Democrats Must Become the Workers’ Party Again

No shit. Now convince the democratic party leadership that winning elections is more important that kissing donor ass.

Now convince the democratic party leadership that serving their constituents is more important that kissing donor ass.
Convince them of that, and the winning elections thing will solve itself.
- The problem is "kissing donor ass" is a euphemism for serving themselves.
- lol no it won’t. If I’m a Republican candidate, I can literally just say some culture war bullshit and still beat you in an election. Especially if you’re a woman or a minority.
Their goal is never to win elections. Their only goal is to prevent leftist movements and organization from gaining positions of power. To defend these status quo.
- Yes they will gladly surrender to fascists to prevent socialists from getting a voice. This is the core issue
- Wouldn't be surprised if you are in a situation where it needs to get worse before it can get better. Vote 3rd party so heavily that it kills one of the major parties. All the people that didn't turn up vote for someone else?
Don't convince national Democratic leadership of anything. They're too disconnected and don't care about any state they don't live in. Run for, and take control of state Democratic parties. Start telling national leadership your terms for your state supporting or working with them.
If enough people do that. They will change or become irrelevant.
- Where can I sign up? Fuck it. I'll run for something.
- The only ones that get any level of power or influence within the party are ones that will defend the status quo. A system that's operating as designed cannot be reformed from within.
- most of them dont want to ruffle the feathers of the same donors that gets the GOP elected, theres one too many DINOS in the dnc, just need to rout out those first, which is a first step
- What state do you live in?
The best way is to bring single payer health care.
Every other G7 nation has it
- They tried to do that the moment they had senate supermajority with caucusing ind over a decade ago, but caucusing ind Joe Lieberman voted against it and the GOP filibustered it in 2010.
  They haven't even had more than 50 since like 2013, they only had bare minimum to select majority leader in 2021 because of caucusing independents and VP tiebreaker.
  If you want single payer then the only way to get that is not to change the DNC, it's to convince millions more people to vote for them or to remove Republicans.
- The problem is that they see donations as the end goal and no longer give a shit if they lose.
- They don't have to be. Present the people with policies that they want and the public will do all the work themselves.
Losing is more expensive
Convince the voters to stop falling for culture war bullshit then
Here I thought "providing the better option in a binary race" would be enough; but snowflake voters need individual attention?
"Here. We'll keep a traitorous felon out of office because that's the choice" and people still preferred the felon.
I think we need to start by apologizing to the Democrats for being stupid. Not just "oops I voted wrong" stupid, but "oops I voted for the Russian agent who's raped everything he touches and sold every secret he probably touched too, and is now oddly hellbent on destroying a country as a favour to Russia" stupid.
That's a lotta stupid.
- "We're second worst and you will be voting for us no matter what we do" was going to fail eventually, and you were fools to keep doing it.
- Your hostage situation electioneering is the past, electoral reform is the future.
  We will not be abused by people like you any longer. We will be free to vote how we wish. The people will have many options to choose from, and the democrats will have to represent people to earn their votes or be tossed into the garbage can alongside the republicans.
  More democracy is the way forward, not this domestic assault you try to pass off as representation.
- Winning elections by checks notes demanding voters apologize for not voting for you.
  Brilliant.
- They’re downvoting you, but you’re right. One day they’ll grow out of this communist shit

That'll be the day.

The Democrat party is not a democratic party, they are a neoliberal, technocratic party. They don't want the people to rule, they want neoliberal technocrats to rule. I don't see that changing, anytime soon.

A workers' party would have to be a majoritarian, democratic party, because the workers are the vast majority of the population.

MAGA took over the GOP in just a few years. I think the same thing can happen to the DNC. Just need a little propaganda, some charismatic leadership, and people willing to slander the establishment.
- MAGA had a lot of money pushed at it. The Koch Bros independently funded the Tea Party movement until Trump was created, then Russian money began to flow.
  There is no such money faucet for leftist groups. In fact, a massive lack of funding has been one of the chief struggles these groups have had for decades.
- MAGA voted for Republicans.
  If you're suggesting the left change the DNC by starting to vote for them, then I'm in.
- It won't happen because Anyone left of center is too fucking worried about supporting a candidate that isn't completely perfect in their eyes than they are about making actual progress.
  Edit- and just like that, like moths to a flame, people come by to prove me right.

