Is The Corporate Wing Of The Democratic Party Losing Its Grip?
Among other political philosophers— from Marx and Engels, Rosa Luxemburg, Noah Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Emma Goldman to the civil rights movement, the labor movement and the anti-war movement— Bernie has always said change comes from the grassroots not from the party elites. While paoliticians often run to the front of the parade to pretend they’re leading it and co-opt movements, history consistently shows that systemic change happens only when ordinary people organize, protest and force those in power to respond.
As Maeve Reston reported yesterday, “Democrats are turning up by the thousands at rallies across the country— showing the stirrings of a populist uprising against Trump’s drastic cuts to government agencies and demanding that their leaders fight harder to save programs that benefit the middle class. The question now facing the party— which has been in the grips of an identity crisis since November— is whether it can harness that pulsating energy to slow Trump’s agenda at a time when they have so little power. There is no clear Democratic leader. The party’s popularity has crashed to historic lows in recent polls [while Bernie’s has sky-rocketed]. And there is no consensus on how to win back working-class voters and younger voters who were crucial to Trump’s victory last year.”
Tens of thousands of anti-Trump voters have rallied with Bernie— sometimes in Republican districts— across the country and have voted for Democratic candidates overwhelmingly in special elections. Musk, the money bags behind Trump and the GOP, is rapidly becoming a net negative at the ballot box. He’s also one of America’s— and the world’s— arch-villains.
“At gatherings held by Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna in key California swing districts last weekend,” wrote Reston, “questioners who took the microphone demanded that their party’s leaders do more to stop Trump and Musk from slashing programs that serve vulnerable populations such as veterans and Social Security beneficiaries. Many directed their fury at Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and eight other Senate Democrats, who cast the deciding votes earlier this month allowing passage of a Republican spending bill… Khanna, who said he would carry that message of frustration back to Washington, lamented the limits of Democrats’ power in the House, where the GOP has a three-vote margin. ‘You’re in one of the 20 districts where your activism, where your mobilization, could literally save millions of people from getting their health care cut or education cut,’ [said] Khanna. ‘You can mobilize. Let’s get 10,000, 20,000 30,000 people so we take over this district. That is the only way we are going to do it.’”
Khanna didn’t mention that the Democrats ran a garden-variety, Republican-lite Blue Dog against Calvert in that district, the kind of militaristic lesser-evil candidate meant to appeal to “moderate” Republicans that the DCCC always gravitates to— and usually loses with. Caalvert is an unloved incumbent but he beat Will Rollins 183,216 (51.7%) to 171,229 (48.3%), despite Rollins having outspent him $12,450,709 to 7,823,707.
Two months into Trump’s presidency, Democrats nationally are in a combative mood and deeply unhappy with their leaders. In a CNN poll conducted earlier this month, only 29 percent of Americans said they approved of the Democratic Party, and 57 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents said the party should primarily work to stop the GOP agenda, rather than trying to compromise to get Democratic ideas into legislation.
When asked to offer an assessment of the state of the Democratic Party at recent events, many attendees used words like “weak” and “lame.” There was a broad agreement that it was time for the party’s “old guard”— namely Schumer and other Democrats who hold out hope for compromise with Republicans— to move on, as well as a sense that the party is not matching the speed and aggression of Trump’s tactics.
… For many Democrats, Sanders’s message about the corrupting influence of money in politics has suddenly taken on new resonance as they watch Musk and other wealthy donors exert their influence over Trump in the White House.
