Why You Need to Be a Democrat

By Tom Herman

Today's Democratic party bears little resemblance to the Democratic party of the FDR era. Where it once represented working people and the poor, it now represents the affluent and big banks and corporations. It mixes this with a veneer of identity politics which is largely bogus, since the minorities it claims to embrace will not be helped by its economic policies. The Democratic party is a hypocritical, empty shell, slightly less bad than the Republicans. Indeed, not-being-Republican seems to be about all they can offer up as compensation for their lack of constructive policy.

Predictably, there has been a great exodus from the party among progressives; and among young people, a failure to ever join in the first place. This makes sense, given what the Democratic party has become. But there is one immensely important problem in disconnecting from the party: If you live in a state with closed primaries—Delaware, Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, or Oregon—you may be directly insuring that progressives will not prevail in future elections.

Let us be realistic: the winner of the 2020 presidential election is either going to be Donald Trump or someone running on the Democratic ticket. It's not going to be Jill Stein (for whom I voted in the past two elections) or any other third party candidate. For a time I had been actively hoping that Bernie Sanders would start a new “People's party.” We are at a rare point in history where such a thing could potentially succeed. The great economic dissatisfaction in America, coupled with Bernie's huge popularity could provide the impetus for victory. But he has no interest in it. And that renders a third party, in terms of actually winning back the government, dead on arrival.

When we vote for president in 2020, there will be two candidates: Donald Trump and a Democrat. Who that Democrat is makes all the difference. Had Bernie been the nominee in 2016, he would be president now. The choice, then, determines not only the chances of victory, but given a victory, the quality of the victor. Therefore, it is essential that we choose the right Democrat in the primaries. But in states with closed primaries, only members of a given party can vote in that party's primary. By quitting the Democratic party, or never registering as a Democrat in the first place, the choice is left up to the Democratic faithful, and this insures a middle-of-the-road candidate, a choice not acceptable to most progressives.

This is, of course, exactly what the party establishment wants. Between keeping the primary closed and maintaining superdelegates with enormous, super-undemocratic power, it has immense control over primary election outcomes. And that is precisely why we cannot afford to lose a single progressive vote in primary elections, and why in closed-primary states it is essential to maintain your Democratic affiliation.

What is even the point of registering as an independent? Is it a matter of principle? It might feel liberating to quit or not to join the Democratic party, given its current state. But is this wise from any point of view? The argument that “the party cannot change” is only partly true. Remember what we dislike about the party. It can be summed up by saying that the people elected to represent American citizens, are representing the powerful moneyed interests instead. The policies the majority of Americans favor are essentially ignored by the ruling elite. And with such corruption, quitting the party seems warranted.

But the party is made up of individuals. And while it may be unrealistic to expect corrupted individuals to suddenly become morally responsible, it is not unrealistic to methodically vote them out of office, so that the Democratic party becomes inhabited by brand new people who are not corrupt, do not take corporate money, and do support progressive policies.

That is Bernie's strategy. And Our Revolution, Justice Democrats, Brand New Congress and others are working toward that same end. It is not that they have faith in the Democratic party per se, or in its current leaders. On the contrary, they are trying to revolutionize it by getting rid of and replacing the politicians who are miring it in corruption and corporate interests. The party can't change if you define it by its current membership. But it can change if you see that that membership can be replaced.

If you live in a closed-primary state, and you are not deeply involved in the Green party or some other progressive third party, what sense does it make to label yourself “independent?” You may well be independent, but who has to know it? All labeling yourself as independent does is make it impossible to vote in a primary for the candidate you like, thus barring you from influencing a party's choice of nominee. And come the general election, you can vote for anyone you like, no matter what your party affiliation is. Should your selected party's nominee ultimately disappoint you, you can vote for the nominee of a different party.

In other words, you have lost nothing by registering as a Democrat, however much you may dislike the party. Indeed, you have gained the power to help insure your preferred candidate gets nominated.

For me, personally, Bernie Sanders is the only politician who is strong enough and progressive enough to bring qualitative change to this country AND capable of prevailing over Donald Trump in 2020. If Bernie gets the Democratic nomination he will beat Trump in a landslide. But the Democratic establishment will do everything it can to block him from getting the nomination. With their control of the “liberal” media—the NY Times, the Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC, etc.—and their lockstep superdelegates, the road to his becoming the nominee might be problematic.

If you support Bernie, or even some other progressive candidate, please do not throw away your chance to vote in the primary election, where it counts most. And that means you have to be a member of the Democratic party—if not in your heart, at least on paper. If you are not a registered Democrat, don't put off signing on. As primaries range from open to semi-open to semi-closed to closed, many states have restrictions on who can vote. In addition, changing party registration in time for a primary can be tricky. In New York state, where I live, you must have changed party affiliation six months before the primary. I don't know how many New Yorkers lost their opportunity to vote for Bernie because they hadn't changed their party affiliation in time.

The importance of party registration to eventual outcomes is rarely talked about, but think how important it is, especially in states where a candidate wins by a few votes. Don't think it is naive to keep, or sign up for Democratic party affiliation. It is quite the opposite. Don't allow your disdain for the Democratic establishment to disenfranchise you. Join the Dems because you dislike them! Otherwise our fate is sealed, and we become part of the self-fulfilling prophecy that nothing will ever change.