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ACCORDING TO LIZ - Across the United States there are increasing concerns about the viability of the Democratic Party, even in the face of the utter evil of the current administration and its out-of-control leader.
The rumblings started to build in the wake of Hillary Clinton’s defeat that seemingly to shock much of the party elite, the grassroots less so.
But instead of addressing the worries boiling up from the Democratic base, the DNC doubled down on its adherence to Wall Street and wars, to circling the wagons and embracing old tropes, to excluding new vision, new blood, new energy.
Senator Bernie Sanders’ campaign in 2016 inspired people but it was quickly shut down by the old guard. With disastrous results.
Today Sanders continues on his mission to serve all Americans with the Fighting Oligarchy tour so far attracting over a quarter of a million Americans, primarily in red and deep red states.
Sadly, the Democratic establishment is drawing its blinkers tighter, driving out the reformists who could reinvigorate the party.
Parkland massacre survivor-turned-political-activist David Hogg’s controversial election as vice-chair of the Democratic National Committee was supported by Randi Weingarten, longtime leader of the 1.8-million-member American Federation of Teachers union, saying it was time to “ruffle some feathers.”
But after corporate Dem backlash to his plan to support more progressive challengers in primary races against sitting lawmakers led the Clintonists to vote for a new election, Hogg said he would not run again.
Then Weingarten and Lee Saunders, president of the 1.4 million worker-strong American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, both resigned from the Democratic National Committee and the Party itself in disgust.
With the support of the ossified ostriches of the moribund Democratic Party, Ken Martin beat out progressive Ben Wikler to chair the DNC, and has continued to let it languish and flounder in a status quo stagnation that does nothing to build and rebuild badly-needed coalitions to expand the Party’s base at a time when Americans are in despair over multi-pronged and existential threats posed by the current administration.
Craven Ken who, while acknowledging the unauthorized attack on Iran under the direction of Toodle-de-doo Trump, has refrained from instigating active opposition against such a horrendous abuse of power.
The DNC desperately needs fresh blood and energy, innovation and, as Lee Saunders put it “new strategies, new thinking and a renewed way of fighting for the values we hold dear. We must evolve to meet the urgency of this moment.”
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz had endorsed both Martin and Hogg in the party elections but appears in despair over the former’s lack of focus on expanding the base.
And Senator Bernie Sanders has stepped in where Hogg has been forced out, endorsing, and providing assistance, to a number of strong progressive candidates around the country, including Zohran Mamdani for Mayor of New York (Bill Clinton backed Cuomo).
Bernie doesn’t pull punches when he calls out the DNC as incapable and uninterested in working with the grassroots movements that could resurrect their fortunes, pointing out the inability of an economic agenda that does not actively promote the interests of the working class.
In his Fighting Oligarchy tour, he calls for a bold working-class alternative agenda based on economic, social, racial and environmental justice.
It’s not that the social issues that the Democratic establishment push are wrong – most, indeed, deserve support – but their articulated support for them is so shrill that it drowns out more urgent matters.
The economy, immigration, Social Security, the environment, war, healthcare, individual rights, while Trump goes on leveraging people’s differences, isolating otherness…
And offers the Republicans a garden of earthly delights when it comes to turning myriad factions against Democrats.
And the self-righteousness of affluent liberals.
In the wake of Trump’s political ascendance President Obama has voiced the need for a new generation to lead Democrats into the future.
At a recent event in Connecticut, he insightfully called the old guard on the carpet.
“You could be as progressive and socially conscious as you wanted, and you did not have to pay a price… You could still make a lot of money… and have a house in the Hamptons and still think of yourself as a progressive.”
Because during his administration their righteousness was never in question, rarely challenged.
“Now things are a little different… We now have a situation in which all of us are going to be tested in some way and we are going to have to decide what our commitments will be.”
Still suffering from TACO-ititus, Trump may have bunker-buster bombed Iran’s Fordow nuclear facility… but ineffectually, putting Americans more at risk by provoking the Middle Eastern brown bear, and further inciting the ire of people around the world.
In the same manner as the misuse of the U.S. military in Vietnam spurred a generation into action in the 1960s, opposition to Trump’s blatant violation of United Nations Charter and treaties to which the United States is signatory can become the opportunity for a resurgence of the Democratic Party operating out of righteous justice.
But only if it can shed the dead wood and their ineffectual policies in favor of fresh faces and passionate commitments to a brighter future for all Americans, embracing economic justice along with deep social and environmental dedication ahead of the brazen profiteering and tax manipulation of the 1%.
(Liz Amsden is a former Angeleno who now resides in Vermont and is a regular contributor to CityWatch on issues that she is passionate about. She can be reached at [email protected]. )
