50 Years of Failure — Why Corporate Democrats Must Be Removed at Every Level
I’m sure that everyone reading this is aware of the tragic news coming out of the supreme court. Unfortunately once again the worst fears of progressives have come to fruition. In particular that the right wing in this country is a radical theocratic movement hellbent on actively backsliding the country while major crises go unaddressed and that the establishment, corporate, centrist and conservative Democrats that control the party are fundamentally incapable of protecting people from this radical movement.
This might be the most significant electoral issue in decades and will likely dramatically increase voter turnout, especially among women and other minority groups that are highly sympathetic to women’s issues. At least that’s what should happen if we hammer on this issue and not let it go.
So here is the primary point of this article. We need to use this opportunity, this moment, to radicalize liberals and drive them to the left. We need to drill the following facts into their heads and bring it up every chance we get:
1. Hillary Clinton picked an anti-abortion running mate in 2016. In the biggest moment of her life and on the biggest stage, when she finally made it to the general election - she picked a conservative anti-choice democrat.
2. Obama failed to codify Roe v Wade into law. He promised planned parenthood in 2008 on the campaign trail that it would be the FIRST thing that he did. After he got into office and was asked about it he said there were more important things to do. Since Roe v Wade was upheld, democrats have had super majorities in congress 11 times and failed to codify it into law.
3. At the moment that the supreme court leak was announced and America became aware that they were planning to overturn the federal protections for women’s bodily autonomy, Nancy Pelosi was actively campaigning for an anti-abortion male democrat in Texas against a young progressive pro-choice woman.
These three facts and talking points need to be repeated over and over until these failures are a readily known fact in everyone’s heads. These are three of the most powerful figures in the democratic party that have wielded the most power in American politics over the last 20 years and their repeated failures to protect women are well-documented and cannot be forgiven.
The democratic party has failed massively and in more ways than I care to account for in this article. But with this issue - this is the final straw. Not only did they fail to protect women’s civil rights multiple times over the decades, but they actively played a role in making that happen by propping up anti-abortion democrats. Establishment Democrats must pay a political price for a failure this massive. They cannot be allowed to be unscathed by this politically. For far too long they have failed us on issue after issue after issue without any repercussions. When you fail your constituents you pay a political price. That is how the system is supposed to work. But democrats have been immune to this for decades. That has to stop here. But if we can’t make them pay for this failure then the left might as well pack it up and go home — we will never win people over on any issue.
If the left can’t win on this while inflicting damage to republicans and corporate democrats, the way I see it, political leftism is dead in the United States for all intents and purposes. Our energy would be better spent on community and workplace organizing, mutual aid and direct action. We won’t be able to win on anything else and all of our political efforts from here on out will be wasted energy and aesthetic role playing that would be better spent directly helping people.
We must seize this moment to drive liberals to the left by staying on this point and not letting it go. This issue will not only be the most important issue at the ballot box in 2022, but also in many elections to come — the general in 2024, the 2026 midterms and the 2028 general. Until Roe v Wade is codified into law (and at this point I’m not sure how it wouldn’t be struck down by this radical supreme court), this issue will likely be the number one issue at the polls and I believe we can expect a significant increase in voter turnout.
There is a very real opportunity here to swell the progressive ranks in the house and senate given the chance of increased voter turnout combined with the deep unpopularity of the supreme court decision and the republican position.
The talking point formula on this is very simple, very clear and most importantly it is true.
1. Roe v Wade has been law for 50 years.
2. In that time, establishment Democrats failed to act to protect women. We have many major examples of this — the ones I gave earlier. Obama, Hillary, Pelosi and 11 super majorities. We have 50 years of evidence that proves that establishment Democrats won’t act on this. What, are they suddenly going to do better this time? Pinkie promise no takesies backsies? And what, you believe that? Based on what, exactly? What about the instances of these establishment democrats actively propping up the anti-abortion movement? What is the defense for that?
