DNC Revelations

There have been some interesting revelations this past week regarding the Democratic Party. ... sort of.

In reality, Donna Brazile's allegations regarding DNC corruption & the Clinton campaign's takeover of the party are nothing new to Bernie Sanders fans. I even wrote a blog post last year arguing Bernie should join the Greens after suspicious voting problems surfaced in the primaries. There were reports more than a year ago of voter purges (recently confirmed by the NYC board of elections). Now, Brazile is confirming that the DNC did in fact have a bias toward Clinton -- because Clinton campaign and the DNC signed a contract allowing the campaign to effectively control all DNC decisions!

It feels to me a bit like posturing. Perhaps Brazile and some of her allies want to have the "tell all" in order to either get their 15 minutes of limelight as they retire. But I lean toward thinking that Brazile and others know that the DNC is on a bad path, voters are angry, and they don't want to receive the full blame. Brazile is probably hopeful she can retain her cushy job in the DNC by being the "whistleblower", for example; I have not seen any story so far mention that she was recently appointed to the DNC's rules committee, meaning she is one of the members that sets the rules for the 2020 primaries. As far as I know she has't resigned from the post, and it would now look super suspicious if Tom Perez fired her after these allegations came out, so she probably feels fairly "safe" in her position of power within the party now. Voters are angry, fundraising is way down, the party is doing terribly, and she doesn't want the blame, she wants to sneak in as a "well I never supported the corruption, I'm the whistleblower!". Don't fall for it, she hasn't changed and magically become more progressive, she's fighting to save her source of income.

So that said, what is the next step from this revelation?

I think many will likely use this as an opportunity to "rally the troops" to take over the DNC with more progressives. That is, Justice Democrats or similar organizations will say "we have the corporate DNC on the ropes, support us and we'll win and take over the party!". DON'T LISTEN TO THEM. This doesn't change anything, it just further exposes how fundamentally corrupt the DNC organization is and how they will never change.

The DNC chair is still a corporatist. He appointed corporate lobbyists to most positions of power and purged the progressives. They still back corporate-funded candidates over grassroots-funded progressives. They still have superdelegates to control who wins the party nomination. Party primaries are still done under party rules, meaning they don't legally have to uphold any sort of fair nomination process for any level of office -- and Brazile and others involved in this scandal are working right now to set the primary and debate rules for 2020! Do you think they'll make rules that favor a progressive winning? (Look at the DNC's recent resolution that specifically said Bernie and other independents should join the Democratic party -- they know he won't, but they will use it say he isn't qualified to run for office in 2020, mark my words) And they're working harder than ever to shift their platform to the right and court more right-wing voters and, in particular, rich donors. With the GOP self-destructing under Trump, they want to step in and basically be the "new" right-wing party.

A few Democrat officials will be thrown under the bus, fired from their jobs as a sacrifice to "save" the party in its current form, but make no mistake: the corporate influence is not gone. Just because the influence has potentially turned against Clinton doesn't mean it decided to give up and go home. Power gives up nothing when it doesn't have to. This just means the power and influence has decided Clinton is a liability, and is looking at other candidates and leaders for future elections, and you can bet those new leaders won't be progressive. Oh they might appoint a mild progressive to some ceremonial position with no power (as they did to Keith Ellison), but there is no way corporate donors will let a real progressive that threatens their influence on the party into any position of power within the party.

These allegations show how deep the corruption runs. Those that run the DNC let Clinton basically have the party so they could make more money from her. They filled up the DNC budget with "consultants" that got big paychecks that didn't pay off when Clinton lost an election that should have been easily winnable. That's why this is coming out. Not because they're changing strategy, but simply that they're changing the face of the party.

We cannot fight corporate Democrats on their terms. When we play their game and run in Democratic primaries, we lose, often in that election but even if a progressive sometimes wins, we lose the long game. They can suppress primaries, as we've seen. They can work against progressives. And in the off chance a progressive wins a race, they can use the party machinery to crush dissent and make the progressives "compromise" or smear them. Even with progressives within the Democratic party, they're fighting a corporate platform trying to blend into the party instead of proudly pushing for a true left-wing agenda with a party that supports them.

