The more alarmedone is bythe Trump administration, the more one should focus on how to fix the systemic, fundamental sickness of the Democratic Party. That Hillary Clinton won the meaningless popular vote on her way to losing to Donald Trump, and that the singular charisma of Barack Obama kept him popular, haveenabled many to ignorejust how broken and failedthe Democrats are as a national political force.
An endless array of stunning statistics can be marshaled to demonstrate the extent of that collapse. But perhaps the most compelling piece of evidence is that even one of the U.S. medias most stalwart Democratic loyalists, writing in an outlet that is as much ofa reliable party organ asthe DNC itself, has acknowledged theseverity of the destruction. The Obama years have created a Democratic Party thats essentially a smoking pile of rubble, wrote Voxs Matthew Yglesiasafter the 2016 debacle, adding that the story of the 21st-century Democratic Party looks to be overwhelmingly the story of failure.
A failed, collapsed party cannot form an effective resistance. Trump did not become Presidentand the Republicans do not dominate virtually all levels of government because there is some sort of massive surge in enthusiasm for right-wing extremism. Quite the contrary: this all happened because the Democratsare perceived with good reason to beout-of-touch, artificial, talking-points-spouting automatonswhoserve Wall Street, Silicon Valley, and the agenda of endless war, led by millionaires and funded by oligarchs to do the least amountpossible forordinary, powerless citizens while still keeping their votes.
What droveBernie Sanders remarkably potent challenge to Hillary Clinton was the extreme animosityof huge numbers of Democrats led by its youngest voters to the values, practices,and corporatist loyaltiesof the partys establishment. Unlike the 2008 Democratic primary war which was far more vicious and nasty but devoid of any real ideological conflict the 2016 primarywas grounded in important and substantive disputes about what the Democratic Party should be, what principles should guideit, and, most important of all, whose interests it should serve.
Thats why those disputes have not disappeared with the inauguration of Trump, nor should they. It matters a great deal, perhaps more than anything else, who leads the resistance to Trump and what the nature of that opposition is. Everyone knowsthe popular clichthat insanity means doing the same thing over and over and expecting different outcomes; it illustrates why Democrats cannot continue as is and expect anything other than ongoing impotence and failure. The partys steadfast refusal to change course even in symbolic ways we hereby elevate by acclimation Chuck Wall-Street Schumer and re-install Nancy Im a-multi-millionaire-and-We-are-Capitalists Pelosi bodes very poorly for itsfuture success.
In sum, demanding that one refrain from critiquing the Democratic Party in order to exclusivelydenounce Trump over and over is akin to demanding that one single-mindledly denounce cancer without worrying about who the treatingdoctor is or what type of research is being conducted to cure it. Trump happened because the Democrats failed. And he and similar (or worse) phenomena will continue to happen until they are fixed.
The obvious determinationof Democratic establishment leaders to followthe same failed and dreary course explains why the race for DNC Chair has become so heated. In reality, that position is little more than a functionary role mostly focused on fund-raising and building the party apparatus at the state level but whoever occupies it does serve as a leadingpublic face of the party.
For the last five years, the face of the DNCwas the living, breathing embodiment of everything awful about the party: the sleazy, corrupt corporatist and centrist hawk Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who as a result of WikiLeaks publication of DNC emails had to resign in disgrace after she gotcaught engaging in sustained cheating in order to ensure that Hillary Clinton would be the partys nominee.
But her disgrace was short-lived: upon resigning, she was quickly rewarded for her corruption by being named to a high position with the Clinton campaign, as well as having the DC establishment Democrats, led by Joe Biden and Clinton herself, support herin vanquishing a Sanders-supported primary challenger for her seat in Congress. As a result of the support from the party establishment (as well as massive funding from corporate and banking interests), she defeated that challenger, Tim Canova, and the nation rejoiced as she returned for her 7th term in Congress.
Wasserman Schultz was replaced as DNC Chair on an interim basis by long-time party operative Donna Brazile, who was quickly engulfed by her own scandal when she got caught secretly passing CNN debate questions to the Clinton campaign, then repeatedly lying about it by denying it and insinuating the emails were forgedby the Russians. For that misconduct, CNN fired her, as anchor Jake Tapper denounced her cheating as horrifying and CNN itself said it made themcompletely uncomfortable.
But Brazile continues to this day to run the DNC. Think about that: her behavior was so unethical, dishonest and corrupt that Jeff-Zucker-led CNN denounced it and publicly disassociated itself from her. But the DNC seems perfectly comfortable having her continue to lead the party until the next Chair is chosen.