Yes, AND it's worth bearing in mind that some democratic strategists apparently think the path to being the "worker's party" is to embrace social conservatism. Trans people aren't the reason I will never retire, they aren't the reason I'll never be able to take my kids on a real vacation, or why we're one "get fucked lmao" from being bankrupted by health insurance. The assholes in this party who have a vision of trying to capture moderate Republicans need to show themselves the door. Bernie and Trump both show that you'll get the votes when you promise big changes to this busted ass system AND people believe that you'll actually do it. Stop trying to be yesteryear republicans; start promising shit that hurts the big donors' feelings and meaning it.

Bernie is a loser. So is Trump. Both have lost national elections.
Obama can’t relate 😎
- Hillary and Kamala are bigger losers than Trump, apparently, having the same national track record as Gary Johnson.

So long as they have corporate donors and insider trading, they will never be the workers' party.

Nobody is coming to save us. The working class needs to organize to save itself.

The good news is that if it works, we'll be in a much better place than where we were a decade ago. It's going to take a lot of hard work, and we all need to pitch in a little to make it happen. It might not work, but there's nothing to lose in trying except our chains.

General Strike. Shut the country down, they'll get violent. They will use the police and the national guard to attempt to break the strike. But hold firm, because then they'll beg.
- They can break up a picket line, but they can't stop you all going home in response to it. The end result is the strike continues. Or as it's a general strike just move somewhere else.
- Which is why I have always contended the first place to strike is against the police, government, and churches.
  Not healthcare CEOs, and business… as long as your local police department, legislature building, and local church are undisturbed nothing will change.
Yup. The Democrats as we've known them need to die or completely metamorphose. I don't want my political party to be friends with CEO's and billionaires, I want my political party to get the American people's fair share. I want my party to look upon trillion dollar companies and billion dollar families with the same disgust and ire I have. There's no such thing as a good billionaire, a good person could never take that much.
Let's bust some monopolies, let's tax the fuck outta tycoons. Stop giving billions of government dollars to privately owned and traded companies. Let's invest in infrastructure projects that make our country better. Who gives a fucking shit about GDP, it doesn't make my life better.

There needs to be a worker's party. It doesn't have to be the Democrats.

That there are only going to be two viable parties in this country is a mathematical inevitability of how our voting system works, but there's no reason why the Democrats have to remain one of those parties. If what they're doing right now is the best they've got then they shouldn't be difficult to replace. A damp sandwich could do a better job.

DAMP SANDWICH 2028
Its a first past the post 2 party system. It's gonna have to be the Democrats.
- Democrats have no intention of being pro-labor. They need to go away and be replaced by a better party.
- Check out the Working Families Party. It's not in every state, but they aren't delusional about running their own candidates as third parties. The strategy is generally to find candidates that align to their values and get them into Democratic primaries.
  Now, at the end of the day, I don't think any political party can save us. The best case scenario is to make sure the state isn't too repressive, but that's useful in itself.

Democrats should be doing a lot of things instead of waiting around for those "good" billionaires to show up. Both parties need to split and take huge chunks of resources with them to form a party that actually does represent the majority. This has happened before in American history but, at this point, it's just wishful thinking I guess.

That would require removing mega-rich conservatives from party leadership. I don’t see that happening.

Biden’s pro-union moves are historic, but voters need more than symbolism. Effectively outlines the problem and proposes actionable solutions.

