That is not a facetious question in the title. First, there was the primary turmoil when the DNC hack showed what Bernie Sanders and progressives had long been complaining about, that there was implicit bias towards Hillary Clinton in the primaries. The flap ended up costing Debbie Wasserman Schultz her job literally on the eve of the Democratic convention. The turmoil continued through the general election, with disjointed messaging, an out of touch platform, and sometimes questionable allocation of resources.
The churning and roiling continued through the process of selecting a new DNC chair, Tom Perez, and once again the process was a battle of establishment candidate Perez and the more modern progressive Keith Ellison. Perez got off to a good start, naming Ellison his right hand man, and at least at the outset seems serious about listening to him, and integrating some of the progressive ideas into the overall strategy. But change takes time, and time is short, we see that in Trump and the GOP every day.
Unfortunately, the dysfunction has continued, at the worst possible time, and in the worst possible place. While the DNC and DCCC have been tantalized at the thought of snatching a quick seat, and capitalizing on grassroots momentum in the GA special election next Tuesday to fill Tom Price’s vacated seat, due largely to the fact that Hillary only lost the district by 1.5 points in November, they have completely ignored the race in KS-04 where Democrat James Thompson wants to fill Mike Pompeo’s vacated seat, largely because Trump won the district by 20+ points, and Mike Pompeo never had a serious contender in his career. This is a grave tactical error on the part of the DNC. They pay lip service about rebuilding the local parties, and a return to the 50 state strategy. Ummm. The last time I checked, Kansas was not an unrepresented US territory between American Samoa and the Marianas Islands, it was one of the 50 states. And now is not the time to turn your back on any race, with the incredible passion of the grassroots, and possible flagging GOP support among moderates disappointed by Trump’s chaotic start.
James Thompson is a progressive Democrat, from the Sanders wing. He supports $15 an hour, single payer, although he admits it won’t become reality soon, and other progressive views. He picked up the support of Sander’s Our Revolution political group. But Mother Jones REPORTED on the DNC refusal of support for a solid progressive candidate. The DNC refused to give the state party any funding, and the state party turned down Thompson’s request for a lousy $20,000. Ironically, that $20,000 may come back to haunt the DNC. Mother Jones picks up the narrative from there;
Instead, Thompson built his campaigns on thousands of small-dollar donations, in the mold of his political icon, Sanders. And when the race appeared to tighten last week (there have been no reliable public polls of the race), the progressive grassroots showed up in overwhelming force. From last Thursday, when Republicans began to sound the alarm, through Sunday, Daily Kos raised $149,255 for Thompson through ActBlue—an astounding four-day haul for a Democrat in a district Pompeo last won by 34 points. Thompson has raised more in three months for his special election than the 2016 Democratic nominee, Daniel Giroux, raised in 13. (Italics mine)
To be clear, the Republican is expected to win, but a couple of days ago the Cook Report changed the status of the race from “Likely Republican” to “Lean Republican”. And the GOP panic is evident. They quietly dumped $97,000 into a last minute ad push in the district. And you don’t bring Ted Cruz all the way from Texas in the day before the election to rally for Republican candidate Ron Estes, nor do you have Mike Pence and even Da Man himself recording robocalls for a shoo in candidate. The GOP can read the mood and the tea leaves, even if the DNC doesn’t seem to be able to.
Look, Bernie Sanders showed the DNC the template for running a populist campaign in the new reality of modern politics last year. So did congressional candidates like Cheryl Turpin from Virginia, and Doug Applegate in California. And the Daily Kos was there to man the front row of the army. The DNC ignored the reality, and got their ass handed to them in November. Tommy Lee Jones may have put it best in the movie “Under Siege”; “A movement is exactly that, it moves a certain distance, and then it stops. A revolution keeps coming around until it’s in your face!” The DNC can either comprehend this, embrace it, and support it, or the DNC can become more and more irrelevant to progressive politics while “we the people” and the grassroots take over and recreate the party. This is how democracy is supposed to work.