If you are planning to vote for a primary challenger to the DNC pick for president within that party because you can't vote for a third party you prefer as ‘they can't win’, you may want to step back at look at a few facts.
The Democratic candidate you support over President Biden has no chance of obtaining the nomination of your party if the DNC has already selected someone else. Even if you have ascribed the very best of intentions and the most honorable character to that candidate, they will still do damage to, not help, the progressive third party cause.
If your candidate chooses to run within the Democratic Party, their voice will be heard by relatively few people—those who participate in the Democratic primary. We are not talking about a full candidacy including the general election. They will not be able to debate candidates from both parties, only the Democratic candidate(s). They will be addressing a segment of the population that already largely approves of some form and/or amount of socialism—those who already understand and agree with all they say. And then they will lose the nomination. This is not up for debate. It is a fait accompli. The parties themselves control the primary elections, not the voters. They decide who will be successful through the use of superdelegates and other means. At this point, your candidate running within the Democratic Party will endorse the nominee that their party has selected, not a third party candidate. That being the case, their voice will serve one purpose. to keep voters within the Democratic Party, which has no intention of implementing any of what they advocate. Oh, they will give lip service to those ideas, but they will refrain from actually embracing them and putting those words into action.
Their candidacy will also hurt third party/independent politics by funneling resources—time, money, and effort—into a campaign that will result in nothing more than letting the chosen nominee appear to acquiesce to their progressive rhetoric once the DNC enforces its will and kicks them to the curb. Instead of being used to build third party/independent strength, it will have the opposite effect. All of these resources, so badly needed and already in short supply by third parties, will be wasted on a hope that has absolutely no chance. This has been the way of things since forever. Many have filled the role your candidate has filled in the past. Kucinich, Dean, Jackson, Moseley Braun, and, in the very recent past, Sanders. How much have those candidacies served to move the Democratic Party to the left? None. In fact, it has moved steadily to the right, as is evidenced by the governance practiced by former President Obama, a self proclaimed "1980s moderate Republican" and current President Biden, who has presided over a sharp increase in the poverty rate, opened new land for oil speculation, and gotten us into two wars—one that was imminently foreseeable from the start with the full knowledge of those making foreign policy decisions, and one who is presently perpetrating a savage genocide over a long oppressed people who have already suffered much under their rule. Both wars are being waged with the full cooperation and funding of the US.
Your candidate’s character has nothing to do with this, but their actions do. And those actions, far from having the progressive shift you want, will set the building of independent parties back an immeasurable amount, as it has every single time a ‘progressive’ candidate has garnered a following and then capitulated to the demands of the party in which they ran.
Did you know that the DNC can use superdelegates to make sure the person they want to win does win, no matter what the vote really is?
Did you know they can actually refuse to seat delegates if a state doesn't adhere to their rules? Not laws, but rules.
In fact, the DNC has argued that the DNC is a private corporation; therefore, voters cannot protect their rights by turning to the courts. And the court, while recognizing the DNC had not been fair to voters, affirmed their claim, saying,
"To the extent Plaintiffs wish to air their general grievances with the DNC or its candidate selection process, their redress is through the ballot box, the DNC's internal workings, or their right of free speech — not through the judiciary."
Do you remember what happened to Howard Dean? His own party used party funds to fight his campaign.
How about Dennis Kucinich? When it seemed he was gaining popularity, his party changed the rules for attending debates and then didn't even apply those newly formed rules with an even hand.
These examples, and so many more, show that it is the party, not the voters, who decide primary elections. That being the case, why, if you disapprove of the actions of your party, will you still believe the promises they make (and break) every time? The DNC is a private corporation, and their rules are subject to change at a whim because of that status. You cannot change the Democratic Party from the inside. They don’t want to change, and they will make sure they have their way in the arena where the courts have assured them that they can make and amend all of the rules whenever it suits them, and it is perfectly legal.
Comments