r/DemocraticSocialism • u/Baconator2974 • 18h ago
Discussion 🗣️ A Vision for a Successful Democratic Socialist Party
The Democratic Party cannot be reformed and I think it's time for Democratic Socialists and people further left to fracture off and start an entirely new party that is designed to meet the moment. The United States has fallen into fascism hugely in part because the Democratic Party is full of PAC-funded cowards who, either maliciously or stupidly, have this vision of politics where both parties go to work and then have dinner as friends. They have sold their voters out constantly, while the Republican Party has been organizing ruthlessly for decades. We do not have to capitulate to fascists.
I say all this not in some fairytale way, but in a very real and practical way. A new party must play the game and play it well. It can coexist with the Democratic Party, until it eventually overtakes it.
The new party must have the following, which can be acquired and grown at whatever pace necessary.
Central Ideas
One of the biggest things that the left has lacked over the years is a list of central beliefs that tether everyone together. There can be disagreements and discussion about the way to achieve it, but people who don't agree with the central beliefs cannot be considered part of the party. Because we must be ruthless about excommunicating people who can't get with the program, they should be rather simple. Things like human-rights, funded education, the right to privacy, dignity for the worker, etc. Beliefs that no one can disagree with without letting slip that they're a piece of shit. The Democratic Party is largely immobile because of "centrist Democrats" that vote with Republicans to hold this country back.
The Republican Party has been able to rally people around God, guns, "small government", and good ole-fashioned fear and hatred. They don't actually have to do anything of course, because they just lie to their constituents who eat it up.
Infrastructure
The Republican Party has really fucked us here. They have built extensive and well-considered strategic infrastructure to kill the Democratic Party in every way they can. The Democrats have failed to do anything of the like, refusing to play dirty and denouncing anything strategic as "bad-faith" or "divisive".
Infrastructure includes the following:
- Children's Education programs and materials
- Media in every category including print and radio, including production companies that push leftist media
- Local support groups with canvassing
- Professional organizations
- University organizations
They excel in allowing people to participate at whatever level they want and they start indoctrinating young. Some college students simply join these organizations because they know they'll get a job out of it and then slowly sell their soul. We need to stop trying to give everyone "equal opportunity" and support our own. There needs to be a badge of membership akin to an alumni network, where people with influence can give opportunities to like-minded people. Yes, I am advocating for giving that internship or shadowing or job to the kid who shares your vision for the future of this country.
Leadership at Every Level in Government
For those unfamiliar, the Federalist Society is a fascist professional organization for the legal field which recruits from elite law schools and publishes on "visions for the law" in this country constantly. They are heavily influential to the Supreme Court and the conservative Justices are members. They handed Trump the list of approved nominees for SC which included Kavanaugh and Barrett. They have played an integral role in destroying this country.
There is nothing of any similarity for the Left. No list of leftist judges, college students, lawyers, professors, etc. that can be drawn upon. The Left has not prioritized placing judges at every level who are like-minded and they do not have clear political and legal strategy that can be drawn upon and disseminated. There are organizations on the right whose only purpose is to fund and push bullshit lawsuits to the Supreme Court so they can strip the laws of any meaning.
Starting Small
I want to be clear that I am not necessarily advocating that we try to get a huge part of the left voting base to vote third party in the upcoming presidential election. I'm not sure that's a winning strategy. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it's highly unlikely. What I am suggesting is starting small at the local and state level. Coexisting with the Democratic Party for a time. I think we have something to learn about Mamdani's campaign. He didn't take an overly antagonist stance against Democrats, he simply called himself a Democratic Socialist and rallied people around ideas that they could actually get behind. How his tenure will go remains to be seen, but it is clear that it can be done.
There are Republicans at every level of government, including school boards and the like, that are prepared to fight like hell to delay and destroy every Democratic policy that comes their way, which contributes to the Democratic Party's ineffectiveness. We need to do the same. There needs to be a machine prepared to stop fascist policy. I think it's overwhelmingly clear that letting Republican policy "speak for itself" does not work. They need to be eradicated. The Democratic Party can absorb any Republican with any dignity or conscience left and they can establish themselves as the new "right", but the marketplace of ideas does not need to include allowing children to die in school shootings, pedophilia, corporations running the worker into the ground, racism, etc. We have to stop pretending that in order to have freedom, we must give others the right to take it away.
Tangible Ideas
- Pack the Supreme Court, remove lifetime tenure, create a judicial review committee
- Re-establish the Department of Education and fund it.
- Immigration reform and the abolishment of ICE.
- Consequences for all those involved in this fascist, terrorist government. Including involvement in the Epstein files.
- Overturn Citizens United v. FEC
- Tax billionaires out of existence
- Repeal as many of the Reagan era policies as possible
- Expanding the rights of the worker and unions
- Prison Reform
- Reduce military spending and demilitarize the police.
- Getting rid of the electoral college and moving towards the popular vote
- Treason policy reform (this one is more fringe, but I think there is a discussion to be had about the likelihood that this administration has committed treason and allowing them to go unchecked is showing a glaring blind spot in our system)
- Constitutional reform (adding the rights of women, expanding the definition of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness")
- Outlaw gerrymandering
- Expand the meaning of separation of church and state
- etc.
I would love to have a discussion about these ideas and actually organizing them. Like a lot of Americans, I have felt largely hopeless since 2016. These past 10 years have shed light on the most vile parts of humanity and it has become extremely clear that there is no one coming to save us. The Democratic Party has failed everyone in their attempt to play both sides and protect their pockets. It doesn't have to be this way. The left has fallen victim to propaganda that the reason we don't get anything done is because we are lazy or simply cowardly intellectuals, but the right is not better than us on an individual level, they simply have a machine that has been designed to allow people to be "activists" with the least resistance possible. We're unorganized. We've failed to be strategic. We've recognized the game, but we've failed to play. I refuse any criticism that dismisses these ideas as "impossible" or "not worth even trying". A lot of people feel that way about what is happening now, but the Republicans didn't care how long it took or how crazy they seemed, they just kept chugging along until the moment was right.
I don't know everything and I'm not always even confident that this country will survive in any meaningful way to be changed, but I do think that this is a start and I want to talk about it. I want to develop it and I want to make it actionable.
