Stay in Democratic Party to change it

[Orange Butterfly]

I have read the posts about 1000's leaving the party after the convention. I want to advocate people to stay.

The party needs major changes and that can only happen from within it.

We can start with ending super-delegates. And of course, replace DWS. How many others need replacing? How about, re-write the party platform?

This work is done from within the party.

[Avalux]

1. It's our two party system that's the problem.

The GOP has gone severely right, the Democratic Party has gone center right, we need a party to represent the left.

I have lived long enough to know that changing the party from within isn't going to get us what we need.

We need a shake up of our current political system. The DNC and GOP are two black holes in a death spiral.

[Orange Butterfly]

2. How about Democratic Socialism?

[Avalux]

3. I'm not following - elaborate?

[Orange Butterfly]

6. How to change the two party system...

...is from within it. We have other party's and they have not caught fire enough to be a leading party for president. The only way I can think of to change the party is from within it. Bernie is holding the torch for us. He has renamed it. Let's run with this!

[Greywing]

4. Common sense post

Thank you! I feel the Bern but will vote for Clinton is she ends up as the nominee ... leaving the party would mean the possibility of a tea party darling becoming president. No way in hell I will go along with that!!! EVER!

[Hortensis]

22. Here, too. If Bernie were to win I would be 100%

behind him. This country is faced with an enormous threat, it is coming from the right, and we are the ones who must stop it, along with those in the right who join with us. It's our job.

[Zorra]

5. It is impossible to change a non-democratic party, controlled by wealthy entities,

from within.

[Orange Butterfly]

7. What choice do we have?

[closeupready]

10. That's a good way of putting it - when you aren't in the club to begin with,

you have zero power to change it.

[oldandhappy]

8. here are a few thoughts

*support voting rights for all citizens -- absolutely
*limit corporate donations
*do something about super pacs -- I do not understand them well enough to suggest anything
*reinstate equal coverage and time laws for journalists -- on another thread a poster reminded us that when Reagan was running the networks did not run his movies because of equal time rules
*strong accountability for all candidates for what I call lies -- transparent widely-posted fact-checking or independently hosted websites

Tough work. RNC had a chance to change after 2012 and evidently tried but Trump is a media created problem. Not sure what the RNC could be done to prevent it. DNC is totally corporate. Do not know how to make it people based.

So! I support your post and do not know how to do much. Certainly agree with ending super delegates and replacing DWS. Amen!

[TreasonousBastard]

9. Of course, but that would mean hard work, and...

quite a bit of disappointment.

Much easier to complain and make empty threats online.

But when I say disappointment, I'm serious. First, just finding the party might not be easy. When I lived in Elizabeth, NJ, we had three Democratic Parties. Yes, three. Republicans were virtually nonexistent so anyone who wanted to fight TPTB set up a rump Dem party. Other places often tend not to advertise who and where they are. It takes a bit of looking. A friend in Chicago told me he went into the local Dem club and was asked "Who sent you"? "Nobody." "Well, you can't come in unless someone sent you."

OK, you got over that first hurdle easily enough, and you dropped enough cash to let them know you're serious, and you even moved a couple of petitions along. Now what?

Here in NY our senior Senator is largely agreed to be a piece of shit. Yes, even by Democrats. Actually, mostly by Democrats. But try to get anywhere at the local level getting rid of him... And that Debbi person? Don't waste your time. Tough enough getting through a local election.

Many are called, but few stick it out. The trick is timing. Every so often we have a good year and can strike to get something done. This is true both locally and nationally, but you have to have the patience.

And patience is a virtue in short supply amongst activist types.

[Orange Butterfly]

11. Bernie is giving us a big window

I think it comes down to how each one of us that wants change within the party to commit to action in the ways we can.

I have been in communication with our state's DNC lead. We had a great 20-min conversation and I was welcomed to continue dialog with him. He supports HRC personally, but has progressive views (thankfully).

[TreasonousBastard]

12. Good, but don't stop talking, and...

it's going to be a long road with the knocking on doors, phone calls, poll watching, fundraising and everything else.

And don't forget your local races.

[Orange Butterfly]

13. ...and...

while we are supporting a candidate, I advocate that we take advantage of this window/door, to step into the party full-on to change it. Activism inside the party.

I will continue have dialog with my state's DNC lead. The key was that I was calm and had reasonable talking points. He was engaged to keep up with the dialog.