🐱🐱🐱🐱

I keep hearing this, but Biden shut down the rail workers strike and then slowly got them a small portion of that they were striking for. They would have gotten a better deal if Biden had just stayed out of it.
Teamsters wouldnt endorse him in 2024. Whens the last time you saw unions not line up behind a Dem?
When I look up what else he did, people like to say he appointed some people to some positions, and upped funding for NRLB. NLRB arbitrates labor disputes, but doesnt advocate for unions specifically. And Biden walked 1 picket line, while ignoring some others, like during the amazon strike. He did nothing in many cases where the cops were called in to brutalize picketers and demonstrators in both the amazon teamsters strike and the rail union workers strike.
So all this adoration for him showing up for one picket line for a few minutes, and one needless derailing of a rail strike. And no blame for his ignoring some other labor stuff he could have helped with if he actually cared about labor even just a little bit. Seems like a C- grade to me.
Following the new DNC flowchart: Is that better than an trump? OK, sure. If thats our only yardstick for everything.
Following the DNC critics: is that enough to get elected? Eff No. Biden and Harris both hemorhaged votes amongst union members too, along with every other working demographic. Working people do not see pro business centrists as serious partners. Dress Biden up in the clothes of being pro union all you like, I think everyone see thats thats just performative BS for the chumps. Just like his phony 'red lines' in pretending to push against war crimes while enabling them in both constant weapons shipments on the US taxpayer dime, and running interference for Israel in the UN. Should we give Mr best labor president ever a nobel peace prize for his strong stances against war crimes? Or can we stop this charade of his being the best president ever in every possible category?
- Biden actually kept working to get the union their demands after the fact, when he clearly had the power to ignore them if he wanted to.
  EDIT: GOVERNMENT WEBSITE LINK HERE "On Biden-Harris Administration's watch, the percentage of rail workers who are guaranteed paid sick leave has gone from 5% to 90% "
- Biden’s rail decision wasn’t perfect, but it prevented economic collapse while securing paid sick leave—a historic first. Teamsters’ hesitation reflects union independence, not failure. NLRB funding and pro-union appointments are structural wins ignored here.
  Biden’s labor record isn’t flawless, but it’s leagues ahead of anti-union predecessors. Your ‘C-’ grade ignores these achievements and oversimplifies complex realities. Pragmatism beats ideological purity in advancing labor rights.
  😺😺
- Those rail workers were trying to tank the economy. Fuck them. And fuck these unions too. We don’t need unions, we need regulations directly.
The problem is that the voters do need symbolism. Voters are too stupid and propagandized to know what actions a party actually takes. Symbolism is all that matters. You can even just straight up lie and these dumbasses will believe it.
- Observe the contempt for workers.

Because no one expects anything but terrible policy, like those neoliberal ones, from the GOP. People think the dems will be for the people and workers not just the wealthy
- So why do people vote for republicans? Come on, just admit it.
They kinda were. People hate "RINOs," ofc Trump is in reality just more of the same, but like the author said he represents a "wrecking ball," and only thing resembling a deviation from the mainstream Washington consensus.

I think that is one of those "far left" ideas that the DNC said they need to run away from.

No. The Dems must implode and let something actually decent come in

Best they can do is embrace fascism.

yeah the party of insider trading will definitely be the workers' party if you wish it hard enough.

Who is it you think is guilty of insider trading?
- nancy pelosi

As a non American, I've been told by an American colleagues that the Republicans are traditionally the worker's party. Could someone please clarify?

Additionally, my opinion is that the entire system needs to be abolished to allow representation from more than two parties to represent how diverse America is.

