Fixing the boat.
The boat needs two distinct actions.
- Repair the holes that let the water into the boat.
- Bail the water out of the boat.
Bailing out the water
Bailing the water out of the boat must begin immediately. Unfortunately, the bailing will have limited effectiveness because the situation is so dire, but the situation will be direr and perhaps irretrievable without bailing. Bailing involves activism. Mocking Trump and others may be fun and provide some satisfaction, but may produce the opposite of the intended result. More effective activism involves making obvious what we want and how many we are.
- Marches and peaceful demonstrations (non-peaceful demonstrations can alienate people who otherwise would be supporters and in our current society, may invite police brutality),
- Phone calls, cards or letters, email, and social media contacts, all providing the simple message We want this or We want you to do this. All political offices should be inundated in contacts. Petitions may be effective if signed by thousands. A petition that contains a dozen signatures is a joke.
- Attend the town hall meetings of elected officials, Write letters to the editor of local papers (they will typically not publish letters from outside of their circulation area), write op ed articles.
Repair the holes
It seems pretty obvious that the cause of a significant portion of the holes in the boat can be traced back to the parties, particularly the Democratic Party. There are two options:
- Fix the existing Democratic Party.
There are at least two major movements to recruit non-establishment, non-corrupted candidates in an effort to replace establishment, non-progressive Democratic incumbents and as well to replace Republican incumbents. The goal is to change the party from the inside. There are several good reasons to pursue that approach. The Democratic Party has the substantial organizational infrastructure that a nationwide party needs and name recognition. Many consistently vote Democrat because they identify themselves with the party. They have always voted Democrat, their parents did, their grandparents did, and on and on. This is the party loyalty that both parties have come to expect.
Reforming the existing party will not be easy. Regardless of the quality of candidates that grassroots efforts provide, the party often decides who may run and who may not. The party is in turmoil. A substantial and powerful part of the party wants to keep the status quo, which generates money and power for them. The selection of leadership for the party is in contention, with most of the candidates for DNC Chair seeing no problem with the status quo (other than the voters who should be loyal and aren’t), there are a few somewhere between status quo and progressive (one more progressive than others), and one vocal progressive. The results of the decision during the selection of the DNC Chair during the February 23-26 weekend will be an indicator of whether the party can be salvaged for the benefit of the ordinary citizens instead of the corporations and donor class.
- Replace the Democratic Party
There is new movement that intends to start a new party to complete with or replace the Democratic Party.
Conventional Wisdom is that a third party will not work. Conventional Wisdom, like Party Loyalty, is good for those who don’t want to think. There are many examples of failed parties, about 92 of them throughout US history. The Green Party and the Libertarian Party both stay around but with insignificant effect. Third parties have been blamed for unsatisfactory election results, although those results have been more a case of the established parties not really presenting candidates to vote for, as was the case in the 2016 election.
Times now are different than they have been for a long time. It is a case of, as that great philosopher Yogi Berra said, déjà vu all over again. In the mid-1850s, the Whig party failed to support their own constituency, or what should have been their constituency. A new party, the Republican Party (which was progressive at the outset and later turned conservative while the conservative Democratic Party became liberal), was formed in 1854 from former Whig members who thought that the status quo of the Whig establishment could not be sustained. In six years, the Republican Party was in control of Congress and the White House. The Whig party disbanded.
Today’s situation is similar to that of 1854. The Democratic Party is not responsive to its historic constituency. There is a substantial opposition that is in position to usurp the Democratic Party in the same way that the Republicans usurped the Whigs. The movement to start a new party is centered around the very popular policies and positions of Bernie Sanders. They are actively trying to recruit Sanders to lead the party. With Sanders, the party has an overwhelming chance of success. If he declines to lead the party, the pursuit of his popular policies and positions still stand a very substantial chance of success. The vast majority of Americans are tired of endless war, poverty, declining lifestyle, and the other oppressive elements of life in America today.
By the end of February, the Democratic Party will have decided if it wants to reform and become a party of its constituency, or if it wants to remain a party of corporations and the donor class. That decision will drive how the holes in the boat are fixed. If the party decides to reform, the organizations who are looking for non-establishment candidates has the best strategy. If not, the new party is the best strategy. The organizations looking for new progressive candidates can offer them as candidates in the new party.
Just before the 2016 election was the wrong time to consider starting a new party and seizing power from the Democratic Establishment. If the Democratic Party does not become responsive to the progressives that were once their base with their choice of leadership this month, the time to consider starting a new progressive party is now.
Time is short. We are in more of a crisis that we have ever been, inclusive of the Cold War and World War II. Not only does the Republican Party and the associated oligarchy control Congress and the White House, they are dangerously close to holding enough power in the states to allow them to amend the constitution with impunity. If the Democratic Party continues its losing ways, pandering to the corporate and wealthy individual interests and ignoring the other 99 percent of the population, they may lose enough in the next election to allow a complete takeover of the country by the powers of oligarchy. At that point, the country that we know may be irretrievable.
- 30 –
Thos