Are you registered with a political party?

[Husseinisdoingfine]

I'm wondering what's the best strategy moving forward for progressives and democratic socialists. On one hand, registering as a Democrat allows for you to vote for progressives and DSA members in the primaries. There recently was an ad asking people to change their party registration by valentines day to be able to vote for a DSA candidate for the mayor New York.

 

But on the other hand, I don't want to register as a Democrat because I despise the party, and the old decrepit people that make up its leadership. When I think about people like Chuck Schumer, or Nancy Pelosi and the amount of money she earns through stock trading, I want to vomit. Very recently, the newly elected DNC chair said that 'there are good billionaires, and we will accept their money'. Translation, billionaires are only good if they bribe us.

In Germany being aged 60+ is considered a senior politician. Meanwhile in America, the Democrats don't give people a seat in the insiders table until after their 80th birthday.

There's also the issue of ideology. AOC pointed out, brilliantly, that the Democrats are not a left party. By European Standards, the Democrats would be considered center or center-right. 

Instead of registering with this center-right group, why not register with a [third/minor] party, which may not have the numbers (as in members) as the Democrats do, but actually reflect my views.

https://www.politicalcompass.org/counterpoint-20211001-german-election

 

I'm just wondering, as someone on the left, what to do in this situation. One advantage with being registered as a Democrat is that you get to vote in the primaries. But I don't want to share a party with these corruptionaires and cretins, for whom I'm not aligned with on the left-right spectrum.

According to Noam Chomsky, America is in practice a one-party state, similar to China. We have the business party, and this business party has two factions, Republicans and Democrats. In the past, what were considered, ‘moderate Republicans’ are today’s Democrats. And the current Republicans went so far right, they flew off the spectrum.

Those of us who share the views of the DSA, who want to abolish the capitalist system, how are we supposed to make our ideas viable and achieve our ultimate aims and goals of socializing the means of production, given the American two neoliberal party system?

 

Edited Thursday at 12:30 AM by Husseinisdoingfine
Reason for edit: typos

[Emerald]

I am registered as a Democrat so that I can vote in the primaries.

And I feel similarly about a lot of Democrat politicians to you, of course. There's a lot of corrupt political behavior in the DNC (even if it doesn't remotely touch the corruption in the GOP at present).

But registering as an independent or NPA isn't really a meaningful form of protest to that corruption because it doesn't actually do anything to discourage unwanted and corrupt political behaviors.

It would be more of an identity-feel-good protest if I did that.

But it would be an empty form of protest that's more about identity that about actually making actual changes.

Let's say there's a sky-scraper that represents corruption. And it would be like throwing a lone shoe at that skyscraper just to think better of yourself for protesting the skyscraper... when you know you will be arrested for throwing the shoe. 

So, I don't believe in empty protests that do nothing to actually move the needle, as those kinds of protest are more about wanting to personally feel better about myself rather than actually doing what will move things more in the direction that I want them to move with the levers of power on offer to me.

So, boycotting registration as a Democrat would just give me less power... and wouldn't effectively put pressure on politicians to be less corrupt or shift more to the left.

My recommendation is to give yourself the lever of power that is on offer to you by making a decision to allow you to vote in the primaries... instead of doing an empty protest that puts no pressure on the politicians to do better.

[Husseinisdoingfine]

@Emerald I suppose purely practically speaking, you have to look at the facts on the ground and given the American system, third parties are not viable anywhere.

I guess joining a party for practical reasons, even if you don’t entirely agree with it, isn't too unusual. My grandparents joined the Community Party in the Soviet Union because that allowed them to get ahead in society. 

But it's so frustrating as a leftist... why? Why are Americans like this? I keep thinking back to Leo's "Why Bernie Lost" blog video, where he explains how Americans vote.

Do Americans only have two parties because they're extremely low information voters, and having only two options makes it easier for people who don't know anything about policy or the substance of government to vote? Third party people tend to be massive policy wonks.

There's just something about being an American that makes someone uniquely retarded about politics. 

I get that we have a first-past-the-post system, but so do other countries and yet they have more than two options. Canada has a left party, the NDP, and they also have a first past the post electoral system. They also have more than two options in their parliament. But no, we don't get a left anything in America. 

Why are Americans like this? Is it because to consider a third party requires the ability of independent thinking and caring about the substance of Government, something which Americans are incapable of? 

The Democrats are only good for weird performative acts and virtue signaling. They wave the LGBT flag, kneel for BLM, and do stupid performative acts, like Al Green heckling the President when he's giving a speech. But in terms of actual governing substance? Nothing. 

Edited Wednesday at 05:27 PM by Husseinisdoingfine

[Husseinisdoingfine]

BTW. To anyone reading this who is not registered with a party, but switches during election season to vote in primaries, please specify.

[DocWatts]

I'm a registered Democrat in the state of Michigan, and I've volunteered in 2022 and 2024 as a door-knocking canvasser through Progressive Victory, which led me to the Michigan ONE Campaign. I also make a point of always voting in Primary elections (though I haven't canvassesed for a primary election yet).

While I'm well to the Left of the mainstream Democratic Party, I'm also a pragmatist who bows to simple political realities. Until Ranked Choice Voting becomes a norm everywhere in the country, voting for third parties is actively counter productive to building a Leftist movement that's politically relevant.