It's like pro wrestling. Their gimmick is that they are working class that busts their assess working hard labor jobs to feed their families. The democratic gimmick is that of well meaning and educated individuals seeking a bright future.
But in reality is that they are both moronic abusive assholes and one is a nazi.
So a long time ago, you could argue the Republicans were the worker's party. Abolionist-focused, was comfortable with immigrants more than other parties at the time, and Lincoln even exchanged letters with Karl Marx, but indrectly. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Address_of_the_International_Working_Men%27s_Association_to_Abraham_Lincoln
Republicans in the 1800s stood for minimum wage, pushed for suffrage of women, and other generally good ideas like "Maybe we should listen to the unionists who are willing to die for an 8 hour work week."
But over the centuries since, the lines blurred. In the 1930s a Democrat pushed for expansions of the social net due to the great depression. In the 1950s, a Republican advocated for billions to spent on the interstate highway system, that has never once made a dime back over the last decades.
Then the southern strategy happened. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_strategy Republicans marketed themselves towards the white South as a way to say "Hey we back what you stand for, whatever it is" and that's when South started to vote for Republicans, and Nixon took advantage of this.
But the Republicans today don't even care about the white workers, they don't about any workers, they only care about the rich. Have been since at least the 1980s from Ronald Reagan. Democrats lately tend to protect the workers more, but it varies from state to federal, but generally wages are up with Democrats, and we've had more expansions of workers rights with them.
How far back are they talking "traditionally"? You can make an argument that they were a century ago. Not a particularly strong argument, but there's an argument. Go back even further, and Karl Marx himself was congratulating Abraham Lincoln. After all, slaves are the most exploited workers.
The last 50 years, though? Absolutely not, but their bleating about "coastal elites" hoodwinks a lot of people to think otherwise.
- Yes! My colleagues were talking about the elites in California when they mentioned that.
I would really like to know why your American colleagues think that.
- Probably briefly remembering high school talking about Republicans doing good things, and then thinking Fox News is accurate reporting.
- Their words were something to the effect of Democrats always campaigning with celebrities and supported by rich people, while Republicans are supported by the poor and don't campaign with rich people (I did point out Musk to them and they replied that Musk is a hard worker etc.).
https://newstalk1130.iheart.com/featured/common-sense-central/content/2018-05-01-the-myth-of-the-republican-democrat-switch/
Tldr: Democrats were the party of the South until the 90s
Alabama, for example, didn't elect a Republican governor until 1986. Mississippi didn't elect one until 1991. Georgia didn't elect one until 2002.
Claims Nixon was the Republican who came up with the idea of pandering to racists
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1976_United_States_presidential_election
See Jimmy Carter’s support in the South
- This is absolutely true.

But then the corporations are not going to pay them.

Ignorant Dutchman here:

What's stopping anyone from starting a new Workers' party in the US? A multi party system seems more favorable than its current state.

first-past-the-post voting is the most common system in the States (and most prominent in presidential elections) which generally means additional parties rising to prominence will almost assuredly split the vote with the closest party so a new worker’s party will have to magically eclipse and obliterate the Democratic party overnight or they will both lose to the Republicans indefinitely.
- So if I understand it correctly, there is literally nothing stopping anyone in the US to start such a party and participate. The only thing is that the party might not accumulate enough votes to be of relevance. It might be worth a shot if there is sufficient momentum (which currently there seems to be from my arm chair point of view).

Can't be the party of wall st and the party of workers, at best you can pay lip service to one or the other, its no wonder which they would choose

Theres a massive problem with propaganda in this country to the point where Unions, public school Educators, Farmers, Poor folk just barely managing to survive until their next paycheck would all rather vote for the guy who wants to make unionizing Illegal, who wants to dismantle the Department of Education and public schools, who wants to take away farmer subsidies so that small time farmers collapse in on themselves, and who wants to take away the very federal programs that help poor Americans survive. As opposed to a candidate who wanted to support more unionization across the country and support workers right to strike, who wanted the department of Education to remain in existence and had a teacher as her VP who talked about how teachers needed raises, who talked about going after big time corporations who also happen to be massive farmers and force the small time farmers to sell to them so that the small timers now make no or actually lose money while the corporation gets their subsidy, and who talked about raising the minimum wage to 15 an hour "at least" and supported legislation that would allow for said poor folk to get more benefits and be lifted out of poverty.

Democrats are and were pro worker, even if not perfect. But the workers abandoned them because at least the Republicans say they'll fix everything right away. And hey if they don't, these things take time. But if a Democrat is elected and says they'll fix everything right away, that they'll change the country and they don't do it immediately, well that's just because Democrats are incompetent.

Many many workers are voting for Republicans knowing it's against their interests because of hatred and bigotry. The Democrats need to do better, the need to be reshaped into a more progressive party, and they need better messaging and marketing, but to say they aren't already the pro worker party is fucking disingenuous at best and outright spreading far right propaganda at worst.

