2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: When did DU stop being a place where we support Democrats? [View all]dreamnightwind
(4,775 posts)I'm very aware of Sawant and am a big fan. I would suggest her for a possible Bernie VP but I don't know if she's ready for such a national role.
I saw a post of yours elsewhere that openly advocated for the Green Party, to the end of the Democratic Party. I get where you're coming from, but a post like that will get you banned from here and can be pretty easily avoided, assuming you value membership here.
Many of us are thinking about the long-term viability of the Democratic Party as a vehicle to serve the people. It is much worse than even I realized, as this election season has revealed. The mask is off and it ain't pretty.
I'm not all that radical, really, but the corporatist takeover of this party, and its use of superdelegates in the primary, are not giving me much hope for anything other than climate disaster, endless wars, and substandard living conditions for all but the extremely wealthy.
There is a Group here on DU called Populist Reform of the Democratic Party, you might want to check it out.
I'm still, for now at least, working to win control of it from the corporations. I would like to see the Progressive Caucus formalize into an entity that forbids SuperPAC or any corporate campaign contributions, and provides members with a crowd-sourced campaign funding mechanism so long as they meet certain progressive values. I think that would go a long way towards getting control back.
If the party is too resistant to reform, as it seems to be so far, an alternative solution will need to be found, probably something new rather than the U.S. Green Party, IMO. That is a very steep hill to climb, but so is reclaiming the Democratic Party. This is now being very actively talked about in various places, here's one such article:
Time to Transform Berniess Campaign Into a Permanent Organization
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/miles-mogulescu/time-to-transform-bernies_b_9547060.html
Such discussion is probably outside of the scope of DU, although it might be more acceptable in the Populist Reform Group here.
Regards.