The Democratic Socialists of America Have Actual Political Power. What Will They Do With It?

Discussion in 'Elections & Campaigns' started by Space_Time, Aug 6, 2017.

  1. Space_Time

    Space_Time Well-Known Member

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    Do they really have that much political power? If so should the Right be afraid? Is Bernie Sanders this generation's Saul Alinsky?

    http://www.thedailybeast.com/the-de...ual-political-power-what-will-they-do-with-it

    BERNIE-MENTUM
    The Democratic Socialists of America Have Actual Political Power. What Will They Do With It?
    Older members of the socialist organization were amazed to see the massive attendance at the convention this year. Now, they need to figure out how to harness it all.
    GIDEON RESNICK
    08.06.17 3:14 PM ET
    CHICAGO, IL—In 1973, Jack Clark met with about 20 or so like-minded socialists in a hotel on the Upper West Side of New York to decide what they wanted to do about the existing framework of socialist parties in American politics.
    Forty-four years later, he was sitting in the rafters of the University of Illinois in Chicago forum looking down on a packed convention floor of closer to a thousand Democratic Socialists of America.
    The organization has undergone a massive growth spurt since the 2016 presidential election, ballooning to 25,000 national members including an influx of young people devoting themselves to organizing and politics, in some cases, for the first time in their lives.
    With that growth has come a challenge many DSA members have never faced before: what to do with actual political prominence and relevance.
    “There’s an awful lot of positive energy here, people just feel good about being in a room with so many other people,” 68-year-old Jack Clark, the first national press secretary for the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee, told The Daily Beast. “None of us have been in a room with 700 active Democratic Socialists who represent people back home. This is just a new experience, I think, for everybody.”
    DSA has rich political roots in America, going all the way back to the rise of the labor movement. But in the post-Trump-election word, it finds itself more involved and influential than at any other point in its recent history. The group is organizing from the ground up, applying pressure on national and local politicians, making policy inroads in states, all while providing an outlet separate and apart from the traditional two-party system.
    It’s come a long way since its founding in the 1970s when Michael Harrington, a socialist activist and professor of political science in New York, served as chairman. Clark, who was involved with the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC), attended the seminal 1982 convention in Detroit during which DSOC and the New American Movement, another socialist political organization, converged to form the modern DSA. Back then, he could hardly have imagined speaking to national reporters while overlooking a sea of tables with groups representing nearly every state sporting rose pins on various lapels and jackets.
    “I knew we were growing, I was figuring that we had 18,000 or 19,000 and that it sort of plateaued there,” Clark said of DSA’s national membership. He joked that the convention would soon need to be set up like traditional Democratic party ones where there are bigger placards with state names so people can actually find their comrades in the crowd.
    In Chicago this weekend, the various caucuses and local chapters oscillated between votes on amendments to the constitution and meeting in smaller groups throughout the campus to conduct workshops on issues from housing to Medicare for All initiatives.
    Hanging over it all were the frustrations with the binary choice often presented by the American political system. For many, the DSA was a draw precisely because they were disappointed and disinterested in the major party politicking that had given voters the option of Trump and Hillary Clinton last year. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) campaign was a carrot that drew them into major party politics, providing a national, popular outlet for their ideas. The toxicity of Trump’s administration, has been the spark that’s kept them engaged.
    “When I started, we always felt that the ideas that we were promoting had a place in the political dialogue in this country and it was our job to create openings and to make those ideas relevant to the political debate going on,” 68-year-old Frank Llewellyn, former National Director for DSA, told The Daily Beast.
    Llewellyn and others acknowledged that the success of Sanders as a candidate, who helped popularize the term “democratic socialist” while running on the Democratic party line, catapulted DSA from a 7-8,000 member group shortly before the presidential election to its 25,000-member strong group now. But, he noted, “Sanders didn’t run with a socialist flag.”
    “That’s what socialists do when they win elections is they say: you know these are the things we need to do to make your life better. And, generally speaking, voters know when someone is committed to a set of ideas and when someone is just giving you lip service,” Llewellyn said.
    It was Sanders’ authenticity, Llewellyn added, that made him such a palpable force and allows him to remain the most popular politician in the country.
    But now the DSA has to turn its eyes to other candidates and initiatives, particularly at the state level. The group has already seen successes in a number of local contests including the election of Khalid Kamau to city council in South Fulton, Georgia. In Seattle, DSA-backed Jon Grant, is poised to go to a runoff for a city council position in November. Additionally, the New York City chapter is mobilizing for two local candidates in Brooklyn.
    In the immediate future, this is where the organization perceives that it can accomplish the most. And when it comes to member-support for Democratic candidates, in the midterms and beyond, everyone will be assessed on a case by case basis.
    “It’s folly to think that an organization of 25,000 people, even if we grow to 100,000 people, is going to fundamentally reshape U.S. politics in a way where independent candidacies are the norm,” Clark said. “I think we should push in Democratic primaries as much as we can for left-wingers to challenge corporate Democrats where they can.”
    But, as Clark said, the 2018 midterm campaigns are going to present DSA-ers with a “yes or no option” in many cases. Democrats that are up for reelection are not going to come out overnight and say they are socialists. However, if their ideals and approaches approximate the vision of DSA, Clark said it’d be silly not to at least give them a shot. Senators like Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) represent a “pretty good group of Democrats” in Clark’s eyes.
    That a DSA endorsement is a potent political weapon at all is remarkable itself, argued Maxine Phillips, 70-year-old former managing editor for “Democratic Left,” the official publication of DSA, told The Daily Beast.
    “Historically nobody’s really wanted the endorsement,” Phillips said laughing. “There were people who would send back the money if we sent a check to their campaign or something. I can’t remember who it was but once it became known that they had taken, a check for $100—this was years ago—he returned it because the newspapers got a hold of it. So times have changed. But we’re not in the business of endorsing Democratic politicians necessarily unless we think they’re going to advance our ideals.”