Democrats never lifted a finger for me. Every time I hear them doing something it's somehow not helping me again. My wages have stagnated while their donors got richer. Obama bailed out companies that closed production anyway. Dems handled this election so poorly it's barely believable. I genuinely don't know if they're actually opposition. They seem like they're on the same team as the other guys from where I'm sitting.
- Where I live, it has looked the same for the last 18 years of my life. Most of the changes are from state laws, even then it's hard to get the companies to respect them without threat of a legal action I can't do from being broke.
  Dems handled this election so poorly it’s barely believable. I genuinely don’t know if they’re actually opposition. They seem like they’re on the same team as the other guys from where I’m sitting.
  Have been since at least 2016.

Just let the DFL take over nationally

Ken Martin is now the chair of the national Democratic party. He was the leader of the DFL.
He also doesn't seem to be moving the party in any useful direction. Congrats on getting your monkeys paw wish I guess?
- Ken's got Elissa Slotkin queued up to give the dem rebuttal to Trumps speech tomorrow. She's the same zionist dem who is ranked the most centrist in the senate and participates in the "New democratic Coalition" (pro business dems) and the "problem solvers coalition" (laser focussed on bipartisanship). I guess Fetterman was already booked?
  So Ken, the "DFL" and the DNC have not changed course even one little bit from the Biden/Harris loss.

A two party system isn't it and this can be the best time to start a new party, one that focuses on the worker's not to say this party would completely destroy help for the wealthy but make them do what's fair for living and operating in this country.

Joe Biden was extremely left leaning for the average American. He did so many pro union things. He held an EV summit and didn't invite Tesla, because they didn't have a union. First president to cross a picket line. https://uwua.net/2023/10/president-bidens-union-record/ Democrat platforms have always been in the direction of higher taxes on the rich to fund more social safety nets. People just don't like them because they aren't good enough. When the alternative is explicitly anti-worker, anti-union, tax cuts for the rich, destroy social safety nets. This narrative needs to die. It's not a failure of democrat policies or platform it's just a failure of the media environment. It is purely a media problem. Democrats just need to start shitting out more tik toks and get more sycophantic youtubers like trump has, to jerk them off so the vibes shift.

People just don’t like them because they aren’t good enough.
It's more that they're still all in on incrementalism, while the problems people face are worsening by leaps and bounds, and they're actively hostile to members of their own party who advocate for advancing the sort of large-scale, structural changes needed to actually resolve the various crises bearing down on the working class. They're also at odds with their base on major issues, such as healthcare reform, a robust social safety net that isn't means-tested to death, and their obsession with supporting Israel, because they've been captured by the purse strings of their major donors. It certainly doesn't help peoples' opinion of them as embodying the out of touch elites who are deaf to the plight of the working class when party leadership comes out against [https://www.businessinsider.com/we-are-free-market-economy-pelosi-rejects-stock-ban-congress-2021-12?op=1](Congressional insider trading) that our representatives are notorious for exploiting to enrich themselves via privileged knowledge they gain through their positions.
If they didn't dump millions of dollars into primary challenges to progressive candidates that represent a challenge to the prevailing neoliberal order the Dem leadership so dearly loves, even when it means ultimately losing the race to a Republican, I doubt people would be so hostile to them, and the party would probably be in a better place. When party leadership won't resolve their issues in a satisfactory manner, won't listen to and incorporate criticism from their base, and actively fight their efforts to get elected officials who more accurately represent their views and values, it shouldn't be a surprise that people decide to go elsewhere.
You can't publish enough TikToks and youtube videos to media manage your way out of a hostile, out of touch group having a death grip on the party and refusing to admit that, perhaps, the present situation is vastly different today than it was 3-4 decades ago when they were first elected.
There are plenty of people, both politically engaged and those who only show up to vote every 4 years, who are legitimately dissatisfied with the Democratic Party's deafness to the problems facing the average voter, and as long as the Democrats and their supporters continue to stick their heads in the sand and pretend it's all down to a hostile media environment, the further down the path to complete irrelevance they'll find themselves.
- Incrementalism is just democracy, shit moves slow, people disagree, there are laws and procedures it prevents the country from wildly steering back and forth like a schizo. Not anymore now that Trump has won, we get to see those large scale structural changes now. There is no hostile out of touch group with a death grip on the dems, the far left just doesn't vote, or they are not that big of a group. Moderate dems appeal to more Americans then the super progressives. Harris lost by like 1-2%, and that is AFTER trump/elon most likely rigged the election through suppression and probably also hacked voting machines. The far left not voting for Harris knowing full well that Trump is an actual fascist, is suicidal accelerationism that will get millions killed. Fuck em, get the fuck out, stop associating yourselves with dems. Make your own shitty fucking party and lose every election instead of pretending your dems and then throwing a hissy fit every time the candidate doesn't do fascism the way you want.
Plus by 2024 he had over 90% of Class 1 Freight workers the sick leave their unions had fought for in the strikes earlier in his term.
It's definitely an issue with the spread of information and not with actual policy stances.
- I didn't even know that one. It's so sad how Biden's name has gotten dragged through the mud.

