I’d like to think I have legit Democratic Party credentials. I grew up in Washington DC, and my entire family are progressive Democrats. Even before they were officially “Democrats”, my father’s parents and grandparents were active members of New York’s Socialist Party during the first half of the twentieth century. My mother’s grandfather was a doctor who gave out free health care to people who couldn’t pay for it during the Great Depression and afterwards. My mother and aunt protested the Vietnam War, and one of my earliest memories is of listening as my parents talked about how much they disliked Reagan, and them explaining to me that we were Democrats. I remember my dad taking me with him when I was six years old to vote for Michael Dukakis, and letting me stay up late when I was ten to watch Bill Clinton win in 1992.
I rebelled plenty as a teenager, but never against our family’s collective identity as Democrats. On my own in college I worked tirelessly for Howard Dean, and later for President Obama. I spent two terms on my state’s Democratic committee, and I’ve been a precinct chair. And while I supported Bernie Sanders in the primary in 2016, I dutifully voted for Hillary Clinton in the general election, although without much enthusiasm.
I feel deeply disappointed in the Democratic Party right now. Not just because we lost the election (although that does hurt plenty), but because the Party is not appearing to take the lessons of that loss, and previous losses, to heart. There were many factors at play in 2016, all of them probably having some effect on the election’s outcome. Russia, racism, frustration with government, and gerrymandering all absolutely helped Trump win. Those things should all be analyzed and corrected as much as possible (although that won’t be much over the next two years at least). Those things deserve blame, and I’m not saying they don’t.
But they’re not the only factors which deserve blame. I think the Democratic Party has lost some of its soul. Not only that, but it is terrible at communicating (and standing up for) the soul it has left. If the Party can’t fix this problem, it will keep losing elections.
Over the past decade Democrats have pretty consistently lost more and more Congressional seats, more and more Governorships, and more and more seats in state legislatures. Part of this of course is gerrymandering, but that can’t be all of it. Congressional seats were being lost before the last round of redistricting, and losses have happened in plenty of states without weirdly drawn districts.
One of the most obvious takeaways from the soaring popularity of both Sanders and Trump was that regular people are tired of things as they are. They wanted something different, and they wanted someone to buck the system. Many of us could see that Trump’s version of bucking the system is completely psychotically dangerous, and also that he has no idea what he’s talking about and is willing to change his mind about subjects five times a day if that’s what his audience needs (adding to the danger). And so we voted for the only real alternative, knowing that in that moment, it was the only ethical thing to do, even if it was for the wrong candidate.
And I call her the wrong candidate for several reasons. I admit that the attacks against her were incredibly harsh, completely unfair, and generally unjustified. But it’s also true that she was not the candidate it was so obvious people wanted (and still want). Her version of the Democratic Party is a sort of milquetoast, middle of the road version. Somehow she was standing behind the nonsensical notion that politicians, and the Party itself, could take in millions and millions of dollars from pharmaceutical companies and banks and oil companies, and still create and pass strong regulations on those very industries (when has that ever happened?!). She didn’t stand for anything bold. She wasn’t passionate about causes. She didn’t get people excited. She didn’t convince people that she herself was actually excited. What she exuded was the idea that it was just her “turn”, and that her Presidency would have meant at best more of the same and sometimes much worse.
People understandably have the perception in this country that corporations have more power than they do and that it impacts their lives and personal economies negatively. On paper, the Democratic Party is against this becoming more and more of a reality, but it isn’t doing enough to actively combat it. People notice this.
The thing that drives me nuts as a 4th generation progressive, is that there ZERO reason that the Democratic Party platform wouldn’t appeal to literally 90% of America. Other than racists, religious extremists, and some billionaires (but not all! Here’s to you Warren Buffett, George Soros, and Bill Gates!), who wouldn’t want to close corporate tax loopholes and have better health care, better schools, more civil rights, fewer wars, and less climate disruption? When Americans are asked questions about public policy without being told which answer belongs to which party, they are overwhelmingly in favor of Democratic policies. The numbers would easily overcome the gerrymandering and all the rest of it. So why can’t the Democratic Party communicate those policies effectively to voters?
I believe part of that answer is a lack of passion on the part of many elected officials and presidential candidates about those principles. And part of it is the Democratic Party itself. We should all be ashamed of the way the DNC operated during the election cycle. Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s behavior ran completely counter to what the Democratic Party is supposed to stand for. When elected officials and candidates and the Party itself benefit financially from a system of corporate and lobbyist donations, it gets really hard really quickly to take meaningful, passionate stands against that system. So much so that the Party itself favored the candidate that would continue that system, even when it meant not listening to the needs and wants of its own members.
I was so sad to read articles from the debate for DNC chair which occurred on January 18th. It appears the DNC and the Party is not learning its lesson, and is poised to repeat the same mistakes again. The candidates, even the most progressive ones, could not commit to reinstating the ban on lobbyists giving the Party money. Could not agree that the Party made mistakes in 2016. If we’re not going to be doing anything differently, why should we expect to win the next election? Why should ordinary Democrats want to support the DNC if its goal isn’t to have a different strategy next time?
At the rate it’s going, the Democratic Party will not only keep losing elections, it will start losing a chunk of its loyal members--you know, the ones who actually go out and canvass, volunteer, register people to vote, and contribute financially to the Party. I, a deeply loyal Democrat, wouldn’t give the DNC money right now. Doesn’t that tell you something? It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to get to a scenario where the Party loses more and more every-day funders, and makes up the difference by accepting more and more donations from special interests, losing more credibility and backbone by the day. And losing more and more elections until there really isn’t a difference between Republicans and Democrats, or until the Party dies out.
But there’s another way. Look at Bernie Sanders’ campaign. When Democrats are inspired, they take out their wallets. We don’t need money from corporations. We need candidates with passion and drive and ethics and goals.
The Party cannot afford another DNC chair like Debbie Wasserman Schultz. The DNC needs to realize what’s happening outside the Party Establishment and elect the most progressive DNC chair possible, or it will reap the consequences in two years, and in four.
