Establishment Democrats are like a guy who walks up to you at a restaurant, steals your burger off your plate, eats it right in front of you, then when you get mad starts yelling “Hey! Get a grip! Another guy might try to steal your burger tomorrow, and we need to unite against him!” Meanwhile neither replacing your burger nor offering any assurance that he won’t steal from you again.
The Democratic establishment actively sabotages progressive candidates, and— Christ, hang on, I need to type that again in all caps: THE DEMOCRATIC ESTABLISHMENT ACTIVELY SABOTAGES PROGRESSIVE CANDIDATES. The Democratic establishment actively sabotages progressive candidates, and they’re trying to make progressives feel like weirdos for having a problem with that.
No. Do not let them gaslight you into believing that this is okay. It is not okay. That yuck feeling you experience in your guts when you’re accused of naive purism or told you have to forget about the past and unite with the so-called centrists against the Republicans? Trust that feeling. That feeling is right. The people causing it are wrong. You are not the one with the problem. They are.
Progressives (the real kind) are in an abusive relationship with the Democratic party. I’ve had multiple people show up in my Facebook inbox the last few days telling me they appreciate my articles although they’re afraid to ‘like’ or comment on them because they’re worried how people might react if they saw. That’s the extent to which people are being brutalized by this tyrannical campaign to make progressives sit down, shut up and fall back into line. Like we belong to them. Like we’re theirs.
There’s a Politico article going around titled “Democrats sweat Clinton vs. Sanders rift” which tries to paint this conflict as something neither side desires, but we all know there’s only one side that doesn’t want to fight about this thing. It’s the side in power, the side benefiting from the way things are. The emperor never desires rebellion.
The insipid article begins by describing the rift as being between “Bernie would have won” and “Bernie’s challenge helped sink Hillary” camps, like that’s even a thing. Like “Bernie’s challenge helped sink Hillary” is a legitimate opinion for someone to harbor against Sanders. Yeah, the absolute gall of Bernie, running against Hillary in a primary election and campaigning against her on policy! She had to stand at a podium and debate issues! Issues! Can you imagine having to endure such indignity? Such injustice?
What a profoundly, obnoxiously entitled attitude to have. These people honestly think Hillary was wronged by having to face a real primary with a real opponent, after she ran an extremely vicious, racist campaign against Obama in 2008. Her campaign did everything it could to paint him as other, as un-Christian, as un-American, to alienate him from the white vote, but Sanders is to blame for Trump’s victory because he criticized her policies instead of letting her have the nomination uncontested. These are the same self-righteous, entitled assclowns you see at the store verbally accosting retail workers for not giving them deals that don’t exist, I guarantee you.
The article also features Howard Dean (why the hell am I still reading about Howard Dean, by the way? Is it 2004 again? I keep turning on the radio checking if Outkast or Hoobastank is playing) saying that Berniecrats are “silly” for trying to fight and that “they’re going to lose.” The rest of the article is pretty much just Berniecrats and establishment Dems agreeing with each other that the only thing on planet Earth that’s worse than Donald Trump is conflict.
Establishment stooge Robert Reich shared the article with an obligatory tone deaf sermon telling everyone to “get a grip” and somehow saying that the Democratic party needs to change while also saying that the party in-fighting needs to stop, with zero acknowledgment that these two goals are mutually contradictory. The establishment Dems are demanding that the conflict cease while insisting that everyone should focus on Russia instead of making the truly massive changes the party needs to make, which House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi insists Democrats don’t want anyway. Yeah, Robert, sounds like a perfect recipe for the sweeping changes you’re calling for.
Here’s the thing Robert: I don’t think you’ve thought through what you’re asking. Asking us to stop fighting is asking us to stop fighting the way things are and the people who want to keep them that way. You’re asking us to be okay with representatives that do exactly what their donors want, not what we want. Cory Booker, the so-called progressive hope for 2020, voted right alongside Republicans in a dog-whistle vote to his pharma donors letting them know where he really stands. And clearly, it’s not with us.
He’s the guy you and your ilk keep pushing on us as one of the ones looking after us progressives, like a creepy uncle who keeps offering to babysit. “Look kids, Uncle Cory is looking after you tonight!”
Oh joy. We don’t want him, Robert. We don’t want any of your fauxgressives. He’s not our people; stop trying to pretend he is.
You’re asking us to be okay with more fixed primaries keeping out anyone who is a threat to what donors want. No one has addressed this. No one even thinks it’s a problem. DNC lawyers say that Bernie supporters shouldn’t get their donation money back because Bernie supporters knew it was a rigged primary from the beginning. They say that everyone knew it was rigged for Hillary and Bernie supporters donated in that knowledge. That’s their defense, so there’s no damn way they’re changing it. And we’re meant to be okay with that? Tell me, are you okay with that Robert?
You’re asking us to be okay with endless stupid wars over fuel sources we don’t want and should stop using anyway because that’s what the donors want. If that means beating up water protectors at Standing Rock or fighting alongside terrorists in Syria, well, whatevs, shut up and fall in line, we gotta fight Trump, am I right Robert? Isn’t that your whole line?
In other words, you’re asking us to forgive our abuser while he goes right on abusing us.
We’re not the problem; they are. More of more-of-the-same is death to the planet and the end of our species. If we were a human body, they are the virus and we are the antibodies, and we’re just pointing at them saying, “These are the people who are slowly killing us.”
You would do well to listen to us rather than try to shut us down and enforce “unity.” You know who else enforces unity? Totalitarian states. Cults. Abusive marriages.
You’re not in good company, Robert. Not good company at all.
The conflict is happening. The party in-fighting is happening. No amount of establishment whining is going to change that. The only thing that can bring about the party unity you all claim to desire so much is for the establishment Dems to stop collaborating with the deep state’s attempts to manufacture consent for a conflict with Russia and start building a viable party that will help real people with their real problems. Such a party does not currently exist in US politics at this time, and until it does, there is no legitimate alternative to the Republicans. Establishment Dems need to stop the gaslighting, manipulating and bullying, accept that the party will never, ever be the same, and get to work on helping us change it.
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Hi Caitlin,
I think you're "misunderestimating" Dr. Bob. His 5 points repeat your very thesis. I like the sound of what he says (points 2,3, &4 and he was a strong Bernie supporter) unless I'm tone deaf or missing something in his post.
[...] Can we get a grip? Democrats have to recognize 5 things:
But you're right in that Establishment Centrists will Lite Rep the Dems to extinction. I've bitched at my Dem senator Casey for the BigPharma vote. All the best, Bo
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