The Left in Disarray, 2022
After Joe Biden’s election win two years ago, there was torrent of mixed emotions amongst us leftists. Some were indeed jumping for joy, all those Obama-era admins and officials frothing at the mouth to save the country with their obtuse centrism. Most found themselves with an ominous relief, like surviving a natural disaster only to find your home destroyed and your life ruined.
What I find unfair is that the lurking menace of a Trump coup plagued national media so heavily in the months following Jan. 6th that almost no discussion of this mixed feeling on the left was able to take place. Once again, the party’s moderate elites had used the immense power of progressive activist supporters across the country in order to secure victory for the party, only to be steamrolled after the election and blamed for losses instead.
I remember reading a NYT interview with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez from right after the election, in which she explained that “before we even had any data yet in a lot of these races, there was already finger-pointing that this was progressives’ fault and that this was the fault of the Movement for Black Lives.” The party was fully out of touch, too focused on maintaining national power that every notch below the top of the pyramid is forgotten. AOC didn’t mince words when she said that a lack of internet presence and the refusal to accept Progressive assistance with Dem elections have seriously crippled the Democratic Party’s ability to reach Dem voters in 2020. Now in 2022, as a result of bad-faith promises and neglect, the party risks losing much support from left voters.
If my fellow constituents are not keyed-in to this drama within the party, they can certainly see the results of such a split plain-as-day. Biden won because of youth immigrant activists and BLM activists making sure every possible person was registered to vote. This decisive support has been betrayed, with every Biden step post-election meant to mirror GOP moves to tow a centrist line. Instead of opening up immigration, we move backwards ala Trump. Instead of protecting Black votes, we stall on the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. For all the Progressive young leftists knocking on doors, these failures are stinging.
“It’s really hard for us to turn out nonvoters when they feel like nothing changes for them. When they feel like people don’t see them, or even acknowledge their turnout.”
- Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY)
One of the earliest marks against Biden was the cruel firing, immediately after winning the election, of numerous young staff members from the administration for past marijuana use. This abominable move does symbolize how many young people felt Biden had abandoned them after using their support to beat Trump. The administration sets an positive tone by continually touting the extreme diversity represented in Biden’s staff choices (first African-American VP, all-female press team), but does not the lack of driving force to address the people’s problems limit these choices to tokenism? Is it a double standard to hire Sam Brinton, yet do nothing to stop LGBTQ+ violence? Regardless, the administration is sickeningly obsessed with image, which is a move that makes all serious Progressives annoyed given the bureaucratic gatekeeping they dedicate themselves to.
How insane is it that the most powerful Democratic reps in our federal government are such tired boomer clichés? I completely agree with AOC, who wondered whether such a move from the Biden administration after victory would be “dangerous.” A danger even more-so bolstered by the sabotages of money-basket politicians like Manchin, and ladder-hoppers like Sinema. The party cannot control half it’s key players, but Progressive legislation is too politically dangerous for mainstream support. It’s only good enough to win elections, I guess.
The position of the subservient voting populace, shackled by debt among other things, constantly poised to be mustered for the benefit of millionaire politicians to cement their legacies. A carnival of inauthentic postures and empty promises, many of which (cancelling student loans, higher minimum wage) are unlikely to materialize—unless we see them as bargaining chips in the form of executive orders closer to re-election time. AOC hinted at this disconnect between the Progressives and mainstream Dems when she said that, “externally, there’s been a ton of support, but internally, it’s been extremely hostile to anything that even smells progressive.”
Writing this in mid-March of 2022, the forecasts for the midterms are brutal. Equally depressing is Biden’s continually plummeting approval rating. The DNC and party elites are fully to blame, and in that context Biden can be seen as the epitome of out-of-date, neoliberal ideology ruining the establishment’s threadbare connections to real Americans.
Even in Indiana, my home state, the incompetence of the DNC is felt thoroughly by all Hoosiers. Election after election, hundreds of thousands in party funds are funneled to whichever centrist Dem can be found to challenge Todd Young, a single dude. While plenty of left candidates are poised to challenge the GOP supermajority across all levels of state and local government, DNC leadership deems these smaller elections as less important to the national goals of the party. And now Indiana teachers worry about teaching about racism in schools, or whether they’ll be shot dead in the street.
Is DNC leadership not ironically proving exactly what Progressives have been complaining about for years? By deliberately choosing only to ignore constituency wishes post-election, they have completely sold any credibility they have in the eyes of Progressive supporters. They have also lost the support of America’s working class, who find themselves forced to side with Republican ideologies over an unsympathetic, elitist program.
I’m no expert, but I’d feel very bitchy in this writing not to at least propose some options that I think might help. But how to help a fully corrupt organ that refuses to break bread with non-elites? I have a few ideas.
Reform the DNC, change the Democratic Party. — This is the most depressing option in my opinion, because it is what Progressives have been trying to do for the last few decades. The establishment does not want to change, but they must. It is a paradox that this, while being the most likely option for all Dems to agree on, is also the least likely to succeed. You can lead the horse to water, but you cannot make it drink.
Start an entirely new political party. — The deadlock of the two-party system has hardened our minds to consider only narrow, familiar realities. In reality, what grinds us all down is the easy conclusion that this system is not for us, that we are merely spectators to the game played by the rich. This reality can be masked many ways, and even completely sidelined with the right propaganda, but neither side will ever be able to represent the common American.
With every election that passes, our country is slipping even further towards autocracy with a racist wrapper. A new party would be a hard road, but it is completely up to the party leadership to determine if they want to be authentic or continue with bad-faith until they lose fighting power amongst the GOP. I don’t know if I believe that the party elites are willing to give anything more than tokens, but eventually something will have to give. Only time will tell. Sometimes it is best to toss aside the parts that do us no good.