3. To protect women and the right to bodily autonomy, we must vote in progressives and leftists at every available opportunity and every available level while voting out establishment centrist and conservative democrats. Conservative and establishment democrats have failed. They had the power. They had control of the party, its piggy bank, and all of the levers of power that go with that, for decades, and they failed. This is 1000% on them and don’t let smug ignorant democratic party loyalists tell you otherwise. This is the failure of establishment democrats to act in the face of the very clear danger of the anti-abortion movement over a 50 year period. Obama had huge majorities in the house and senate and didn’t codify Roe v Wade into law even after promising planned parenthood that he would.
So again, the short version of the formula is:
1. Roe v Wade has been law for 50 years.
2. Establishment democrats failed to protect women even when they had the power to and actually aided the anti-abortion movement.
3. To protect women, we must vote out establishment, centrist and conservative democrats and vote in progressives and leftists at every chance and level available.
We have to stay on this and not let it go. We cannot backslide and cede ground here. This is a massive opportunity for the left to ascend in this country and pull huge numbers of people from being independent-liberals or liberal-democrats to being progressives by going full-throttle on this issue and not letting off. We need to use these talking points offensively — not just as a defense when liberals try to gaslight us and blame the left for Roe v Wade. Hammer on these points. We need to make it clear to liberals — if you stand with the corporate Democrats that failed to protect women even when they had the power to, and if you stand against progressives that will fight for women tooth and nail, then you basically stand against women and their right to bodily autonomy. That is the most simplified and stripped-down version of the talking point. Take it and spread it to all corners of the lands.
The message of this article is for all leftists and progressives regardless of party affiliation. If you’re of the belief that we shouldn’t be working with or within the democratic party you can still use this talking point to radicalize voters into supporting your 3rd party candidate over the incumbent establishment democrat. We need to push as left as we can at every available opportunity. City councils, state senate, state house, governors, etc. I’m sure there will be many instances where Greens or other progressive third-party candidates are the best available choice and we should do our best to get them in.
However, on that note, I have something to say. I want to extend a bit of an olive-branch to the leftists and progressives out there that are vehemently anti-Democrat. The Jimmy Dore fans, the Greens, etc. But before I do that, there has to be a bit of accountability.
For terminally online-leftists like myself, the second debate between Sam Seder and Jimmy Dore that took place in 2016, which largely revolved around Trump’s affect on the supreme court, is a pretty well-known event. I think for many of us, it represented two of the most famous figures from the two major diverging areas of thought among leftists and progressives — those who want to work with and then take over the democratic party, and those who believe we should never vote for them at all, for any reason.
In the debate, Jimmy mocked the idea that Trump would be able to nominate two or even three supreme court justices. He even floated the idea that progressives should vote for Trump because it would “destroy” the conservative movement and they would be unable to hold governing majorities for decades to come. Watching this debate from 2016 in 2022 makes Dore look disastrously bad.
Look, it’s okay for Jimmy to be wrong on this. The proof is in the pudding. The evidence is right in front of our face. It’s okay to be wrong, as long as he (and his audience) are able to identify that he was wrong and own up to it. Politics is a tricky business. We say a lot of things and make a lot of predictions. It’s okay to get stuff wrong — just own it when it happens. Don’t mental gymnastics your way into a podium placement.
The second thing I want to say on this is addressed specifically to Jimmy Dore and his audience. I want you to take a good, long second-look at the alliance that Jimmy has been advocating for with right wingers.
Look at the political program that the right is pushing for — they just stripped civil rights from 50% of the population and all signs are pointing towards them coming for gay marriage next. Red states are already making moves to criminalize birth control like condoms and Plan B pills. The right are not our allies. Tucker Carlson is not our ally. What more proof do you need? Do not let yourself be tricked into believing that the backwards social values of the right are a thing of the past. Just because some of them give lip-service to anti-corporate rhetoric that doesn’t make them allies to the progressive cause. Please, for the love of god, I’m genuinely begging you, stop ingratiating and normalizing fake-populist right-wingers to left-wing audiences. You are letting the wolves into the hen-house and de-fanging the guard dogs. Minority groups suffer when the right wields power.