Bernie Sanders, in pursuing a strategy of Game Change to drag the Democratic Party kicking and screaming into returning to an actual working class party ala The New Deal is the correct approach IMHO. This 'game change' approach is largely the only reason that we managed to get surprisingly good domestic policy from Joe Biden during his presidency.

The Green Party is unfortunately a joke, even if on paper they're much closer to my own politics than the Democratic establishment. If they were a serious political party they'd be building up a political base in local elections where they might actually have a chance at gaining actual political power, rather than disappearing into the woodworks between presidential elections.

Right now, I'm pleading with everyone I know who's not a MAGAt to flood their representatives with phone calls demanding that the Democrats act like an actual opposition party. And I've also been encouraging my friends and family to attend local protests, and find at least one group to follow, such as 50501 or Indivisible.

Also whenever I can I try to push back against the false-equivalency narrative that the two parties are the same. While Joe Biden was working to cap the cost of insulin, the Orange Shit Stain is getting rid of Medicaid and Social Security. The Dems have Bernie, Rashida Tlaib, and AOC who've been vocal critics of Israeli's genocide, while every single Republican is fantasizing about completing the ethnic cleaning in Gaza so that billionares can build condos there. 

Edited Thursday at 11:16 PM by DocWatts

[Husseinisdoingfine]

14 hours ago, DocWatts said:

Bernie Sanders, in pursuing a strategy of Game Change to drag the Democratic Party kicking and screaming into returning to an actual working class party ala The New Deal is the correct approach IMHO. This 'game change' approach is largely the only reason that we managed to get surprisingly good domestic policy from Joe Biden during his presidency.

The problem is that even Sanders is disillusioned with the Democratic Party. He was only registered with them to run for president, and after his loss he switched back to unaffiliated. Just take a look at this statement after the 2024 election, where he rightly calls out the Democrats for abandoning the working class.

https://x.com/BernieSanders/status/1854271157135941698?lang=en

In the Democrats, the largest caucus is the New Democrats. They are liberal on social issues, but according to Wikipedia, they are fiscally conservative on economic issues. 

Quote

New Democrats, also known as centrist Democrats, Clinton Democrats, or moderate Democrats, are a centrist ideological faction within the Democratic Party in the United States. As the Third Way faction of the party, they are seen as culturally liberal on social issues while being moderate or fiscally conservative on economic issues. New Democrats dominated the party from the late 1980s through the early-2010s, and continue to be a large coalition in the modern Democratic Party.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Democrats_(United_States)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Democrat_Coalition

[DocWatts]

3 hours ago, Husseinisdoingfine said:

The problem is that even Sanders is disillusioned with the Democratic Party. He was only registered with them to run for president, and after his loss he switched back to unaffiliated. Just take a look at this statement after the 2024 election, where he rightly calls out the Democrats for abandoning the working class.

https://x.com/BernieSanders/status/1854271157135941698?lang=en

In the Democrats, the largest caucus is the New Democrats. They are liberal on social issues, but according to Wikipedia, they are fiscally conservative on economic issues. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Democrats_(United_States)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Democrat_Coalition

We as Americans need to get clear on the fact that no one is coming to save us - and that it's unrealistic to expect Bernie or AOC to change the Democratic Party on their own. (I'm %100 confident that Bernie would agree with this sentiment).

They need help from millions of ordinary people who are willing to fight to change the Democratic Party. Instead of bitching about how the Democratic Party is failing us (and it is failing us), take on some responsibility for changing things - make phone calls to your legislators, attend town halls, canvas for progressive candidates, become a member of your local DSA or Indivisible chapter - there's no shortage of avenues for civic participation.

And as daunting as that seems, it's exponentially less daunting then overcoming the massive structural barriers that prevent third parties from competing fairly in elections, or from building the infrastructure for a new political party from scratch.

Edited Friday at 06:25 PM by DocWatts

[Husseinisdoingfine]

Lol, how can't you despise the Democrats when they produce crap like this.

 

I'm joking of course, but even Vaush agrees with me. 

 

On the other hand, there are a few good Democrats. Plenty of people who are members of the Democratic Socialists of America, such as Alexandria Cortez and Zohran Mamdami. There is a Democrat who talks about conscious politics, and infusing spirituality into politics, Marianne Williamson.

But Democrats like this so are so damn rare. Its the Clintonites and people like Pelosi who make up the bulk of the party.

https://www.vox.com/2015/11/23/9781330/bernie-sanders-democrat

I was thinking about this, how do we solve this two party issue. Whether or not the left's obsession with party politics is hurting or helping us. I looked a bit into history, and I think I found the answer.

Vladimir Lenin, before creating the Community Party, was a member of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party. And this party had a huge ideological split between the bolsheviks and the more moderate mensheviks who wanted to establish a multi-party democracy and were more sympathetic to capitalism.

If Lenin can share a party with people he disagrees with, why can't we?

Also, ideologies of organizations evolve all the time. Never forget that the current day Democratic party used to support slavery. Ideological fractures within parties isn't that uncommon, even the Community Party of China has deep ideological splits between the classical hardocre Maosits and the reformists who are more friendly to capitalism.

 

Really, I started this thread because I was really curious about people in this forum, and I wanted to survey members of this forum, and how they go about politics. I approached this as a sociological survey. And I was especially curious about Leo, if he's a Democrat or not. And I want to know, what does he think the appropriate thing to do in this situation is.

Edited 12 hours ago by Husseinisdoingfine