this why i’m in the “primary everyone” camp. jeffries and schumer have been bad, but they’re more a symptom than the underlying disease. the controlling faction(s) of the party are committed to an untenable, elitist, and undemocratic vision of politics, and we need to change that
This is exactly right on and a big reason why the entire Democratic leadership should be replaced is because they still for some unfathomable reason hold to the idea that they're responsibility is to " keep Democrats in line" They don't think beating Republicans is the job
Probably because for the people they work for it isn't
not the main point of the piece but I was really struck by the phrase "in dialogue with public polling," as it relates to discussions of how people interact with LLMs. polling and LLMs both show how we use applied statistics in perpetual search for the oracular, a narrative with no narrator.
Folks who are spineless and lack any real skill desperately search for outer direction and ask machines what to do instead of growing a spine and having some principals.
that's a bit harsh. before that they asked god or gods. the compulsion isn't new.
Democratic "leadership" keeps trying to appeal to a centerline, but the Overton window has shifted so far to the right that they're just not engaging the left anymore. The political figures that do excite the left are so popular it scares the centrists, who are bought off since Citizens United.
Yeah there's no way Schumer and other dems get on board for government funding unless there was widespread support in the caucus. Manchin and Sinema too, they were the worst but there were a few others backing their stance. If we can't flush em out we need to flush everyone down and try again
The whole government shutdown thing in the spring comes to mind. It was clear as day most of the senate caucus supported capitulation based on the vote distribution. Retirees and those not facing primaries were the critical votes, allowing others to defect.
To me it boils down to the clear, obvious, inescapable fact that these people have had zero solutions for how to check the rise of fascism. Neoliberalism lost. It failed to defend itself from authoritarianism. Time to throw the neoliberals out.
like i cannot emphasize enough how existential a problem this! actual nazis control all 3 branches of government and are instituting their Big Nazi Plan. we need robust, sturdy institutional counterweights! not donor friendly, poll-tested nonsense, a house of cards built on shifting sand
Ok but the problem is that people latch on to a candidate and when they lose the primary, check out or become hostile. Win or lose, there's an obligation. "The wrong person was selected and I can no longer support Dems" is a less-than-useful thing to hear when we need to be united.
I simply no longer regard the Democratic Party as opposition in any way. Individual Democrats are rising to the moment - less and less it seems by the day - but the Democrats, as an institution, are functionally deceased.
I just think of it as a blank spot awaiting a hostile takeover, much like the GOP post-Romney and pre-Trump
One thing that poll shows us but is ignored by politicians is people don't really have informed opinions on most topics. So basing decisions of what people who don't know shit about the subject and just pick what they think their party lean tells them is right is not how you make decisions.
also because it will put the fear of god in the ones who survive like the Tea Party did to Republicans in the early-mid 2010s.
right, winning one or two seats is progress but does nothing to change the institutional culture. you need a wave of new blood that simultaneously brings new values AND sends a warning to everyone else: get on board or you’re next.
Step one is convincing your average primary voter that the current leadership is offering two choices: 1. The fascists take over soon 2. The fascist takeover drags on for years. This one is if we get a blue wave that votes “blue no matter who” (who can only be a “moderate”).
also because the democratic brand is so bad, the controlling faction not only has to lose, they have to be *widely seen* to have been overthrown. the very public humiliation of the republican controlling faction was a major part of how they basically rebooted their brand
This is right and why I find it extremely concerning when someone like Chris Murphy is talked up in the media as the possible next Senate Dem leader. It will just be more of the same just with a somewhat younger aesthetic. It is another indicator to me that the caucus writ large sees no issue.
Or at the very least all they see is a messaging and public perception issue.
the democratic party doesn't just need new management, it needs to hang a huge "UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT" banner
This is all true, but it’s going to be really, really hard to change this for more than one or two election cycles without campaign finance overhaul tbh.
I feel that you're making a category error. The problem the Democrats have isn't that the party is controlled by the wrong faction: it's that the party has very little power over its representatives. In most democracies representatives are pre-selected by party loyalists. 1/4
IIUC that's literally illegal in the USA: the people that pre-select their party's representatives are just whoever puts down their name as being a Democrat or Republican or whatever, which eliminates the biggest way for loyalists to control representatives. But the other big factor is funding. 2/4
Most democracies regulate the amount candidates can receive. I admit these barriers are breaking down, but in the US they've been gone for a long time. So while candidates in Australia or the UK largely depend on party support, candidates in the US rely on a few very large donors. 3/4
So, cumulatively, the party structure has very little control over Schumer. I'm not going to say that increasing activist control of the party is a bad thing — but successful challengers will need to win without party support, regardless, because there's just not much the party can do anyway. 4/fin
The Dem msg of “keeping our democracy” fell on deaf ears because the current state of democracy (for some of the reasons mentioned here) isn’t working for most people. There needs to be a message of “fixing” our democracy, with specific ideas/plans for how to do it.
Biden promised that but couldn’t deliver.
I don’t think most people know what to do to fix it, so polling is useless. Polling uninvolved, uninterested people isn’t helpful. Let those who have the plan/ideas create the message and give the public the choice. BUT THEN YOU HAVE TO FOLLOW THROUGH. Which is an argument for another day!!
Every elected official should face a robust primary every election. Prove why you deserve to be reelected.
They all need to go, every single one of them.