Screw the Democratic Party — We Must Do Progressive Politics Without It

The DNC chair election is proof that change won’t come from within

by ANDREW DOBBS

On. Feb. 25, 2017, the Democratic National Committee chose former secretary of labor Tom Perez as its new chair.

Perez follows in the tradition of Donna Brazile, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, Ed Rendell, Terry McAuliffe and other hacks for billionaire finance power outside the party — and the dominance of self-dealing, incompetent political consultants within it.

Recruited by the party’s establishment wing to prevent the election of progressive Minnesota U.S. representative Keith Ellison, Perez’s supporters argued for weeks that, ideologically, he was no different from his main opponent.

Clio Chang asked the obvious question raised by all this in her terrific New Republic piece. If Perez is no different from Ellison, “why bother fielding him at all?” As I noted in an earlier piece, it had everything to do with blocking new blood from taking power in the party despite its protracted political collapse.

The new blood might have turned things around, but only on terms that would have threatened the party’s biggest donors and most powerful operatives.

The Democrats would rather lose with the ruling class than win against them, and it is now impossible to argue that sticking with the party means anything other than compromising with injustice, an ill-advised strategic alliance with willful impotence. So what are practical progressives who want to actually build power supposed to do?

Believe it or not there are many of us who have been very active in politics and power-building for many years who have found a way to make a difference without having to be Democrats. The silver lining on Perez’s selection is that there has been no better time to bail on the party and join us in doing something different.

Now elections are, for better or worse, how we distribute most state power in this country, so it is hard to be active in fighting for marginalized communities while writing them off altogether. In most of the country, however, local elections are nonpartisan. Working on city council, mayor, school board and other local elections is a great way to win elections without the Democratic Party.

These offices make big decisions, and they usually have low turnout — in large part because the major parties often put them on the backburner — so a little bit of organizing can go a long way. That means that political independents and radicals can actually win at this level and it’s a way to build a bench of leaders and candidates for a future electoral front outside of the two major parties.

Still, most local officials really are Democrats or Republicans even if they don’t formally run on a party line, and when the party senses that someone insufficiently subservient might win they will often turn their machine on at that point. That said, it’s still the most favorable ground for beating them today.

Another option is to work on ballot initiatives and bond issues There’s no risk of them selling out or flipping on you, and while Democrats or the GOP may choose sides from time to time, they are typically rooted in political movements other than the parties.

Of course the best way to get these questions and candidates on the ballot in the first place is through grassroots organizing campaigning. Organizing those sorts of groups primarily around electoral efforts typically ensures that they disintegrate as soon as the election is over — I’ve seen it happen — but building movements that gather power in a variety of ways, deploying electoral tactics when they make sense, is the only way change can possibly happen anywhere, locally, nationally or beyond.

Now this sort of organizing is not without its risks of Democrat-like bullshit. For one, much of it is rooted in “issue-based” organizing dominated by non governmental organizations hiring professional organizers using money raised from major donors and foundation grants.

Dissecting the problems with this model could fill a book, and in fact it already has — the controversial classic The Revolution Will Not Be Funded.