We must fight on OUR terms. We do that with a two-pronged approach:

1. Join the Green Party. Don't compromise on ideals. Greens have a strongly progressive platform, much more progressive than even Bernie Sanders. Greens are more accurately referred to as "eco-socialist". We must not settle for compromise with Democrats; we must take our agenda straight to the Americans people and convince them of the need for a strongly socialist platform. We must not let Democrats unilaterally set what the "moderate" or "centrist" or "compromise" viewpoint is; who appointed them in charge of defining those terms, defining what Americans want? I think most Americans actually want a Green agenda if they only knew what it was! I think the Green platform *is* the centrist, *is* the compromise agenda. The Democrats are a largely right-wing platform, moving further and further away from Americans' ideals every year, and it's time to start treating it that way. Joining the Green Party, supporting Green candidates, and running for office as a Green gets you a platform to talk about a real progressive eco-socialist agenda instead. You can proudly speak your mind knowing the party is behind you, rather than angry.

2. Many objections to Greens boil down to "the system is rigged against them, so we have to run as a Democrat". Think about that for a second: the system is so rigged that no other candidates even have a chance, and yet you think Democratic primaries are not rigged and can be won by the opposition? Those two statements are fundamentally opposed, and I encourage you to reflect on that strategy and ask if primary opponents will really work better long run than running in general election.

I personally believe that, while there is definitely corruption within the major parties and their processes such as their primaries, our election and justice system on the whole still work reasonably well. Most Americans have a sense of fairness and do not share the attitude of party leaders. Most elections (even primaries) went smoothly, it was only some districts that had problems. While court is complex and costly and needs reform, it does still work, and was the preferred method of getting justice for activists such as Martin Luther King, Jr.

So I say we run candidates as much as possible. When corruption and problems surface, we attack them in court. We can win court battles to make a more fair system. Jill Stein, the 2016 Green presidential nominee, already did this in Pennsylvania: her lawsuit last year got a state law struck down that required any candidates not in the two major parties to go through extra hoops to get on the ballot that Republicans and Democrats didn't have to do. For example, Greens would need thousands of signatures to be on the ballot, but Republicans and Democrats only would need 500. How is that fair? It wasn't, and a court struck down that law. We won, which is why we're seeing more Greens this year running for office, and I hope to see even more in future years.

While the presidential elections are high profile and so the most complex and corrupted (and so need a lot of work!), we're seeing a lot of progress at the local and state level. So we need to be running more candidates at those levels, and filing lawsuits as necessary to continue to pave the way for future elections. Those campaigns, even when they don't win, help educate voters and the general public about these sorts of issues, so it's even more critical to run for office -- hopefully you win, but even if you don't, it's a very important voter education task that needs done anyway.

Now I'm saying Green here as it is the largest party that I feel shares my values, but we see others popping up that may also work. Socialist Alternative, Progressive Independent Party, "Draft Bernie" (not sure if they made a better name yet, People's Party?). Choose whatever party best interests you. I encourage you to join the Greens because we're growing and I think have the most momentum, but do what makes sense for you and your area. Let's also get all of these parties together to talk how we can form a coalition.

Third parties are the only way to truly break the spell of corporate rigged elections and capitalism. If we want fair elections, grassroots democracy, and a more socialist economy, we MUST fight in a new party, because the two major ones will always be against us. Fighting from within puts us at a disadvantage. While fighting as a third party is also difficult and uphill, victories we gain will be long-lasting victories that change the national discussion on our own terms, which is really what our ultimate goal is. It is worth the fight. I hope you'll join us.

Bernie's Endorsement

Bernie's endorsement today of Hillary Clinton has given me mixed feelings.

On the one hand, I sympathize with being afraid of Donald Trump. He should not be president. He does not represent the majority of Americans' views on many many topics. He's racist, he's quick to jump on people in anger, he's pro-business and won't help most Americans. I don't know what his voters see in him.

But on the other hand, we know that Clinton is racist ("superpredators" need to heel), quick to anger (see how she gets bent out of shape in her NPR interview with Terry Gross when Terry was clear what she meant by her question early on, Clinton jumped to conclusions a bit), pro-business (see her support of the TPP and her bizarre debate answer of supporting banks because "9/11"). On social issues she generally isn't as bad as a Republican, I will admit that, but I overall don't know what voters see in her either.