    http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-brief...rs-writing-teen-guide-to-political-revolution

    Bernie Sanders writing teen guide to political revolution
    BY JOHN BOWDEN - 08/05/17 06:20 PM EDT 666
    Bernie Sanders writing teen guide to political revolution
    © Greg Nash
    Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (I) is writing a book for teens interested in progressive politics, called "Bernie Sanders Guide to Political Revolution."

    The book, designed as a how-to guide for students eager to begin work as political activists, is out on August 29th, The Guardian reported.

    In a forward to the book, Sanders notes that he overwhelmingly won younger voters among all demographics during his 2016 bid for president.

    Sanders also told Teen Vogue that the book will explain to a younger audience how to get involved with America's democratic system.
    "Young people are the future of our country," Sanders told Teen Vogue. "As citizens of the United States, they have a responsibility to participate in our democracy and to help create a government which works for all, rather than just the few. This book will expose them to an unusual political campaign, the excitement of politics and what being a progressive is all about."

    According to Teen Vogue, the book also includes dozens of infographics about issues like income equality and money in politics that Sanders made famous during his 2016 presidential bid.

    In the guide's forward, Sanders praises the current generation of young Americans as the most tolerant and intelligent in history.

    "The current generation of young people is the smartest, most idealistic, and least prejudiced generation in the modern history of the United States," Sanders writes. "This is a generation that is prepared to think big and move this country in a very different direction than we have been traveling for years."
     
  2. Jiminy

    Jiminy Well-Known Member

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    You mean as opposed to the National Plutocratic Socialist Party, ie the Republican Party. The biggest socialists in this country are right-wing socialists.
    [​IMG]
     
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  3. wgabrie

    wgabrie Well-Known Member Donor

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    Well if by real power you mean people were going to vote for Bernie Sanders first and then Trump second, I say yes they do have power.

    But this new support for socialism is a side effect of the hard times people have been facing since the recession, having to pull themselves up by their boot straps, and hearing the class warfare arguments that the rich are having an easy time of things.

    Little do they realize they want to send us to ruin like we've seen in Venezuela. Socialism never works.
     
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  4. Pycckia

    Pycckia Well-Known Member

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    Why should the Right be afraid?

    It's the Democrats that should be worried.
     
  5. Xtremenerd

    Xtremenerd Well-Known Member

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    socialism has no power in the U.S
     
  6. Guno

    Guno Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    you need some education, the DSA is not the same type of socialism as in Venezuela
     
    Last edited: Aug 8, 2017
  7. btthegreat

    btthegreat Well-Known Member

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    My real hope for Bernie was never as a nominee of the Democratic party, despite the fact I voted for him over Hillary. His job was rebrand what a socialist can be in this country. Bernie believes in what might work. He does not let the label attached to an idea, dissuade him from looking at the idea. We sometimes call it a 'mixed economy' and as soon as the rest of America is willing to look to the market for answers( yes maybe you free marketers may be right now and again), or a regulated market for answers, or a public option for answers without worrying about what pejorative someone else may call the answer, we will all be better off. I truly hope that socialism has enough of a resurgence that we stop being scared that a conservative can brand any idea he dislikes or distrusts as 'socialist' and get it dismissed out of hand. Half the time they don't have a clue what they are talking about, and their audience does not realize it. That scare tactic has worked for too long.
     
    Last edited: Aug 8, 2017
  8. wgabrie

    wgabrie Well-Known Member Donor

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    Socialism never works.
     
  9. WittySocrates

    WittySocrates Active Member

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    Socialism = Collective ownership of the mean of production, distribution, and exchange.

    Venezeula has an economy largely based on private ownership therefore not socialist.