Yes, local city level as well needs active changes.

[longship]

14. It is near impossible to do it from the top-down.

One has to learn from recent history to understand that these changes happen from the bottom-up.

In the late 70's a group of evangelical Christians, headed by Jerry Falwell -- "If he had an enema, he could have been buried in a match box," Christopher Hitchens -- began a program called the Moral Majority (hint: they were neither) to merge fundamentalist religion and politics. He failed, but Pat Robertson was more than happy to take over the battle when he helped form the Christian Coalition.

Since then, the GOP has become much less of a political entity than a religious one. As an officer of a county Democratic party in the 90's I watched in horror as it happened before our very eyes. The result-- this was in Kansas -- we see now, replicated across the nation.

There is no longer any pretense of stealth evangelical Christianity in the GOP, or (shudder) the Democratic Party either. One cannot run for office in this country without being asked about ones religious beliefs, a criterion that flagrantly violates Article VI of the US Constitution.

The argument has been so skewed by the now overtly theocratic Christian GOP that nobody dare say that they disagree.

I find the whole thing disgusting, as well as Hillary Clinton's association with "The Family". Google "C Street Rachel Maddow" and you'll find this:

The lesson to be learned here is that the GOP did not become theocratic overnight, let alone from the top-down. They did it from the bottom-up by putting evangelical Christians in every precinct so that the only delegates to be selected were from the same pool of religious lunatics.

Once one has the precincts in a district, one has the district delegation. Once one has the district delegations, one has the state delegation. Once one has the state delegations, one has achieved the takeover of a national party. That is how it was done.

Meanwhile, many DUers believe that a change in POTUS is enough to steer the party left. Well, it's not. It has to be done from the bottom-up if one desires a lasting influence, if one wants to change the course of the party for the future.

If you want a progressive Democratic Party -- and I do -- one needs to replicate what happened to the GOP in the last 25 years of the 20th century. The takeover has to come from the bottom-up.

Meanwhile, we can try to get progressives in as many offices as possible.

That is why I will vote for Bernie tomorrow in the MI primary .

[MagickMuffin]

15. My goodness, this is exactly what Pres. Obama's message was from 8 years ago

However, not many people listened to his message. So, I am compelled to offer the quotes below as proof that our President said these things over and over again and only those who heard the message is working on that change.

"What began 21 months ago in the depths of winter cannot end on this autumn night. This victory alone is not the change we seek; it is only the chance for us to make that change.

And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were. It can't happen without you, without a new spirit of service, a new spirit of sacrifice. So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism, of responsibility where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves, but each other."



"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek."

"I will never forget that the only reason I'm standing here today is because somebody, somewhere stood up for me when it was risky. Stood up when it was hard. Stood up when it wasn't popular. And because that somebody stood up, a few more stood up. And then a few thousand stood up. And then a few million stood up. And standing up, with courage and clear purpose, they somehow managed to change the world."

[longship]

16. Precisely! But it still has to happen from the bottom-up.

Thank you for your support.

[MagickMuffin]

17. I volunteered to be my Precinct Chair because of Candidate Obama in 2008

I am still the Chair. I work every election. I go to our county conventions, where our party platforms are created, and then to the state convention to further the party platform to the national level.

I have never understood how so many here have all day to post, yet when confronted with helping their local party, they never seem to have the time. Perhaps if they changed their tactics and volunteered to help at the local level we could possibly make the changes needed, and everyone would learn about the process of democracy.

Democracy cannot make much of a difference sitting at the computer all day.

[basselope]

18. I left this party in 2004 when they put a war voter up against bush.

I have ONLY come back for Sanders.

I had been disgusted with the democratic party since 1992 when they basically ran a republican because #WINNING.

No... I won't be staying if they toss ANOTHER center right politician out there.

[olddots]

19. " What choice do we have ? "

a very personal one that doesn't come easy .

[Shandris]

20. Sounds like "Don't Raid-bomb your home, chase after cockroaches to remove infestation."

Seems smart, until you realize they breed new ones literally thousands of times faster than you can expunge them. As above so below.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

21. I'm not leaving. This party stinks a bit less. nt

[demwing]

23. Archimedes disagrees

His famous quote "Give me the place to stand, and I shall move the earth" acknowledges that you can't move that which carries you, you need external leverage. You want to move the Democratic Party? Great, just give me the place to stand.