Democrats Do Not Deserve Your Vote
It is long overdue, but support for the Neoliberal Democratic politics of the past must come to an end.
It may be too early to look ahead towards 2026, let alone 2028, but the Democratic Party is in such a disheveled state right now that doing so feels more proactive than overeager. A microcosm of their relentless unseriousness, 10 Democratic congresspersons voted alongside Republicans to censure Rep. Al Green of Texas for his protest during Donald Trump’s State of the Union address. Republicans are adamant that the American people provided Trump a sweeping mandate to enact his agenda at every level, but Rep. Green made the upstanding choice to correct the record that Trump does not in fact have a mandate to cut Medicaid. In doing so, he was escorted out of the chamber. It also bears repeating that Trump did not even break 50% in the popular vote, hardly a mandate in any sense of the word.
In its current state, the Democratic Party exists as a fundraising apparatus. They are not interested in solving any of the most pressing issues Americans face today because doing so would require them to go against the interests of the benefactors they serve. Oftentimes, those same benefactors donate to Republicans as well. Take House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, for example. In the 2023-24 election cycle, his top contributors consisted of AIPAC, BlackRock, and Lockheed fucking Martin. Similarly, he’s receiving tons of money from both the real estate and investment industry.
Comparatively, let’s look at some of the money House Majority Leader Mike Johnson is receiving.
Do I even need to go much deeper here? I guess I could, and maybe one day I should, but for now let this serve as a perfect representation of what we’re dealing with within Democratic leadership. Jeffries is adamant that Democrats have no leverage1, and therefore must work to find common ground with Republicans as their only option. As such is the inherent paradox of centrism; by attempting to exist in the middle, you ultimately stand for nothing at all. This is not solely about Hakeem Jeffries either. It is the corporate Democrat class of politician, like Gavin Newsom, Josh Shapiro, or even Kamala Harris, that insists we must work with Republicans because they are incapable of breaking from the monied interests they serve.
The Democratic voter base is becoming increasingly tired of the do-nothing strategy of sitting idly by, keeping your fingers crossed that Republicans screw up badly enough to bring home the votes necessary to win elections. A Quinnipiac poll finds 68% of registered Democrats disapprove of the job Congressional Democrats are doing, the highest margin since they began measuring congressional performance in 2009. As it stands, we are living in a moment where the party has nothing to rally behind.
This does, however, present an opportunity. Where there exists a power vaccuum there must exist someone to fill it. Unfortunately, it remains to be seen who exactly that will be, but regardless of whoever I or anyone else believes it to be, there does already exist a foundation for what that person should be fighting for. While Hakeem Jeffries is busy touring his book and House Democrats are censuring their own party members, at the ripe age of 110 years old Bernie Sanders is touring the country to spread a message about the greatest threat our country faces.
On his “Fighting Oligarchy” tour, Sanders has already visited a number of cities in red counties in red states to try and drive home the reality that vast wealth inequality is the root of America’s dysfunction. On March 8th, 10,000 people showed up to his rally in Warren, Michigan. He is reaching max capacity at his venues in places like Omaha, Nebrasksa and Kenosha, Wisconsin, having to turn people away, creating overflow crowds of hundreds more people. These are political rallies in non-election years, headlined by someone not running a campaign, pulling these numbers.
When most Democrats are in a state of do-nothing apathy, Bernie Sanders is doing just the opposite. He is gathering Americans from all walks of life, much in the vein of the “coming together” rhetoric espoused by Jeffries, to educate them on what exactly we are up against here. It is not immigrants, trans people, women, or anti-Israel protestors who are the reason you can’t afford groceries or rent. It is a class of billionaire oligarchs who continue to get wealthier at the expense of the American people. These are the people whose thumb we are under.
On a smaller scale, Gov. Tim Walz presents a similar understanding of what exactly the Democratic voter base is looking for. In an interview with Fast Politics, Walz postulates, “When we get back, which we will – we'll fight – I’ll tell you what people are going to expect is they're not going to expect us to tinker around the edge with the ACA [Affordable Care Act.] They're going to expect universal health care.” In a separate interview with Politico, Walz makes an observation that few Democrats are even willing to admit regarding his vice presidential campaign loss: “We shouldn’t have been playing this thing so safe.” It really is just that simple.
