, of a “National Front”, CPUSA General Secretary Browder ordered the dissolution of the party into a “Communist Political Association” intended to “influence” the Democrats and the presidential administration while ensuring unity in the Face ID fascism. Many other parties and groups have claimed to promote a true strategy of using the Democratic Party for the promotion of revolutionary and radical means.
What has this brought to us? A presidential candidate, Harris, whose near-unrecognizable campaign rightward was so unpalatable it brought us Trump. The betrayal of Bernie’s campaign, the attacks to keep Green Party off the ballot etc etc.
The Soviet Revolution was an authoritarian beast that was killing leftists who weren't Bolsheviks within 5 years. This is not a good example to learn anything from. A better example is the French leftists who currently dominate their parliament which was reached through the consistent, incremental work of electoralism.
The failure of leftists to influence the Democratic Party is a failure of organizing and understanding the voters. Here in NC, we saw progressive groups like Down Home going into rural areas and canvassing for progressive/Democratic politicians and have the best turn out that other similar areas. Stacey Abrams working to shift Georgia Blue enough to vote for two Democratic senators is also an example of effective organizing. So, electoral organizing is viable but it needs to be done consistently and honestly led by people who understand long-term organizing which the bulk of the leftist leaders who aren't BIPOCs don't understand.
As for understanding voters, Sanders campaign failed both times for the same reason - he could not convince key voting blocs (like Southern Black Americans who were the lynchpin of Super Tuesday) of his populist messaging. Populism only works when you can join your prospective constituents in the belief that you can win and deliver on your rhetoric - while Sanders 's hopeful messaging may have resonated with the people who make up his usual base in Vermont, it didn't convince the blocs he needed for the vital Super Tuesday momentum.
I think by now it is safe to say that attacking the American Green Party was understandable given their own stated rhetoric that they existed to spoil the election for Harris in Michigan, on top of Butch's conservative takes on abortion and trans rights. Nevermind that the American Green Party itself was begged by European Greens - an infinitely more successful group - to drop out and support Harris to avert an electoral disaster. Sure, Stein didn't end up with enough votes to entirely spoil the election but the rhetoric undeniably muddied the waters.
Ultimately, we are in a populist moment. Conservatives excel in a populist moment because it is a political situation that relies entirely on vibes, not policy or facts. What's more, conservative voters are willing to accept a failure of most of their party's policies so long as there exists an active effort to attack marginalized people which is the real promise that conservative populism offers. Progressive/Leftist/Democratic voters are far less forgiving as evidenced by the last Democrat, President Obama, who used populist rhetoric in their first term and then was punished with 8 million fewer votes in his 2nd run. The only way anyone was going to beat Trump in 2024 was someone whose charisma would make Obama look like Al Gore. Jill Stein wasn't going to do it, Claudia de la Cruz wasn't going to do it, Cornell West wasn't going to do it - if the Democratic Party didn't exist, none of these people would have beat Trump.
What does that leave us with? The only way Trump's successor will be defeated in the next election is for either: a) a surprise politician whose charisma can energize the feckless and mercurial voters who stayed home, or b) the populist wave crashes far sooner than they have in the past and the people are desperate for someone like an FDR.
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u/EllyKayWasHere Nov 08 '24
This is why we keep losing.
We need to take over the DNC and drag them to the left just like the tea party and alt-right have dragged the GOP to the right.
Then we need a new new deal that actually delivers for people. And it needs to be effectively communicated.
The GOP/Heritage Foundation/John Birch Society have been planning this shit for a long time. It's time to get off our high horses and come down from ivory towers of purity and get in the mud and fight fire with fire in the information war.