Now all of that being said here is my olive branch to all the factions of leftists that aggressively oppose the democratic party.
As much as Republicans and Democrats are responsible for Roe v Wade being overturned, there is a third faction that carries some degree of blame — leftists. We are witnessing what happens when the left is disjointed, unorganized, internally and externally incoherent and constantly infighting. As leftists and progressives we could and should have done better over the decades to organize, mobilize, and prevent this sort of thing from happening.
The flip side of this catastrophe is that the left has a serious opportunity here to dramatically increase the ranks of progressives in government and dramatically increase public support for our cause. So let us work together and do exactly that. We need to elect progressives into office at every available opportunity and at every level — regardless of their party affiliation. To do that, we need to hammer on the abortion rights talking points that I’ve illustrated in this video and elect the left-most candidates with the best chance of winning, at every election possible. I am calling on Jimmy Dore fans, green-party voters, MPP supporters and every variation of them, to band together with leftist-Democrats and vote for and support leftist-progressive democrats, when there is one on the ballot that actually has a shot of winning. Likewise, I am also calling on progressive-Democrats to support progressive 3rd party candidates on the ballot that actually have a chance of winning. Party is irrelevant — we must significantly increase the number of politicians at all levels of government that will support and fight for a progressive policy agenda.
We see what happens when the left is too busy fighting itself — the right wins and the country backslides. Centrist and older Democrats are not going to wield power to fight the right and the corporations. That leaves only us. Who else is there? If Republicans are hell-bent on making everything as bad as possible, and corporate-Democrats are paid-off to stand by and watch them do it, who is going to fight to make things better? Who is going to fight for women? Who is going to fight for criminal justice reform? For campaign finance reform? For universal healthcare? Who is going to fight against climate change and the end of life as we know it? The left are the only ones capable of this.
Let us put our old grudges and grievances aside. Let us lay down the divides over party politics and electoralism. This isn’t about that. Whether you think the democratic party can be taken over from the inside or not, is irrelevant. This isn’t about that either. This is about progressives and leftists of all flavors banding together and seizing material power in government, so that power can then be wielded to fight for the working class, for women, for minorities, for a better country and for a better world. This is our moment. This is our chance. If there are any among us that were ever serious about this whole “leftist movement” thing and not just role playing — now is the time to give it everything we have and fight with everything we’ve got. Women can’t wait. The victims of racism and xenophobia can’t wait. Working class families dying without healthcare cannot wait. The ability of the planet to sustain life itself, cannot wait. It is now or never.
My last point on this is that I am fully aware that the most tribal of people on both sides of this divide will mock me for this appeal to unity. But this message isn’t for them. This message is for the scores of sensible lefties on both sides that have a genuine good-faith disagreement on tactics, and who actually want to win and fight for a policy agenda that serves the majority instead of a tiny elite. It’s time to drop the binary and reductive debate over whether we should work with democrats or not. Let’s put party affiliation completely by the wayside and support progressives at every chance. This country is changing rapidly. The parties are changing. Power balances are in flux. What the left has been doing in the past hasn’t been working. We must adapt and change or die out and leave the country to ruin — and probably the world along with it. No one is coming to save us. We have to try new strategies, revisit and bring back old ones. I don’t know — the only thing I do know is that what we’ve been doing hasn’t delivered any results.
The overturning of Roe v Wade is the most significant development in American domestic policy probably since the case was originally upheld by the supreme court. As such, it is an incredibly galvanizing political issue that will hugely increase voter turnout. Given the deeply unpopular position of the Republican party on abortion rights and the many high-profile failures of establishment democrats to protect women, the left has a real opportunity here to become ascendant once more, seize a great deal of political power and do some real good in the world with it. The United States has been stagnant or backsliding for 50 years. Multiple generations have now been born without seeing material conditions improve and get better in their country. People have forgotten what it’s like to live in a nation where their government actually serves their interests over the interests of the ultra-wealthy and the corporations. People have forgotten what it’s like to have hope.
So let’s remind them.
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I hope you all have a beautiful day or night, wherever and whenever you may be.
