This third party would keep Hillary honest: Bernie Sanders backers must become a Tea Party of the
left
(snip)
Without that kind of movement, willing to work both within and outside the Democratic Party, willing to defeat Democrats in primaries or even to run against them in a general election, the status quo will continue: subservience to Wall Street and the policies favored by the 1 percent whose money shapes elections on the national and state levels, the false belief that terrorism can be defeated by our own brand of terror (war through drones), fossil fuels will continue to be extracted from the earth and accelerate global warming, millions of people languishing in our prisons (many for nonviolent crimes), social services (child care, health care, elder care, etc.) will continue to be sacrificed on the alter of no new taxes, the economy will continue to depend on endless growth with devastating consequences for the life support system of the planet, the U.S. will continue to have the most expensive and least successful health care and pharmaceuticals in the advanced industrial countries, the values of selfishness and materialism that are the common sense of global capitalism will continue to pollute friendships and families causing psychic pain and family instability, and cynicism toward government and despair at the possibility of fundamental change will give new opportunities for racist, sexist, xenophobic and fascistic forces to gain public credibility.
Pessimistic? No, this is exactly what happened in the past seven years of the Obama presidency, and it will only worsen unless there is some ongoing political movement capable not only of speaking to the economic pain so beautifully articulated by Bernie Sanders but also capable of addressing the hidden psychic injuries of the globalization of selfishness that impact not only the poor but almost everyone in the society.
Such a movement would have to overtly challenge the capitalist system. Minimally, it would support the ESRAEnvironmental and Social Responsibility Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (which bans all money from elections except public funding and requires corporations to prove a history of environmental and social responsibility once every five years to a jury of ordinary citizens who would hear testimony from people around the world who have been impacted by the operations, policies, and advertising of that corporation (check it out at www.tikkun.org/ESRA). And this movement would reject the fantasy that homeland security can be achieved through (military, economic or cultural) domination of others around the world, and instead insist on a strategy of generosity manifested in a Global Marshall Plan and showing the people of the world that the US genuinely cares about their wellbeing (check out the details at www.tikkun.org/gmp).
There are tens of thousands of Sanders activists in states that have already finished their primaries. Bernie could call upon them to create statewide conventions in which they organize themselves into an ongoing movement, precisely what Bernie said needs to happen. Yet unless he explicitly articulates how folks can do that, provides a structure for doing so, and allows his supporters to access his supporter lists to build a movement, it is not likely to happen. In the aftermath of his large loss in New York, particularly in New York City which is usually the symbolic center of American progressivism, we at Tikkun magazine have already gotten many notes indicating despair and a desire to retreat from all politics, a reaction to the way that election seemed to systematically disenfranchise many thousands of voters and to the bare facts that Bernies trailing in the delegate count and in the popular vote makes them feel that there is little chance that we will have nothing to inspire us in the next eight years of American government. While Bernie himself will obviously concentrate on the remaining states that have not yet held their primaries, his followers should be urged to use this time to organize a new national organization.
more: http://www.salon.com/2016/04/24/this_third_party_would_keep_hillary_honest_bernie_sanders_backers_must_become_a_tea_party_of_the_left/
oldandhappy
(6,719 posts)Good Post. Clear statement of our situation. Thank you. Love the last paragraph.
This is the third time I have seen 'tea party of the left' and it kind of grosses me out. The tea party was a frightful invention of the K bro and others who were destructively minded. We need a positive, growth oriented name. Help! Please! Come on everyone!
Progressives for America
People for People
A New Democracy
U.S.A. for All
Campaign for America
I'd like to avoid the use of the word 'party' since we really are a movement in which people from all parties are welcome.
silvershadow
(10,336 posts)wield. I expect a might fine seat at the table, since I represent at least 1/2 or more of the party.
w4rma
(31,700 posts)And the neoliberal voters will die off from old age.
silvershadow
(10,336 posts)oldandhappy
(6,719 posts)Unfortunately this Bernie supporter is also in the category of 'will die off'!
appalachiablue
(41,047 posts)w4rma
(31,700 posts)Younger voters aren't connable like our grandparents were and are. Younger voters reasearch. Older voters ofter think they already know it all.
oldandhappy
(6,719 posts)brush
(53,467 posts)with the Dems could dominate the political scene and render the repugs relatively powerless.
I hope that happens but it'll be hard work. The Greens have tried it for years but we only hear about them every 4 years when they try to run for president. Starting from the ground up is hard work, I mean with the petitions needed to get on ballots, running for local offices like the school board to gain recognition as a viable entity, then on to county and state assembly and state senate positions.
It's tough. I hope it happens. There seems to be a big part of the demographic who are independents who could be called on, but independents aren't a monolith. Some are left-leaning, some moderate and some conservative. How would that work?