It is this ethos that the future Democratic leader must embody in order to adequately rally the base and provide a tangible belief system for independent voters to grasp onto. You cannot tell Americans to find the middle in between both parties because there is nothing there. It is a charade that serves corporate interests so Democrats can fundraise as the not-Republican party but still functionally operate within the confines of a capitalist framework. When our next elections come around, we must be able to recognize what a worthwhile candidate should stand for.
First and foremost is their support of a complete and comprehensive dismantling of the billionaire class. Raise the marginal tax rate, increase taxes on corporations, remove exploitative loopholes, break up monopolies and duopolies in the sectors where they exist, and do whatever it takes to diminish the impossibly large stranglehold that wealth has on our way of life. Making this priority number one is key, as immense wealth disparity is the basis for America’s increasingly dire socioeconomic circumstances.
In tandem with number 1, any Democratic politician worth voting for must firmly advocate for overturning Citizens United. Elon Musk spending a quarter of a billion dollars to get Trump elected while subsequently getting $83 billion richer by the end of last November is a stark example of the Pandora’s box Citizens United opened up. It is a direct assault on democracy as 1 person, 1 vote becomes progressively irrelevant. There is nothing an ordinary person can do to combat this kind of influence. Fighting for elections to be publicly funded is the only way to level the playing field.
Democratic candidates must empower unions and get the PRO Act signed into law as soon as they enter office. Democratizing workplaces and putting power in the hands of workers is a massive step in fighting billionaire power. It’s not just about receiving union endorsement but being honest about standing with working people. Sign the PRO Act and bring power to the majority of Americans who exist in the working class.
Reform the Supreme Court. Apply a strict standard of ethics, remove the lifetime term limit, and stack the shit out of it. If a future Democratic president has any hope of signing legislation that will become law and make everlasting change for the better in this country, they must reform the Supreme Court. As it exists, any kind of drastic progressive change is nearly impossible. In a real-life example of Democratic fecklessness, Republicans have won this fight for the foreseeable future by playing their own game while Democrats play by losing rules. The Supreme Court does not work for Americans; it works for the Republican party.
Democrats must end the unconditional, unwavering support of the state of Israel. It’s hard to truly articulate the scope of the influence Israel has had, and currently has, over American foreign and domestic policy. Abroad, America’s support for the genocide in Gaza is unconscionable. The American people are not blind to this, as it absolutely played a role in depressing turnout for Kamala Harris in November. At home, the recent illegal detention of Mahmoud Khalil is a frightening development in America’s commitment to suppressing dissent towards Israel’s crimes. AIPAC owns politicians on both sides, and yet their mission only serves to benefit right-wing ideology. This cannot continue, and honestly a Democrat’s stance on these issues may serve as the single biggest litmus test as to where their moral compass points.
Abandoning marginalized groups in the name of polling, or for the sake of capitulation to a conservative worldview, is an instant red flag. Any Democrat that denies the humanity of trans people or demonizes immigrants should not step foot anywhere near a position of power. There is a growing sentiment among Democrats that the LGBTQ+ community is an electoral liability and that immigration must in fact be curbed because of crime. This kind of rhetoric is rooted in bigotry and xenophobia and is undeniably fascist. There’s a reason conservatives say these things too.
Lastly, no Democratic politician should be taken seriously unless they unabashedly and unequivocally support universal healthcare. This is the biggest no-brainer in politics right now. Enough is enough with politicians beating around the bush on this. Expand Medicare to cover every person in this country. The response to the killing of the United Healthcare CEO was not one-sided. American people are tired of being ripped off. They are tired of going into debt for life-saving surgery. They are tired of living and dying at the behest of the profit margin. Of all the things listed here, support for single-payer healthcare is the bare minimum for whether supporting a Democratic candidate is even worth considering.
This obviously isn’t everything, but it’s baseline policy like this that Americans are willing to fight for. Democrats must latch themselves onto a principled belief system that is separate from the monied interests that have stifled American progress. Not only is centrism an electorally losing position, it is morally bankrupt. It supports a continuation of the status quo in the face of extensive, necessary outcry by the people of this country who find themselves dissatisfied as a direct consequence of that status quo. As voters, we cannot continue to support this. The Democratic Party has proven time and time again that they are not capable of meeting this moment in history. They are unequipped to fight because they are not equipped with a belief system that says fighting is the right thing to do. Support the politicians who work to support you, and leave the rest of these hapless losers behind.
6:10 timestamp and feel free to skip around to the other clips of Jeffries talking directly. I’ve found it difficult lately to find the raw clips of certain news coverage, so for now it’s just easiest to share commentary videos. Apologies if that’s a bit of a faux pas.