- cross-posted to:
- politics@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- politics@lemmy.world
One interesting quote that stood out to me:
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), asked if he thinks Ocasio-Cortez will make it into leadership in the near term, told Axios: “Yes.”
We have dozens of new parties already. The problem is that none of them have the roughly 80 million voters necessary to win the general election, or the corresponding numbers to win a significant number of local and state elections. When, realistically, the single biggest issue is battling the slide into fascism, you need the numbers to stand up against the fascist party.
The DNC historically has the numbers, the marketing, and the resources to be contenders in that fight. Their platform is broad and vague enough to approximately appeal to a wide number of voters, both progressive and neoliberal. Displacing them in the minds of anti-fascist voters is a gamble, and requires a party with a similarly broad appeal, and the resources and track record to inspire confidence. These are factors that every existing third party lacks, and I see no reason why a brand new party could be expected to outperform them.
The only way I see it working would be a long, gradual promotion of progressives who caucus with Democrats, eventually displacing enough representatives to pressure Democrats into caucusing with them. But that’s a long process that would require an incredible amount of grassroots campaign support, both in terms of money and platform amplification.
It’s not impossible, but it’s an uphill battle and it’s useless to pretend it can happen in a single election cycle.
If half of the Democratic caucus went “fuck this, new party”, that would create the critical mass to get something new off the ground, I think.
Perhaps. Keep in mind that’s assuming you could get half of the Democratic caucus to rally behind the same new party. Splintering is counterproductive. Additionally, that’s only enough to get an effort off the ground. Current Democratic and Republican votes are roughly equal, neither the remaining half of the Democratic party, nor the half that forms a new party, will have the numbers to keep Republicans in check. You’d have to grow this new party quickly, including peeling off Republican voters. This is not a trivial task.