Or are you speaking of an actual "teaparty" model that gloms onto the Democratic party in sort of a hostile takeover?
IMO that remains to be seen as I fear the Sanders revolution could evaporate after the primary fight for the nomination is lost. Haven't we already seen a lessening of enthusiasm since the New York loss? And where will the funding come from? Where will the big money backing that funded the teaparty come from, that actually put it on the map and made it a "thing", a "thing" that stunk up it's party and pulled widly right, but a "thing"?
Chan790
(20,176 posts)They're top-running. They don't run for down-ballot spots or local elections with a viable national or state organization. They keep throwing all their resources into the Hail Mary presidential campaign.
If they were smart...they'd suspend their efforts for the Presidency until they're a force in state races and can viably run Senate campaigns. it would take them 4 cycles, maybe 12 years at the nearest edge. Take all the money, energy and resources they're going to waste on another Jill Stein candidacy and put them into party building, running for offices in major cities and small towns and lower posts at the statewide level like Treasurer and Sec. of State. It can work...it was working here in Metro Hartford until the national Green party came in and fucked it up by forcing them to abandon local issues to cheer-lead for first Nader, then Stein. It was working in DC with their candidate coalition with DC Statehood Party until the national Green party fucked that up too.
The biggest challenge the Greens face is their unwillingness to allow their growth to be bottom-up because the narcissists at the top would lose control if they were forced to focus on local electability rather than vanity campaigns for the Presidency.
appalachiablue
(41,047 posts)Democracy Forward Movement. And the Real Deal Democratic Party.
w4rma
(31,700 posts)silvershadow
(10,336 posts)peace13
(11,076 posts)Let the folks who changed think up their own name! Not our problem! They could go with something that represents global economy and militarization.
Myrina
(12,296 posts)Clinton can go back to her "deep Conservative roots" and rejoin the GOP, and the TeaBillies can have Cruz, Walker and the other Dominionist whackadoodles on the far-right.
w4rma
(31,700 posts)If the plan doesn't include voting against neoliberals in Democratic primaries it will fail spectacularly.
Don't fall into the corporatist trap by thinking that neoliberal Democrats will vote progressive from blackmail. You must vote progressives in yourself. Noone else will do it for you.
silvershadow
(10,336 posts)w4rma
(31,700 posts)Noone can gerrymander a primary. Primaries are the only elections that matter in gerrymandered districts.
silvershadow
(10,336 posts)w4rma
(31,700 posts)Clinton won the unpopular wing on unpopular issues and name recognition. Progressive issues are mainstream.
silvershadow
(10,336 posts)w4rma
(31,700 posts)Thus showing Sanders to be the true 'moderate'?
silvershadow
(10,336 posts)w4rma
(31,700 posts)insightdeluxe
(32 posts)must be some pressure on the dnc from the left.
La Lioness Priyanka
(53,866 posts)silvershadow
(10,336 posts)There is no amount of window dressing that can change it.
tex-wyo-dem
(3,190 posts)"Teabagger mentality?" The Tea Party is an AstroTurf movement promoted and funded by wealthy corporate oligarchs bend on pressuring the already radical RW anti-government GOP to become even more radical...a wholey destructive fake movement that drew out the most racist, xenophobic, etc elements of our society.
A true Progressive movement such as being discussed, would be the opposite...a true grassroots organization based on the principles Bernie has been campaigning on the entire primary that's been resonating with millions.
La Lioness Priyanka
(53,866 posts)taken straight from the OP.
marble falls
(56,353 posts)run
peace13
(11,076 posts)marble falls
(56,353 posts)Orsino
(37,428 posts)There can be no such thing as a Tea Party of the Left. No big corporations are going to secretly bus us from rally to rally. If we want progressive change, we're going to have to do it ourselves.
Gumboot
(531 posts)Let's be honest - these should be the 10 key values of The Democratic Party... if it wasn't being devoured by Wall Street.
Damn, I really wish my Party would come back over to the left side of the aisle... where it would find America's working people crying out to be represented.
Lucky for the DNC that The Greens get absolutely zero TV time, or they'd be in huge trouble.
Chan790
(20,176 posts)Why should we leave our party?
Let the Third Way fuckwits, Neo-Liberals and Centrists leave to form this idealized third party. In fact, I wish them all the luck in it--I believe it will take the sane edge of the GOP with them and relegate the GOP to the dust-heap.
We'll end up back in a two-party system within 20 years where the two parties are Democrats (Progressives) and New Centrist Coalition. (Clintonites, Mainstream GOP, Third Way, Moderates and Neo-liberals.) It would kill conservatism in America.
denbot
(9,894 posts)Our wing needs to organize, and assert, not fracture and desert.
silvershadow
(10,336 posts)Town Hall smarm?
denbot
(9,894 posts)You can't lead if few are willing to follow.