Obviously, Bernie made the calculation that good change is more likely under Clinton than Trump, and I can't really argue that. But I'm not convinced that Clinton will change anything for the better. Since Bernie has been an outsider -- running as an independent against democrats and republicans -- I had always hoped he'd stay an outsider. If he couldn't push the Democratic party, then he'd go Independent, or possibly with the Greens and Dr Jill Stein.

It's really a difficult decision. But I think overall I can't really support that calculus. Progressives should defeat Donald Trump by #UniteGreen behind Bernie and Jill. That ticket would crush Trump, whereas Clinton is quite a gamble that could actually lose. But, fear of Trump is preventing that from happening, when we could win by staying positive. I hope Bernie isn't giving in to fear of Trump, but with the endorsement, I can't say I'm optimistic he will go independent. I guess we will have to see what happens at the convention.

A future blog post will discuss why our election system needs to change if we intend to stop having elections that are always between a rock and a hard place.

Bernie, Go Green

As it looks as of 10pm Tuesday night, Bernie is only in the lead in North Dakota. While impressively close to Clinton despite being essentially unknown a year ago, I don't think he quite made up the deficit. While I'd love to see California go for Bernie tonight, realistically, even with a large California win, the popular vote and delegate math (even without superdelegates) are against him. Clinton has more votes and more delegates, and it becomes harder to make a case for Bernie. On the face of it, it seems to subvert the will of the people.

Don't get me wrong, this election has been FULL of suspicious events: starting from the very first coin flips in Iowa, we knew this would be quite an election. Since then, we've had many states be very close calls, only after polling locations were closed and Bill Clinton suddenly decided to visit precincts, snarling voters in long lines. We've seen Arizona and other states close polling locations and run out of ballots. We've seen states move polling locations last minute. We've seen the number of debates restricted, with debates being late on Saturdays when less people are able to tune in. We've seen state conventions like Nevada attempt to suppress dissent with false voice votes, and a resulting media frenzy trying to make Bernie supporters look bad. We've seen the media declare a primary winner the night before the last major primary, when there was no reason or indication to do so.

It's entirely reasonable to be angry at the process. At the very least, our presidential voting process is confusing and needs serious reform. Increasingly, these events point to conscious attempts to manipulate the vote, but without more specific evidence, not much can be done.

But it is also clear that Bernie's preferred method -- changing the system from within -- isn't going to work, certainly not this election cycle. Aside from the allegations of vote manipulation, the Democratic party no longer represents a very large part of the population, and honestly, neither major party represents a large part of the country. Half of the country in not affiliated with a party, and the primary process for both Republicans and Democrats essentially leaves out half of the country. That isn't acceptable and needs to be changed. While the Republican agenda is one of obstruction, hate, and fear, the Democratic agenda is supporting their corporate donors. True, the Democrats aren't pushing for discrimination like Republicans, but they're also ignoring the economic plight of many Americans. For evidence, see how hard Hillary Clinton hit Bernie's proposals that used to be staples of the Democratic party: universal healthcare, universal free education (college, in this case), living wages, etc. Private insurance companies, banks, and large corporations all fight these proposals, and Democratic party officials like Clinton tend to side with them.

If we want to really make this country move in a Progressive direction, I don't believe we will get there with Republicans or Democrats. We need a new party for the people. A new party for the Progressives in the Democratic party that are disillusioned, and the progressive-minded independents out there that probably form a voting bloc at least as big as the Democratic party itself. If we unite under a true progressive party, we're the majority, and we win.

While we could form a new party, there might not be a need. The Green Party of the US already holds most of Bernie's positions: fight global warming, create jobs with clean energy, forgive student debt, make universal healthcare. Dr. Jill Stein, Green Party nominee from 2012 and candidate in 2016, not only holds most of Bernie's positions, but has actively reached out to Bernie for "collaboration".

Bernie, please take up Dr. Stein on her offer, and switch to the Green Party nomination. The revolution you started is big enough to win the general election if we all band together. And even if it wasn't, at least we'd be fighting for our principles, not campaigning for a major party that actively opposes those principles.