Democratic leaders— Schumer more than most— are chosen because of their ability to woo big money and work closely with black hat PACs— from pro-genocide groups to crypto-cartel criminals. There’s a case to be made that the 2024 election was lost because Silicon Valley billionaire Reid Hoffman persuaded Kamala Harris to ditch the progressive populism within moments of her resting the messaging water with it. And she dragged down candidates like Rollins all across the country, many of whom— at the suggestion of the DCCC— also avoided progressive messaging that inspires the Democratic base. “Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez have encouraged crowds on their Fighting Oligarchy tour to build a movement of working people to oppose Trump,” wrote Reston, “while emphasizing that anyone is welcome to join them, even if they don’t want a Democratic identifier next to their name. In an interview last week, Sanders said the rallies are intended to get people engaged ‘to combat Trump’s authoritarianism, combat oligarchy, combat the kind of economy that has worked for the rich and get involved in the political process. We’re going to be mounting an effort to get people to run either as independents or as progressive Democrats,’ he said, ‘but to demand that there’s a transformation of the Democratic Party— that it finally opens its doors to the working class of this country and that it is not simply a top-down party coming from Washington D.C.’”
Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX), who was recently elected chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said the energy at the rallies illustrates the Democratic Party’s opportunity to broaden its appeal.
“Some people would disbelieve Bernie in the past when he would talk about billionaires privately running the government, but now you have the richest man on the planet bragging publicly about controlling the government,” said Casar, who joined Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez on their tour in Tucson.
He argued in an interview that the Democratic Party should seize the moment to sever ties with its own corporate and billionaire interests. “This kind of message offers an opportunity to reshape the Democratic Party into a party that is a bigger tent— that can hold more voters— and that can deliver a lot more for working people,” Casar said.
… In the face of the backlash against Schumer, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries has repeatedly noted that every member of his caucus, except one [DCCC darling Blue Dog Jared Golden], voted against the Republican budget. In a “call to action” for Democratic activists on Monday night, Jeffries argued that Trump’s numbers “are collapsing in real time.”
“We are going to keep pressing the case on the economy, on health care, on taxes; press the case as it relates to the assault on our democracy and the American way of life— and we are going to do it in every possible form,” Jeffries said.
Ken Martin, who was elected as chair of the Democratic National Committee six weeks ago, has described his mission as fighting back against “Trump’s war on working people.”
He has embarked on his “organizing everywhere” tour to show that the party is focused on fielding candidates and winning offices up and down the ballot in all 50 states, including local nonpartisan offices that the party has not previously contested. The DNC— in partnership with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Association of State Democratic Committees— has held 60 town halls in GOP districts in recent weeks and is about halfway to its goal of holding at least one in every state.
While acknowledging the anger, Martin argues that the party has been aggressive in its litigation strategy against Trump and pointed to the six-figure investments the party made in upcoming special elections in Wisconsin and Florida. [The DNC is not spending significant money in Florida and the DCCC isn’t only not spending any money in Florida, it is quietly trying to sabotage the race, sit always does when progressives run. A win by Josh Weil next week will be a defeat for MAGA extremism and a defeat for the corrupt New Dem corporatism that controls the DCCC.]
…Khanna, who partnered with Democratic groups like MoveOn, Indivisible and the Working Families Party to hold his three town halls on Sunday, said it’s clear that the “old guard” of the party is out of touch with the base and ought to be spending more time interacting with voters instead of donors.
“There’s this chance to bring rebuild the Democratic Party, to reset the Democratic Party, to bring the Democratic Party back to its roots,” Khanna said, describing that ethos as one inspired by President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal and the drive for “economic dignity and security for people” and “health care for everyone as a guaranteed right.”
“Unlike FDR, who put the billionaires of his time in the task of building things, Trump has put the billionaires in charge of dismantling government,” Khanna said. “This gives us a chance to say we actually have the vision of how we are going to build this country.”
On Wednesday, Lauren Egan noted that conservative Democrat Conor Lamb defended AOC and attacked fellow Pennsylvanian MAGA-Democrat John Fetterman. I can imagine a 2028 re-run of the 2022 primary between Fetterman and Lamb with Lamb beating him hands down— this time with the backing of progressives who gave Fetterman his 2022 narrow win.
“That Lamb would come to personify this approach was,” wrote Egan, “in a way, fitting. He was the first Democrat to flip a Republican House seat in 2018, during Trump’s first presidency. But he won that race not as someone willing to fight Trump but by distancing himself from the left flank of the party and pitching himself as someone willing to reach across the aisle. His newfound outspokenness and willingness to embrace Ocasio-Cortez underscores just how different the political climate is from eight years ago. From his outside-the-beltway perch, Lamb is channeling the frustration he says he hears from voters who are frustrated that Democratic leadership isn’t doing more.
