Democratic Socialists (DSA) vote on endorsing Bernie Sanders

[crazytown]

The Democratic Socialists of America are voting on whether to endorse Bernie Sanders prior to the Democratic Convention. After 2016, you may have thought that would be a formality, but not so.

The DSA is split into the age old division between those who would prioritize outcomes (such as healthcare, wages, inequality, war profiteering) and those who emphasise action (mass mobilisation to overthrow capitalism). Both sides agree that only socialisation of key industries can deliver enduring justice - it’s a matter of strategy.

Tactics Comrade, Tactics!
https://www.marxists.org/subject/art/literature/children/texts/orwell/animal-farm/ch05.htm

Anyway, here are there the arguments:

1. Yes - Endorse

Whatever the details of his program may mean to us, to the rest of the world, the Bernie Sanders campaign will be a referendum on socialist politics in the United States. It is a litmus test about whether a left program can be a viable project in this country. ...

Bernie Sanders is running for president, and he might actually win. What we can do—what we must do—is use the organizing opportunity of the Sanders campaign to reach millions of people when they are most open to politics—and socialist politics particularly! We have to convert them into committed fighters for the democratic socialist program, and make sure they don’t recede into pessimism or inactivity after the presidential election is over.

2. No. Do Not Endorse

What attracted people to Bernie in 2016 was that he had been a political independent. He appeared—as did Trump on the right—as a break with the corrupt and corporate-controlled Republican and Democratic parties. But Sanders is no longer—if he ever was—really an independent. He has spent the last two years largely campaigning for Democrats and preparing for a 2020 campaign in the Democratic Party. Sanders is today the leading progressive in the Democratic Party, not an independent. And, as we all know, he is not really a socialist. He is a New Deal liberal. ...

Socialism means the democratic socialization of the banks and corporations, of industry and agriculture, of the media and culture. Historically this idea has presumed the creation of a working class party, the destruction of the capitalist state, and the creation of a new more democratic government, the nationalization, municipalization, or the cooperitivization of the economy, the democratic elaboration of a national economic plan, and within that plan widespread community control and workers’ power in the workplace. This is not Bernie.

If you think the No case sounds like a liberal defense of Sanders you are not wrong. (If we don’t endorse him and he may scare less people in the primaries!)

One thing both sides agree is that a Sanders campaign should not benefit the (establishment) Democratic Party which is The Enemy.

The Yes Case: The divisions ( being in the campaign) will generate between Bernie and the Democratic establishment will be very useful as a popular education tool about why the differences between the Left and the center matter.

The No Case: Those who would have us endorse Bernie have to explain how, after Bernie loses to someone like the liberal Sherrod Brown or Kamala Harris, they will be able to keep DSA members from [] flowing into their campaigns for president ...

A poll will be conducted in April, with the steering committee having the final say.

https://www.dsausa.org/weekly/a-dialogue-should-dsa-endorse-bernie-sanders-before-the-convention/

[Garrett78]

1. What a bunch of lunatics.

[crazytown]

2. You're too kind

[Garrett78]

6. "...the (establishment) Democratic Party which is The Enemy."

Lunatics.

[crazytown]

7. The Democratic Party is The Enemy

by (temporarily) rescuing capitalism they put off the task of imposing socialism on industry, agriculture, media and culture.

[Blue_true]

12. I have talked to and debated that type.

Lunatic is accurate, along with willingly uninformed and angry. On a base level, like the right, they see THEMSELVES as victims.

[comradebillyboy]

3. The DSA endorsement tells me who to vote against

Sorry but actual socialism, as opposed to better social services, has a terrible track record. See Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea, the former Soviet Union and it's clients. China prospered because the Chinese Communist Party allowed a lot more free enterprise. Overthrowing capitalism has never worked out very well for the people.

[crazytown]

4. Socialism is basically a planned economy.

Whether industry is run by goverment, workers committees, or local councils, in the best case creativity and innovation die slowly, in the worst they eat other.

[comradebillyboy]

5. That's the track record all right.

[CrossingTheRubicon]

8. The DSA is an anti-liberal organization with an anti-liberal ideology.

BS is clear that he's a Democratic Socialist. Not so clear that he's a "Democrat."

[crazytown]

9. And AOC is a DSA member

The DSA had a membership of about 8,000 before Sanders first run. It’s now about 60,000. That’s an awful lot of newbies.

[OnDoutside]

10. To paraphrase Brendan Behan, the first item on a Socialist party

Agenda, is the split

[crazytown]

11. Ha!

[crazytown]

13. When the DSA endorse him,

the RE can find a treasure trove of loony stuff in the DSA.

[Maru Kitteh]

14. They wouldn't have to, I think BS has given them plenty to work with over a lifetime but

yes, you are correct. They will.

[crazytown]

15. Here's my bottom line

I want the Dems to win the House, the Senate and the Whitehouse with a set of ambitious but workable polices that will serve the party well in 2022. Above all we cannot allow to be a repeat of 1994 or 2010.