The fact that Hillary Rodman Clinton was even nominated as
the presidential candidate, ignoring her garbage, ignoring her negatives, total
lack of charisma, corruption, failed policies, and unbelievably poor judgment –
and still being astonished lost the election.
Is more than sufficient evidence the Democratic Party has no interest in
changing, let alone reforming or even re-connecting with its base.
But you probably want a bit more than that.
For starters, Charles Schumer, the architect of the Clinton Campaign,
the one who said that for every blue-collar Democrat we lose, Clinton would
pick up two or three rural moderate Republicans, and just about as big a corporate
whore as you could name, was just appointed the Democratic Leader in the Senate.
But others might point out that Bernie Sanders has just
nominated Keith Ellison to be the new chair of the DNC. Accept so far, the only qualification offered
of Ellison for the DNC chair is that he is a “Black Muslim.” This is the same sort of demographic nonsense
that held lose Clinton the election in the first place. And while there are some words said on how
the Democratic Party needs “new blood”, still no voice is given to why that new
blood is needed, let alone discussing the corruption that has taken root in the
leadership. And you know who else is
backing Ellison? Charles Schumer! Picking up a pattern here?
So what is really at work here isn’t a battle to reform the
Democratic Party – but a battle to try and give the leadership a veneer of
change by placing certain names (left leadership like Bernie Sanders) in “important
positions” of public outreach and communications positions, but with little to
no real power to influence, let alone reform the party platform. In the end, nothing really changes.
I speak from experience here because Clinton’s defeat was hardly
the only time the Democratic underwent a “battle for its soul.” Similar battles were fought, and even supposedly
won when All Gore and John Kerry both lost their battles with the allegedly fascist
leadership of the Republicans. And we
are still here despite those victories.
The problem is that while there is “hope” to reform the
party, it’s a fool’s hope deliberately manufactured by the establishment. Victories are easy to come by. But once the left has looked away, the
victories all fade away into nothing – as if they never happened, not even
memory remains. The establishment has a
long game plan in place and have become very adept at re-shaping the narrative. Just as they have grown skillful in snatching
defeat from the evitable jaws of victory, they have become just as adept into
reframing that defeat into a triumph of failure.
Getting progressives into key positions is not enough. Real progress will only be marked when you manage
to get the establishment Democrats removed from their positions of
influence.
But the Democratic Party has become filled with ghosts. The moment you shine the light of transparency
on them, they vanish, disappearing into the forest of lobbyists firms and corporate
boardrooms. And there they wait, snuggled
in lucrative contracts and donner retreats.
There they wait until a future administration or political campaign
opens up, and they once again fill a post or office. So simply getting establishment Democrats
removed from a post or office is no longer enough.
And that is the key observation here. It’s damn hard just getting establishment Democrats
evicted from a post, and getting them kicked out of office usually means erecting
a Republican in their place. But how do
you remove corrupt Democrats from the rolodex of those who manage to retain
influence in the party? You can’t. And that is my argument as to why the
Democratic Party cannot be saved, and why it will never change. The moment the pressure relents, the moment
Democrats actually do win in the polls, the ghosts return – as if they were
never gone – as if they never failed.
The only way real change will ever be realized is in
building a viable third party. Alas,
this is a task easier said than done.
