By SJ Otto
This article is mostly for the
benefit of the "Bernie or Bust" Crowd. It seems as if a lot of millennials,
and some folks who are a little older than that but hold the same ideas, need
to understand the history of the Democratic Party and the 2 party system.
Those of us involved in the
system, for the last 40 years or more, realize the system is rigged. It always
has been. The Democratic Party has been a bourgeois party for almost all of its
history. At times it has absorbed some of the more progressive aspects of our
society, such as labor unions and abortion rights activists. But the party has
rarely been liberal and it has never really been socialist (democratic or any
other kind). The Democratic Party goes all the way back to Thomas Jefferson.[1]
It did provide us with President Franklin
Delano Roosevelt and his many liberal reforms. It did give us President Lyndon Baines Johnson, who gave
us social welfare programs and civil rights legislation. It gave us
Presidential Candidate George McGovern, the anti-war would-be-president. But those are just a few
high points for a very bourgeois party that rarely goes more than center left
to center right. At worst we had the 1968
Democratic Convention in Chicago, where riots broke out in the street.
Anti-war activist tried in vain to influence the Democratic Party and its
candidate.
McGovern was never
really supposed to be a presidential candidate. As with Sanders, the party
didn't want him to run. But he got nominated anyway. That lead to such
absurdities as Democrats
for Nixon (party hacks for President Richard M Nixon). That is why we now
have super delegates.
It
should surprise no one that the DNC
did not want Bernie Sanders to win. He was not really Democratic Party
material. Sanders probably knew this all along. But his supporters didn't. Many
are young. Many are new to politics. Many did not know what activists as myself
knew all along—
that the Democratic Party
establishment (including the DNC) opposed Sanders and would do all in their
power to stop him.
I have heard a lot of
complaints from friends about the 2 party system. They complain that we don't
get decent choices. We end up with "the lesser of two evils." They
are right. This system has been in existence since the US
Sanders did well in the
primaries and that is extraordinary considering how much the establishment was
against him. The millennials have made a huge difference in this electoral
round of elections. They seem not to understand that a movement such as Sanders
can't possibly win in just one election cycle. Most people and pundits probably
figured that Sanders might get 20 to 25 percent of the vote. They never dreamed
he might almost win. The DNC probably felt assured they would give this
election to Hillary Clinton and were shocked that Sanders almost took it from
her.
Normally Party insiders decide
who they want to win and they make it happen. These decision often get
challenged by a candidate, but rarely is that challenge substantial. This time
it was.
But the less experienced
voters, those who now make up the "Bernie or Bust" people seem to
believe they can still get what they want. I have heard some young people say
"if they finally kick Hillary out of the race, then maybe they will put
Bernie in." They won't—under any circumstances. Even if Hillary has to
drop out of the race, there is no real chance that the Democratic Party will
put Bernie in. They just won't.
For those who don't want to
vote for Hillary, there are the third party candidates. Under our electoral
collage they have NO chance of winning. Two of the main rivals of the 2 party
system are the Libertarian Party and the Green Party. Those of us who
live in Kansas know full well what the Libertarians want to do to us. And
those who believe the Greens are the closest thing to Bernie Sanders' socialism
need to think again. The Greens
are a bourgeois party that wants
to reform capitalism. They favor some progressive issues, such as a national
health care program and liveable wages. But they are not socialist at all. These
parties may be good for a protest vote, but they will not effect the election
at all.
We
need to change the 2 party system. At the very least we need a multi-party
system that lets other political parties compete in elections. We need to get
rid of "winner takes all" and the electoral college. What we really
need is a revolution to get rid of a backrupt and corrupted system and replace
it with a socialist democracy. That would mean getting rid of the reactionary/
corruption parties and replace them with mostly socialist parties.
That
can't be done in one election cycle. It will take a lot of hard work. A lot of
people like this system. They are the corrupted in and out of the system—They like how it works. It works for THEM.
But
we can't just vote our way out of the 2 party system. We need to make serious
changes and we need a political movement to make that happen. We need to start
making change. We can start right away. We will need patience. It will take
time. But if you are young or a Millennial you have the time.
In
1968 the Democratic Party was torn apart by the Vietnam War.
-Pix
by socialistworker.org.
[1] The party was originally called the
Democratic-Republican Party. It was tied to the Republican movement of Europe , a movement for capitalism against feudalism.
After some time the name Republican was dropped. The party originally formed in
opposition to the Federalist Party. Over the years the party changed directions
and ideology many times. Wikipedia, Democratic-Republican Party.
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