What the Democratic Party Doesn’t Seem to Get

-

Democracy in the U.S. is circling the drain. The Grand Old Party has become unabashedly fascist,  Congress has abdicated its constitutional power of oversight, and the Supreme Court has turned into a supreme enabler of authoritarianism. But it’s not just our elected and appointed officials who’ve lost track of what democracy is and what it requires. Many who voted in the last election seem to be living in an alternate reality, and those who sat it out seem strangely incapable of realizing what’s at stake until some executive order hits them on the head like a cudgel. At least at the present time, however, there appears to be enough pro-democracy voters out there (from both parties) who are politically engaged and of sound enough mind that a winning coalition might be assembled. Why then can’t the Democrats seem to get it together?


Democratic Party logo surrounded by question marks


A big part of the problem, as I see it, is that the Democratic Party has an image problem related to it being, well, undemocratic. Most people will likely know a Bernie Sanders supporter who thinks their favorite candidate got shortchanged compared to Hillary Clinton in the 2016 primary. Many others will know that Democratic National Committee (DNC) insider Donna Brazile all but confirmed that the DNC did have its thumb on the scale on behalf of Clinton when she alleged that a financial agreement was in place between Clinton’s Hillary for America (HFA) committee and the DNC. Brazile writes in her book on the matter (as quoted by CNN): “The funding arrangement with HFA and the victory fund agreement was not illegal, but it sure looked unethical. If the fight had been fair, one campaign would not have control of the party before the voters had decided which one they wanted to lead.”

Oh, sure, that’s ancient history. Neither Sanders nor Clinton is a viable candidate going forward. Haven’t we moved on? Indeed, the party might have moved on had Joe Biden decided in a timely enough fashion not to seek reelection. The party then could have held a fair primary election and let the voters decide who should be the nominee. That didn’t happen, of course, and that is where image problems, trust issues, and concerns about transparency can come back to haunt the party. You see, if you’re at all conspiratorial in your thinking, you might wonder whether Biden purposely clung to power longer than he should have with the express intention of ensuring that Harris would then be the candidate. I personally believe that Biden declining to seek reelection played out in an organic and uncontrived manner, but such wonderment is bound to arise when you have an image problem.

Joe Biden was a good and faithful public servant in many ways and for many years. His presidency allowed us to heal at least a little bit from the previous four years. However, the fact that he left Harris with so little time to get her campaign up and running is a fact that history will not judge favorably in my opinion. Harris did an admirable job representing the Democratic Party and, had she won, all would have been forgiven. But she did not win. The country lost—BIG. And the mistakes of the past are liable to be carried forward.

Will Harris’s presidential run in 2024 make her selection to be the Democratic presidential candidate in 2028 all but a fait accompli? If so, she will again be the candidate without being duly chosen in any primary process, ever. And the very fact that her name is on so many political materials being sent my way makes me concerned that the DNC may well have its thumb on the scale on her behalf going forward, just as its thumb was allegedly on the scale on behalf of Clinton.

Not only is that not democratic, it’s not a winning strategy. Those Sanders supporters have long memories. They (we actually) will not forget that a candidate like him is possible—one who can speak confidently, extemporaneously, and with gravitas on a host of current issues of utmost importance—one who is not beholden to anyone but the electorate at large. Unfortunately, for all of us, Harris was constrained by Biden administration policies that she couldn’t easily disavow. She didn’t have time to really be her own candidate.

But perhaps I’m being too charitable toward Harris at this point. Nearly a year into Israel’s destruction of Gaza, the genocide of which can now only be denied via the performance of mental, emotional, and linguistic gymnastics, the strongest position she could take was that there needs to be a ceasefire. Well, of course! But how will her past pronouncement that she “will always ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself” play out with the many voters who don’t want a single thin dime of their hard-earned money going to fund a genocidal war falsely described as “aiding in the defense of Israel.” This is not a position that sits well with young voters in general and Muslim voters in particular. The Democratic Party platform vis-à-vis Israel and Gaza needs to be determined via the primary process.

And what will the rest of the Democratic Party platform look like? Will it look like democratic socialism, social democracy, neoliberalism, or some strange hybrid? How far will it go towards calling for the rebuilding or dismantling of all that the current administration has dismantled or put in place? How far will it go toward calling for more robust guardrails to be put in place so that what the current administration is doing cannot ever happen again? These are details that should not be left to one anointed candidate and his or her cadre of advisors. Primary voters need to have a voice in what happens next. The future of the Democratic Party depends on it. Our democracy depends on it.


Power, Practice, and Peace logo



This post is in the Power, Practice, and Peace series.

Find a running list of all posts in this series by clicking here

 

Images

 

Democratic Party logo via:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:US_Democratic_Party_2025_logo_(profile).png

 

Copyright 2025 by Mark Robert Frank

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

That Which We Already Know: Introduction

-
Image
From That Which We Already Know . This passage is the introduction to my forthcoming book: The back gate of the very first home I ever knew opened onto a tract of land that I’ll not forget for as long as I may live. Ostensibly, it served as the nursery for nearby Gerhardt Gardens. By the time I arrived on the scene, however, the various plots of shrubs and saplings had become so overgrown as to seem more like wilderness to the child that I was. If not exactly wilderness, it was a crazy quilt of different habitats stitched together and overlaid with whatever weeds, grasses, and woodland succession plants happened to have put down roots and begun working their way toward the sun. Notwithstanding its state of near abandonment, we still referred to those 20-odd acres of beautiful wildness as the Nursery. If nothing else, it was a nursery for young minds. Cover Artwork A well-worn path headed east from that gate, through a dark patch of woods squeezed between the corrugated steel fence of a...
Read more

That Which We Already Know

-
Image
  I’m so excited that this labor of love is coming to fruition! Final editing is underway. The beautiful cover artwork by Sophie Binder Designs is complete. I hope to have this book in your hands soon! That Which We Already Know  is about stillness of mind. Part childhood memoir, part spiritual enquiry, part psychological and philosophical exploration,  That Which We Already Know  paints a picture of our fall from grace and ultimate redemption via the recollection of childhood truth: that we arise in this world with an innate capacity to experience stillness. There is nothing for us to learn in this regard. We simply need ease our adopted selves out of the way in order to realize how very much we already know. That Which We Already Know  began as a flash of inspiration upon waking one morning. It seemed that in an instant I saw the arc of my life with perfect clarity. Raised Christian, I’ve been a practicing Zen Buddhist for nearly thirty years. This book recou...
Read more

A Buddhist Takes Communion / A Buddhist Take On Communion

-
Image
Then he took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” And he did the same with the cup after supper, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” – Luke 22:19-20, NRSV   Yes, at the risk of prompting the eyes of many Buddhist-leaning readers to begin glazing over (What, is this going to be a sermon or something?), and at the risk of prompting the eyes of many Christian-leaning readers to narrow in suspicion (What does this Buddhist know about Christianity, anyway?), I’m going consider how the Lord’s Supper might appear if viewed through a Buddhist lens. In doing so I hope that Buddhist and Christian alike will glimpse something that leads to deeper spiritual understanding within each respective tradition.       Perhaps a little personal background will assuage your curiosity as to why I’m even con...
Read more