Gaztopian
DP Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 26, 2015
- Messages
- 1,476
- Reaction score
- 481
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Centrist
To be honest, it needs to be torn apart and rebuilt; it is nakedly deluged in corruption; a hardcore Clinton partisan like Donna Brazile (fired from even CNN for passing the Clinton campaign debate questions) replacing the thoroughly venal DWS is a particularly glaring example of the persistence and sheer audacity of its debasement. What better time than now after all the political die have been cast, federal political office has been settled and the Democrats have suffered an edifying loss due to defunct neoliberal establishment politics and candidates? One of the few good things about this failure is that it lays bare the laughable inadequacy of the old guard and the Clintonites 'middle way', and provides the foundation and path back to being a party that represents its constituents, particularly the working and middle class, and their concerns more than monied donors.
That having been said it's important to note that political cannibalism/insurgency wasn't the primary cause of Clinton's loss so much as deserved distrust and dispassion with her as a candidate; the well founded perception that she and her establishment Dem peers are not in fact especially concerned with or connected to the plight and apprehensions of the average person. Poor turnout and flipping of the blue wall/Rust Belt says it all really; that the Democrats are no longer trusted as good faith representatives for those they have always claimed as their core supporters. Did tensions with Bernie contribute to that to some extent? Sure. But without a doubt the most culpable parties of all and by far are Clinton and the DNC.
Although probably for different reasons, I, too, support the demolition of the democratic party and its reconstruction. But what I repudiate is progressives' entitlement to be the architects of the new democratic party.
After the contentious democratic primaries, disillusioned progressives rebuffed the democratic establishment's calls for party unity in the DNC leading to the general elections' campaign. A large segment of the progressive base barracked itself behind the asinine Bernie or Bust movement; the more rational segment reasoned that progressives aren't necessarily democrats - they only vote democrat out of self-interest, and once that vote ceases to serve their best interest, progressives are under no obligation to commit to the party in the general elections and fall behind its candidate.
In light of the aforementioned, what gives progressives the right to dictate the new direction of the democratic party and its leadership?