Perhaps worse than the serial cheating itself was that it was all in service of coronating a candidate who as many of us tried to warn at the time all empirical data showed was the most vulnerable to lose to Donald Trump. So the very same people who bear the blame for Trumps presidency by cheating to elevatethe candidate most likely to lose to him continue to dominate the Democratic Party. To describe the situation is to demonstrate the urgency of debating and fixing it, rather than ignoring it in the name of talking only about Trump.
Early on in the race for DNC Chair, Keith Ellison the first American Muslim ever elected to the U.S. Congress and an early Sanders supporter who resides onthe left wing of the party emerged as a clear favorite. He racked up endorsements not only from progressives like Sanders,Elizabeth Warrenand Jesse Jackson but also party stalwarts such as Walter Mondale,John Lewis and even Schumer himself, who seems to recognize that throwing a few symbolic crumbs to the Sanders wing of the party is strategically wise in light of the enduring bitterness many of themharbor toward the DNCs behavior and the partys centrist, neoliberal, pro-war policies.
Photo: AP
The knives were then out for Ellison, as operatives began dumping controversial college-age comments about Louis Farrakhan and Israel into the media. The New York Times began running articles with headlines such as Jewish Groups and Unions Grow Uneasy With Keith Ellison a strange headline given that Ellison has been endorsed by multiple unions, including the AFL-CIO, the United Steelworkers, UNITE HERE, and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, among others. Even unpaid parking tickets from the 1990s made an appearance thanks to Democratic slime artists.
The assault on Ellisons candidacy was formalized when the Obama White House recruited and promised to back one of its loyalists, Labor Secretary Tom Perez. As he did with his endorsement of Wasserman Schultz, Biden made the establishments support for Perez official by publicly endorsing himlast week.
Perez isa pleasant liberaland loyal party stalwart: before the first primary vote was cast, he endorsed Clinton over Sanders and became one of her most outspoken surrogates. Despite claiming to be devoted to American workers, he was a loyal supporter of TPP even after Clinton was forced into insincere opposition.
Its not hard to see why the Obama and Clinton circles want him to run the party instead of Ellison. Hes acceptable to big donors. He has proven himself loyal to the party establishments agenda. He is a reliable party operative. And, most importantly of all, he will change nothing of substance:ensuring that the same policies, rhetoric and factions that have prevailed continue to do so, all while protecting the power base of the same people who have run the party into the ground.
Two recent incidents vividly highlight why Tom Perez so perfectly embodies the Democratic Party status quo. The first occurred two weeks ago, when my colleague Zaid Jilani attended an event where Perez was speakingand politely but repeatedly asked him about Israeli human rights abuses which had been in the news that week because of new demolitions by the IDF of Palestinian homes, and because Perez had been asked about his views on boycotting Israeli as a way of stoppingtheir decades-long occupation.
With thedomination by the Democratic Party of Saban and others looming, just watch how this profile in courage who wants to lead the Democratic Partyresponded to being asked about his opinions on this matter:
To ensure there was no mistaking his loyalty oath, he made that last tweet his pinned tweet, ensuring it would sit at the top of his Twitter page. (He also includeda couple of scripted, emptybanalities about the importance of transparency, objectivity, and fighting like hell).
So in Tom Perezs conduct, one sees the mentality andposturethathas shaped theDemocratic Party: a defense of jobs-killing free trade agreements that big corporate funderslove; an inability to speak plainly, withoutdesperately clinging to focus-grouped, talking-points scripts; a petrified fear of addressing controversial issues even (especially) when they involve severe human rights violations by allies; a religious-like commitment never to offend rich donors; and a limitless willingness to publicly abase oneself in pursuit of power by submitting to an apology ritual for having told the truth.
That is the template that has driven the Democratic Party into a ditch so deep and disastrous that even Vox acknowledges it without euphemisms. That is the template that has alienated voters across the country at all levels of elected office and that enabledthe Donald Trump presidency. And it is the template that Democratic Party establishment leaders are more determined than ever to protect and further entrench by ensuring that yet another detached, lifeless functionary who embodies it becomes the nextface of the party.
One can spend all of ones time and energy denouncing Donald Trump. But until the systemic causes that gave rise to him are addressed and resolved, those denunciations will do little other than generate social media benefits and flattering applause from those already devoted to opposing him. Focusing on and attempting to counter the fundamental flaws of the Democratic Party is not a distraction from #TheResistance;it is acentral priority, a prerequisite for any kind of success.
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Tom Perez Apologizes for Telling the Truth, Showing Why Democrats' Flaws Urgently Need Attention - The Intercept