The first clue that Platner was a shitty person wasn’t his military service or his Blackwater stint or his tattoo or the sexual assault stuff, it was that he ran for high office in the US government under one of America’s two mainstream parties. That’s damning in and of itself.
I said this on Twitter today and some DSA guy told me the best way to make changes in US politics is to work within the Democratic Party to elect left-wing candidates and advance progressive agendas.
I said, “You guys have been trying that for ten years with nothing to show for it.”
I mean, how much longer is it going to take before people admit that the “change the party from within” strategy isn’t working? Do you want another twenty years? Another fifty? Do you need to spend the next century watching a handful of vaguely progressive imperialists getting elected to Congress and then getting primaried out by opponents with mountains of special interest funding before you admit that you’re not making any meaningful gains? Our planet could be lifeless before then.
The Bernie Sanders “revolution” was ten years ago. Large factions of the American left took up his call to take over the Democratic Party using primary elections throughout the nation, and ever since then it’s been a two-steps-forward, two-steps-back addition of zeros. The people never got President Bernie, and the few progressive gains made on Capitol Hill were either kicked out like Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman or went full pro-establishment like John Fetterman. The few who stuck around have turned out to be perpetually disappointing empire managers like AOC, who know how to straddle the line between left-wing lip service and status quo swamp monster.
Saying this about the most successful third-party or independent candidate of the last twenty years is certainly a take. When was the last time that a third-party Presidential candidate did anything except lose the election for the major party they found less objectionable (Nader 2000, Perot 1992, Roosevelt 1912)?
Imagine if half the people parroting the dnc line that a third party vote is wasted actually voted third.
It's not a DNC line is the truth while we're in this terrible two party system with no ranked choice voting. Ironically Sanders has been pushing for ranked choice voting and fighting against the two party system.
So it's not done. We can bit third, but if you're in a swing state, the ~~DMC~~ DNC is going to make sure you can't vote for a better candidate.