Lamb said he watched Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer cave on the funding bill earlier this month and was left wondering why Democrats weren’t willing to make concrete demands— such as a promise from the administration not to touch the Social Security Administration or the Social Security Trust Fund— in exchange for their votes. Lamb said he has also grown frustrated with how few Democrats, particularly Fetterman, are willing to hold more town hall events or take questions from constituents who are scared about what will happen to their Social Security and Medicare. And he’s confused about why so many Democrats keep holding book events (both Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries have released books this year) when their constituents are clearly asking for something more. ‘What it starts to look like is that he has this preference of cozying up to an administration and cozying up to a party over speaking out on issues that are clearly hurting a lot of his constituents, especially the most vulnerable ones,’ Lamb said of Fetterman’s decision to attend an event promoting Republican Sen. Dave McCormick’s new book about mentorship. ‘I’m not saying don’t ever work with McCormick… But you have to look at the moment and understand what your job requires.’”
Progressives, reported Holly Otterbein and Brampton Booker yesterday, view the hugely successful Bernie/AOC rallies “as a new opening to pull the party in a more populist direction.” The right-wing fringe of the Democratic Party, like Third’s Way’s Matt Bennett, who Otterbein and Booker idiotically and completely misleadingly identified as “center left,” worries— as they always do, that a progressive upsurge in the party will turn off their donors and leave them without influence. Bennett, the ultimate corporate whore who’s played a huge role in the destruction of the Democratic Party brand, “argued that ‘crowd size is the worst metric in American politics’ and ‘it is important that they not repeat the mistakes that the far left has made that helped get us into this mess in the first place.’”
For years— certainly since Clinton’s New Dem/Third Way presidency— Democratic leaders clung to the illusion that they could hold power by positioning themselves just ever so slightly to the left of the GOP— offering mild reforms instead of systemic change, Wall Street-friendly policies instead of economic justice. But that era may finally be crumbling. Voters are rejecting the stale, Republican-lite politics of corporate Democrats in favor of candidates who actually fight for working people. That’s why candidates like Josh Weil now has a progressive coalition behind him, rather than the centrist establishment forces that backed his failed establishment primary opponent. It’s a sign of how much the political landscape has shifted— and how untenable it has become for corporate Democrats to cling to the old playbook of triangulation and billionaire appeasement.
The cracks in the party establishment are widening. Progressive populism is surging, while Schumer, Jeffries and the DCCC scramble to paper over the growing divide between their Wall Street-friendly agenda and the grassroots demands for real change. The party’s old guard— the architects of incrementalism, compromise-for-the-sake-of-compromise, and elite donor appeasement— are on notice. The energy, the enthusiasm, and, most importantly, the future of the party lie with those who refuse to accept corporate capture as inevitable. The question isn’t whether the Democratic Party will change— it’s whether the establishment will be forced to change from within, or whether the movement will leave them behind entirely. If Schumer and his ilk don’t get the message soon, they may find that the grassroots isn’t just demanding a seat at the table— it’s preparing to flip the whole damn thing over
This is all fake. Chuck Schumer was playing the part of the designated villain this time. How else, and why else would he round up ten votes on something like this, with zero vulnerable seats so quickly?
This is a pretty good piece of organizing for the professional fuckup party. When was the last time we saw this kind of competence.
Unlike the House no one who voted is running again in two years.
By the time they face voters again, no one will remember this.
Jeffries was able to keep the caucus together, and acted quickly because he knew in advance how the Senate was going to vote. Khanna said it; its a show.
Originally they were going to…
Oh, please, Conor Lamb? The Democrat who voted with Republicans for additional tax cuts for millionaires? The guy who repeats the GOP lie about about Medicare for All? Dems can do better. He's aposter child for the corporate wing .