biden was the most pro labor president in my lifetime.

Ain't saying much.
- He ended the railroad strike, but worked and got all their demands met. He was very effective handling that.
- No he didn't.
Claiming to be pro labor starts at livable wages.

I don't know why these articles keep coming up, because the party at large already was. One or two turds in the punchbowl do kind of ruin ones appetite I suppose, but when you're up against a fascist ideology completely based on lies and bullshit social posturing as issues, you can't rely on something like being the "worker party" to combat.

Democrats need to fucking smarter and more nimble at turning the tables on lies and misinformation. That's what we need. They're fucking failing at that right now.

The problem with the DNCs version of being the "worker's party" is that the left leaning policies they do pass tend to be things that feel intangible to most workers. They pass infrastructure bills that in theory create jobs, but in reality usually take way too long to actually implement and are killed or watered down by the opposition. Even before they are watered down, they tend to largely be hand outs to large corporations who capitalize the lions share of the funding before anything trickles down to actual workers.
Workers want to see a political party that aren't afraid of taking direct action, they want to see tangible benefits.
- A agree with this in general, but when you're talking about an entire party, you have dig deeper into local affiliated reps, not the national reps. They aren't paying much attention to incra crews scamming the system and taking twice as long to patch roads and whatnot.
Unfortunately, the GOP has enemy nations helping them with their campaigns/propaganda.
Are you so blind to the fact that a bipartisan system cannot possibly represent the people. The Democrats haven't driven politics for the working man for a long fucking while...

We don't have jobs though...

That's what I'm talking about

They can't. Middle class oil workers, workers in the gasoline auto-sector will not vote for Democrats. The same goes for many who are contractors; plumbers, electricians, HVAC.

Those working for Amazon might be able to unionize, same with Walmart. Hopefully they can get better pay, and hours. But they are not fighting the same fight as climate activists.

Trump might break teacher unions soon with school vouchers.

Democrats need to start with hyper-local issues, and organize around those.

Why do people act like the only real workers are oil workers, coal miners, and building contractors? This is a tiny sliver of the workforce.
- Because it simultaneously gives them an excuse to do noting for both unions and the environment.

Democrats are already the workers party, but the "real" workers party voters refuse to vote for Democrats.

Lol, no they're fucking not, why are you all over this thread trying so hard to pretend that reality is different than it is?
You really like to defend blatantly bad groups, it's weird
- Gross smells like fucking Trump supporter in here

Just hopping back on lemmy to see if we're still doing the "blame Democrats for literally everything" thing.

Yeah?

Cool.

Ok bye, dumbasses

- They won't leave, this is like their 4th time saying "I'm done with lemmy".
If they occupy the only space to fight Republicans, and they are doing a bad job at fighting Republicans, they should receive criticism.

Can we stop this working class bullshit? You people are so damn disingenuous with this. Just say what it is. Culture War Bullshit!

Organizing along class lines is literally the farthest thing from "culture war bullshit" there is.
- Go organize with the right wingers then, and see how far you get.