Working for the DNC, for a normal person, must be like working at Enron or something. The DNC is the center of a major fraud lawsuit from former Bernie Sanders supporters, who represent people like me. I donated to and volunteered for Bernie, under the impression that the Democratic primary would be handled fairly. It was accidentally admitted by the current chair of the DNC that the primary was rigged. We’ve learned through email leaks that the DNC was coordinating to shill for Hillary from the early stages. We witnessed Tulsi Gabbard step down from the vice-chair role because she didn’t want to be a part of it; then the DNC threatened to never support her again because she didn’t fall in line.
We know it happened, but the DNC knows if they admit it, even the old loyalists that support them will have a hard time sticking with them. It’s a shame; they could have started a healing process back when Tom Perez admitted it was rigged. They could have finally said “Okay, we know that favoritism got out of hand here, and Sanders was conspired against even though we claimed that to be untrue at the time.” They could have tried something akin to honesty, but instead they had Perez retract the statement. And now we are at the point of this lawsuit, and the most angry progressives are becoming ironclad- in some cases to the point of irrationality- haters of all things remotely related to the DNC. As the rest of the country has started to love Bernie Sanders, these folks have shifted so far out of context that they low-key support Trump. Dammit, DNC!
The Democrats prefer to argue about how they are a private organization, which is true. But they went to the point of arguing that they could choose the candidate in a back room, if they wanted. Therefore, they consider neutrality to be something they strive for, but feel no actual obligation to achieve. The words “impartial” and “evenhanded” are meaningless to them, despite being in their charter. Wow. If people who are (still) Democrats can stomach this, I’m not sure this can ever be a progressive party again. The Democrats might need to stay centrist with this lack of integrity. We might need to start over with a new progressive party that will appeal to those of us outside the duopoly.
It would be harder to go third party, than to hijack the Democrats. Maybe. Just maybe, the rich jerks at the top of the DNC would pivot, given a large enough threat of falling into oblivion. But it is getting harder to have hope in them, no matter how many joke unity tours they have. I still think that efforts like Justice Democrats & Brand New Congress can work. I still think Draft Bernie could work as well. The result of this lawsuit will likely shift the scales in a major way.
But let’s say the DNC loses horribly, creating a (bigger) mass exodus from the Democratic Party. Let’s say the party becomes obsolete – what happens then? Will all the people who voted for Hillary as a form of damage control be permanently banished from consideration as “progressives?” Will the alt-youtubers who hate everyone right now be able to gather a critical mass around their form of liberalism? Or will we just end up with a new kind of DNC, co-opted by big money, while those of us with good ideas fail to connect and align? It is anyone’s guess, but it can go bad. Those of us who are using our voice need to use it better. ALL of us.