Look around. We remain divided. Bernie Sanders is out there basically showing up an awful lot of people who see him as old news, loser, whatever.
In a past diary, I admitted my complicity in all of this. Admitted being wrong. But, its a lot easier for me to do that than it is for my opponents here too.
The problem comes down to owning the loss. Whoever gets the soul of the party will be calling the shots on how we beat Trump and take government back.
The problem here is we need that new party soul more than we need to feel good about ourselves. This is true for all of us, but again, it’s a lot harder for some of us than others.
I’m offering a alternative.
Truth is, I have no problem stepping away from this party. If it does not serve me, I don’t have a lot of use for it. I am one of these people in need now, and more of my peers fall into the need with me every day. I can’t just ignore it either. I wake up, it’s there. I look around, it’s there. I can’t do things I need to do, and it’s there. My peers are the same, created by the old strategy, which just didn’t perform. Economic need is painful. I hurt, we hurt, and it just doesn’t go away.
My opponents are far more invested in the party, and for different reasons, but that investment is linked to a very ugly loss too. Sucks to be you. And I mean that in the nicest of ways. Just being real. I get it.
But it really sucks to be me too, and to be honest, I can’t shake off my pain. It’s basic, core pain, and it’s shared by a majority of us hurting because why? Some of us with more than enough need a little more every year? Really? How does that make real human sense?
And I can’t afford the same strategy anymore. I’m sinking along with most of my peers. Many of our party opponents do have options, they do have the luxury of debating economic merits. The party divide is all about those who do not, who cannot afford that debate. Those who simply must act.
So how about this?
Don’t own the loss. I don’t care. Really, that’s over. We just don’t have to do that. Maybe we shouldn’t do that for our own damn good. The clear priority is our strategy, numbers, ideas to beat Trump. No apologies, nothing.
Start standing with the future of the party. Do it quietly, “Shhhh….” style, and roll with it. If it feels good, and you can get there, we need all we can get! Let’s focus on building a monster we can celebrate a short time from now and not worry about who did what and why. Just dip a toe in, feel it out, think about the real human need, think about the core of the left, who we are supposed to be about, think about the majority and growing number of us who are simply not getting what we need economically.
This is about them, not us!
The Sanders bloc isn’t going to go along with the usual party line, and that’s some 40 percent of us. The left will not function this way, it will lose, there will be more losses, more pain. And you might ask, “Why should I?”
I’ll answer this way: our ideas, our motivation, and all of it is rooted in simple, undeniable human need. We simply cannot go the old way. It doesn’t work, we’ve owned our part in that, we’ve owned our losses economically, and we are going to move forward on all of that, with a party, or by doing something else. And we don’t need you to own this loss.
This party helped create us. It helped create us by not performing well enough economically. That’s just fact. We can fix that too. Now this party, and this need, these people need us, can grow from us, win with us, and we all will be much better off.
Can you really say that from the “Third Way”, “New Democrat” side of the fence? Really? Do you really believe the same leadership that basically created us is going to somehow bring better ideas at this point? I don’t. And I have to do something about the need, because the people are more important.
And don’t answer. Not needed. Just step over to our side. Take a break, then ease in. The water is fine. No proclamations needed. We are great people, same as you, and we stand with the clear future of the left too.
In this way, we do the litigation needed, and we do it by solidifying around the ideas best aligned with the human economic need. But, we give everyone an out. And given this mess, it’s an out an awful lot of us may benefit from too. So think hard about taking it. It’s OK.
I did. I can no longer, and literally, afford to do the same things we’ve done so far. Those things failed me.
We need you. It’s OK. No blame. No shame. We just need you.
One last thing: We were there. Fought hard, held the lines, and it didn’t work for us.
Why not do your friends, who went to the mat with you over and over a solid? Return the favor. We don’t have what it takes to provide for us and ours.
It’s time we address that directly, and with new leadership, new ideas, full on economic thrust aimed at labor and the middle class.
We were there man, over and over. Consider returning the favor. It’s time.