Big TENT

What a time to be alive and what a fucking time to be a Democrat.

I’m registered as a Democrat because I vote in New York City. Not anymore. I’m changing my registration to be in North Carolina. I’ve officially left New York City for now - though she’ll always be there and I’ll always be happy to return and I will one day.

But I haven’t felt at home in the Democratic Party for years, if ever. The Democratic Party that I learned about in books - the one that drew us out of the Great Depression, the one that signed the Civil Rights Acts has been long gone.

I make history content, I live and breathe politics. I am running a Democratic campaign in North Carolina (Ashley Bell, check her out). And yet, I am not sure that I am a Democrat.

What a time to be alive. There is a real reckoning with the power structures that exist and Democrats are not immune to it. Because that same party that pulled us out of the Great Depression, used HUD to build segregation into cities that didn’t have it. That same party that signed the Civil Rights Acts that many Black Americans died for, has done quite literally nothing to help them since.

That same party who espoused working class rights has all but forgone workers for corporate interests, media buys, and more. The rural vote has been forgotten. The party has followed the money. And following the money makes groups do all manners of sins.

The Democratic Party played the same game the Republicans made up in the wake of the Powell Memo. A memo written in 1971 by Lewis F Powell junior, a corporate attorney who stated that corporations should get involved in politics. Who mapped out the modern conservative movement 55 years ago. It leaked in 1972, while he was going through nomination hearings for the Supreme Court. And a few people raised a flag and said, “Hello! Have you seen this?” He began his Supreme Court term on January 7, 1972 and he would stay there until 1987.

From the Powell Memo, the Heritage Foundation is born. The Moral Majority is born. The think tanks are born. Citizens United is a direct descendent.

And rather than rejecting the new rules of engagement set forth by the Powell Memo, the Democrats leaned in. Money was more important than ever, how can we possibly beat that kind of money without using it ourselves?

So the rural voters were forgotten, the working class voters were forgotten, the Black voters were forgotten. All for the money.

And now that people running under the Democratic banner are running on individual contributions, are running on Medicare for All, are running on true progressive values – the Democratic hardliners are mad? We’re just doing what we used to do.

And not everyone running like this falls into the category of Democratic Socialist or “leftist”, some are just true progressives.

We were told to join the party to change the party. And these candidates are winning, and now it’s very much:

Hell of a time to be working for a candidate fits into these buckets. Who has been told to swing more moderate to win a primary. To swing more moderate to flip a seat. But the watered down version of Democrats isn’t what people want anymore and it hasn’t been for years. People are desperately on the hunt for leadership that inspires. And that requires taking a stance. Middle of the road isn’t going to cut it any more.

All that to say is, the winners are going to be the people who listen and adapt to what people need. Who are not prescribing how to feel, but are hearing people and finding the common ground.

You can hear me talk about this more here.