When Unity Becomes Impossible

The Democratic Party has lost a thousand elections in the past 8 years and have repeatedly sold out their constituencies in favor of corporate donors and appealing to the norms of Washington DC. In losing the most winnable election of all time against Trump, it was incredibly clear the party had to learn some lessons if they planned on beating Trump or regaining down ballot seats across the country. One of the first opportunities for Democrats to learn that lesson was who they were going to elect as DNC Chair.

Not long after the election, Keith Ellison, one of the only people to predict Trump’s victory, a rare congressman that had endorsed Bernie Sanders, and a left wing African American Muslim, stepped up and threw his name in the ring. He received the endorsements of Bernie Sanders and other grassroots organizers and activists, a number of labor unions, and those that supported Hillary Clinton like Chuck Schumer, John Lewis and more. Ellison brought up turnout to high levels In his district, helping ensure that no statewide Republicans would be elected in Minnesota. It’s also one of the few rust belt states that still went for Hillary Clinton. Looking at all of these indicators, Ellison seemed to be the clear choice to unify the party and organize to win elections.

This wasn’t to be the case though as Tom Perez, former Labor Secretary under Obama, was voted in as DNC chair. He emerged after Ellison had announced, and doing so after being pressured by Obama and his allies to enter the race. Perez’s record has some noticeable blemishes, his support for Israel and opposition to the BDS movement as well as his support for the TPP, but he’s not Joe Manchin. More importantly, he has absolutely no experience winning elections other than a city council race. He received no support from anyone that endorsed Bernie Sanders, and was a transparent play by Obama behind the scenes to keep establishment power on top, regardless of the consequences.

Then the smears came in full force as people like Haim Saiban and Alan Dershowitz, two Democratic donors in favor of the Israeli apartheid state, accused Ellison of being an anti-semite despite there being no evidence to that. Because Ellison is a black Muslim who believes that Palestinians are humans and deserving of dignity, he was attacked and routinely smeared by donors in the Democratic party that demand unconditional fealty to Israel. This smear campaign and the Islamophobia that exists within the Democratic Party is a major reason that Ellison lost the race.

There was no case for Perez that couldn’t also be made for Ellison and often in a better way. There were constant cries of “Perez and Ellison are both progressive”, similar to the primary, but that asks the question why did Perez run to begin with when Ellison clearly has better election experience? It’s abundantly clear that Perez ran because those in the establishment would rather keep the status quo than even compromise a fraction of their power. Ellison was not going to upend the Democratic Party, but even just giving a symbolic victory to the left was too much apparently. Combined with the DNC voting down a ban on donations from corporate lobbyists, it’s clear Democrats have learned nothing, and don’t care at all. The DNC even violated their own bylaws and put the vote to a secret ballot, so we don’t even know how the members voted.

The Democrats have spat in the face of the young, of Bernie supporters, and of all leftists that thought they would at the very least get their foot in the door. Instead Democrats haven decided to go with the exact same tried and true method of losing. They don’t care about winning elections, they don’t care about any of the policy goals they supposedly have, or anyone that’s going to be impacted by the Trump administration. Obama and his allies and donors went out of their way to find a candidate to oppose Ellison and did so. This didn’t become a factional conflict because of Bernie supporters or Ellison, but because of Obama and establishment Democrats that would sooner lose a thousand more elections than to allow those in the left wing to have just one significant role. We can only get handed the scraps, like Ellison getting Deputy Chair, a position that doesn’t even exist in the DNC bylaws, or Sanders getting Outreach Chair.

The Democratic party is nothing but rubble and ashes. Outside of a few states, they hold almost no political power. What little opposition power they have in the Senate they are reluctant to use. They huddle over their pile of ash and rock with no intention of letting it go, even as the rest of the world burns around them. And when those on the left who thought that maybe Democrats would learn a few lessons after being demolished into pieces reached out in good faith, they spat their bile into the faces. They hissed, and they clawed, and they smeared good men from their own party like Ellison with their own shit. They might look like nice decent people, but the Democrats are as ghoulish on the inside as McConnell is on the outside.

There is no working with the Democratic Party anymore. That doesn’t mean that Ellison, Sanders, Franken and other more progressive Democrats are suddenly bad people for still believing in it. They were never going to leave the party anyways. What it does mean is that the party deserves no trust, no good faith, no money, and no support from those that want something more than the previous status quo back. It’s time to go outside of the Democratic Party: Democratic Socialists of America, or groups dedicated to primarying the establishment like Brand New Congress and Justice Democrats, join any outside group that plans to antagonize those in power, but whatever you do, don’t work with Democrats that don’t care about your voice or your wellbeing. Hostile takeovers should be the only interaction with the party going forward.

The Democratic Party had an easy opportunity to welcome a new generation of voters and harness that energy for their own gain by making Ellison the DNC chair. It would not quite be the revolution that leftists had hoped for, but would certainly be the beginning to establishing some good faith between the factions within the party. In a time when Republicans seem unsure what to do with their newfound political power and an unbelievable amount of energy on the ground, combining this with a strong grassroots organizer from a rust belt state seemed like the perfect opportunity. Instead, an Islamophobic smear campaign emerged against Ellison and a candidate that so clearly represented the establishment was put up against him, and won. A candidate that is so timid and lacking of charisma he just mumbles every time he speaks. The door has been shut. These cretins and cowards chose their corporate donors and dwindling power instead of forming a coalition to win elections. They guard pathetic ruins of a party that has abandoned all of its constituents. There will be no unity.

Now they should be shown no quarter, no mercy. We should come upon what’s left of this party with rage born from years of neglect, condescension and sabotage. Every one of these craven, selfish freaks should be pursued at every opportunity. Yell at them at town halls, protest and hold sit ins in their offices at their districts and the capital. Interrupt their hearings with a cacophony of fury and passion. Descend upon their houses in the midst of night so that their neighbors can’t stand them. Blow up their phone lines until their staffers go mad. Every single officeholder and DNC member should be terrified of the public. Come at them every single opportunity until they are so tired, so fed up that they lay before us on their knees begging for an end to all of this. And in that moment, when they would do anything for us just to stop, we crush the ruins of their party into nothingness, spit in their faces, and become a party that truly stands for the poor, the marginalized and the powerless. If the establishment wants a war with the left, they’ve got their god damn war.