Friday, November 11, 2016

The DNC must be dismantled or reconstituted

The scope of the DNC's failure is catastrophic. Yet not a single mea culpa. Nobody accountable. The party itself should be dismantled or reconstituted, beginning with a grassroots movement. I will no longer accept that it it's good enough for the Democratic Party to just "be right". They have to win, too. And when was the last time they did that? Certain individuals who are Democrats occasionally win, but it's because of their own talents (i.e., Kennedy, Bill Clinton, Obama, Jerry Brown, Sanders). They win despite the Democratic Party, not because of it. The Republicans control everything--not because they're right--but because they're good at winning. We need a party that wins. The cronyism, corruption, and arrogance of the DNC leadership cannot win.

I mean christ... I won't even start on their willful ignorance of a nationwide, not-necessarily partisan, popular movement against the very establishment their candidate represented (rightly or wrongly), but what in heaven's name were they doing campaigning in Arpaioland Arizona while Democratic strongholds like Wisconsin and Michigan are slipping? No, "of course they'll vote Democrat!. We're the party of the working class!" Really? When was the last time the Democratic Party was the party of the working class? The Carter Administration? They have completely taken their base for granted for long that they aren't even a part of the conversation anymore, except as an adversary, to such an extent that a billionaire real estate mogul took it from them and beat them with it.

And then how did HRC and the DNC react to their base having slipped away? She called them "deplorable", casting them to racists and sexists, and thereby dismissing their often valid criticisms and real economic hardships underlying. On the left, critics presenting real concerns for her viability as a candidate were silenced with terms like "Bernie Bros", containing the non-so-subtly veiled suggestion of sexism. So what happens? An actual racist, sexist bigot who at least pretends to be listening to those hurt most by the transformation of the global economy, at least pretends to listen to them, offering at least some vehicle through which to express their grievances, picks them up. If only there had been another candidate who could have offered these people a political language based on socioeconomic class instead of race, enabling broad-based mobilization against their true, neoliberal oppressors! (Hint: there was). Oh, but that wouldn't please the real beneficiaries of the establishment politics HRC respresnts. The DNC deserved this loss. We didn't. The people of color getting harassed and beaten in the streets don't deserve this. The hapless and misguided Trump voters who think something good is going to come of a right-wing proto-fascist movement don't deserve this. But the DNC does, for their shocking incompetence, for their arrogance, for rigging the primary for a fundamentally flawed and out-of-touch candidate. They must be dismantled.