    If you are so anti-socialist then you should at least know what you are against.
     
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  10. WittySocrates

    WittySocrates Active Member

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    My main question would be are they socialists or any they just liberals that are to the left of the Democratic Party.

    There is a huge difference.
     
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  11. Mandelus

    Mandelus Well-Known Member

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    "The Democratic Socialists of America Have Actual Political Power. What Will They Do With It?"

    I get a laugh every time when US people use the term "socialist" as an abuse and insult.

    Well ... the cold war is still hot in America and one of the most abiding words to denigrate the political opponent is to sneeze him as a socialist, he is one of those evil communists.

    It is also funny when the "anti-socialists" on the one hand, the democrats as the true racists, do not tire and point to a big Klansmen meeting at a Democratic Party Congress in the 1920's as proof ... but then say, The democrats are all socialists. Does not fit any way ... and makes the rights ridiculous when she does something like that.
     
    Last edited: Aug 18, 2017
  12. wgabrie

    wgabrie Well-Known Member Donor

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    Oh private ownership socialism??? Like they are trying to push here??? No thanks.

    I'm against failure.
     
  13. WittySocrates

    WittySocrates Active Member

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    No, private ownership of the means of production and socialism are mutually exclusive. You can't have one while the other is present.

    There is private ownership of the means of production in Venezuela therefore Venezuela does not have a socialist economy.
     
  14. JakeJ

    JakeJ Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    The flaw of the OPer is to call it the Socialist Democratic Party of America.

    The last election season converted the American Democratic Party to become the "International Corporate Fascist Party." There is virtually no difference between the Democratic Party now and the 1935 Germany Nazi party.
     
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  15. JakeJ

    JakeJ Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Such a simpleton perspective.
     
  16. Steady Pie

    Steady Pie Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I'm not concerned with terms, but with concepts. I have been a Syndicalist and got away from all that.

    In some ways I prefer the full deal to the vast bureaucratic nanny state offered by Warren and the such.
     
    Last edited: Aug 19, 2017
  17. Ned Lud

    Ned Lud Banned

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    No, your chums murder the socialists. We'd end up with bloody democracy or something awful like that!
     
  18. wgabrie

    wgabrie Well-Known Member Donor

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    What? Who is murdering socialists?
     
  19. Ned Lud

    Ned Lud Banned

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    Any Conservative in this wide world who is in the position to do it - as has been the case for the last two centuries, as you know.
     
  20. wgabrie

    wgabrie Well-Known Member Donor

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    No I don't know. Tell me more. Where are the bodies???
     
  21. Ned Lud

    Ned Lud Banned

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    In every town in every country in the world, kid. Just 'cause your masters don't tell you.....! Heil McCarthy, Heil Trump! Liberate Venezuela, Cuba and everywhere else now! Death to Democracy! :)
     
  22. WittySocrates

    WittySocrates Active Member

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    What a nuanced, well thought out rebuttal. You clearly explained how I was wrong and you were right /sarcasm.

    Now, if one wants to be anti-socialist then you should know what we socialists believe.

    Socialism does not mean when the government taxes people or provides welfare; it refers to a system of common ownership of the means of production (things used to generate profit) and can take many forms. For example, there are Marxist-Leninists who support a vanguard party seizing power and controlling the economy with the end goal of abolishing money, the state, and most importantly class (communism) this is what most socialist states have been. On the other hand, you have anarcho communists who reject vanguard parties and are against the state outright. Between these views are many different schools on theory.

    The one thing that all socialists agree on is common ownership, the politicians in Venezuela do support common ownership and therefore they are socialists but the economy of Venezuela is based off private ownership, the antithesis of socialism, and therefore can not be socialist.

    The same applies to the USSR and communism, communism refers to a stateless, moneyless, classless society and the politicians of the USSR supported that and therefore are communists, the USSR, however did not abolish the state, money, or class and therefore can not be considered a communist state.

    These definitions are based off those used by Karl Marx himself

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_mode_of_production
     
    Last edited: Aug 19, 2017
  23. wgabrie

    wgabrie Well-Known Member Donor

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    Or you just made it up.
     
  24. Oh Yeah

    Oh Yeah Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I love it when you guys talk in general terms. That way you don't have to say nothing. Bernie socialism. I would really like to know what a Bernie socialist country would be like. Please expand on how it would all work. Who wins and who loses? Who receives and who pays? Are laws passed by elected representatives or a committee of selected delegates of the President? What happens to the Constitution? I know this asking a lot. I want to be prepared in case it ever bear fruit or is this just a pipe dream.
     
  25. Oh Yeah

    Oh Yeah Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    ...and what type socialism to you endorse? How would you achieve such goals? Do you believe America is ready to embrace total socialism? They seem to have a head start that way with Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid and welfare and Food Stamps.
     

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