yes this is electoralism and no it doesn't belong in the newscomm and yes I should nuke the thread but no I won't because there are some good posts here and I know we all love our posts, don't we folks.
for any other prospective posters: american primary politics and related rumors is solidly electoralism, not news.
This site needs the ability to move threads between comms
Critical support to my electoralist comrades in their efforts to fire right wing Dems from their cushy bullshit jobs (US House of Representatives)
May they eventually feel able to win elections without running as Democrats
This is chapter by chapter. My local chapter voted against running candidates on the Dem ticket. And are critical of using limited DSA resources for candidates they know would ultimately be unaccountable to them once elected. I think some members of the chapter might be on here. 
How can an organization function as a working class party when half of the chapters are liberals and social fascists?
Half the chapters aren't. Currently the left is in the majority albeit an uneasy one.
NYC has a large electoralist contingent, and there are problems sometimes reigning them in. There is no working apparatus to discipline electeds. Breaking from the democrats is hotly contested, active debate.
I think you will not find many liberals and "social fascists" (lmfao) in DSA. there is a large, organized, moderate tendency but they aren't liberals. Def some people are social democrats but that's different and they aren't in the majority nationwide. Though there are many in NYC DSA, they would be left progressive social democrats, and their influence is waning due to radicalization pressures everywhere.
But to answer directly, its an experiment
Well a recent resolution is now supposed to be a way to reign in electeds and requires candidates be anti-Zionist as an endorsement requirement. Yet to be enforced and unsure if it is retroactive but it did pass
I know, I voted for it!
The trend has been candidates are real buddy buddy with their local volunteers but whenever the org tries to enforce discipline they go dark, or pull some backroom shenanigans.
If AOC runs for president it will be an interesting test, she will have to come out against Israel (she won't) and DSA will have to not endorse. But since the org was historically, from the Mike Harrington days, a pro-zionist org, it was a dramatic step toward something coherent and meaningful. We lost a lot of good pro-palestine organizers after 2023 when we didn't pass the anti Zionist resolution.
The 2025 res was much better, but also the stakes are more urgently real also. Its disappointing we couldn't meet the moment back then, but I'm glad the org can respond in a meaningful way to those stakes, rather than retreat into Utopian idealism which runs rampant in our movements
Ironically enough, I think AOC coming out as anti-Israel openly in a presidential run would HELP a campaign and be the first steps towards actually harnessing the left populism Bernie was so afraid of.
And I’m just talking about right now. If trends indicate anything, by the time campaigning season comes around the issue will be even more pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel. But we NEED that anti-Zionism commitment to work, desperately.
Anybody who A) Supports arming and funding Ukraine or B) Cheered when Syria was destroyed or C) Wants a two-state solution or D) supports any American or NATO military action are Social Fascists. Social Fascism, also known as Social Chauvinism, is the tendency within the social-democratic left to be pro-war and to shirk revolutionary defeatism as a duty and concept.
It's not just an epithet, this is the primary contradiction in the western left and has historically caused it to implode. Almost every collapse and schism of the international left is due to this contradiction. Revolution is literally impossible until this contradiction is resolved in favor of the anti-imperialists.
DSA is absolutely filled with these types
Nobody thinks of the DSA as a working class party
The people who want it to be are working on reforms to purge/marginalize the liberals but that hasn't happened across the org yet.
But it is very clearly happening over time. Despite not making up a majority of DSA membership, most committees are run by ideologically driven caucus members, which despite their difference between caucuses, all fall much farther to the left than the rank and file DSA member.
Most internal DSA elections are dominated by the left caucuses, which is a good thing for base building while simultaneously using the dues and manpower of otherwise more liberal membership to take more left leaning public action and positions.
It’s not a highly centralized organization at this point in time because the most important task in the imperial core is deprogramming decades of antisocialist propaganda. Keeping the org decentralized in this way at this point in time allows each chapter to have a unique local approach that brings more people on board with the left in general and opens the door for further base building, which has undeniably taken off in the past ten years as DSA’s numbers (and thus dues) have risen dramatically. The demographics of the org have also dramatically changed from older white people to a more diverse crowd of younger people who are increasing the visibility of socialism to the next generation
I think there's a real possibility for cooperation between DSA and PSL on this point that I think some locals chapters are in a prime position to exploit.
The DSA is a club, not a political party. Unless it's members run as independents, they need a Party to run under in most cases. And while DSA can be good for building organizing skills, because of their lack of ideological discipline they lack the ability to create disciplined ideologues and are prone to endorsing opportunists.
While DSA members cannot join the PSL or vice-versa, there is no rule against DSA endorsing PSL candidates for office or members volunteering for their campaigns. And while PSL branches cannot endorse non-PSL candidates, a common workaround is publishing a "Peoples's Program" of local political demands and asking local candidates to endorse the Party Program.
In both the Cleveland and Akron branches of the DSA, most active members are either with the Marxist Unity Group (Trots) or Red Star Caucus (MLs). They have different organizational goals from the PSL but, overall, they're Good. I don't want to necessarily generalize my local experience to the entire country, but it seems that the DSA is heading in a more explicitly Marxist direction and I look forward to a future where the DSA serves as a part of the PSL's party periphery.
I agree completely. The majority of DSA committees are held by caucused membership, which are almost exclusively hard left when compared to the uncaucused DSA rank and file. It sets DSA’s course to left for sure, as these caucuses are largely responsible for the political agenda DSA engages in.
The biggest internal debate within DSA is about electoralism, and I don’t see it being large enough to fracture the org because it is so decentralized. As the org grows, I do see it gaining the ability to wield party-like level control of politics in some strongholds. Popular Front style DSA-PSL campaigns where groundwork could go a loooooooong way in places like NYC where a ground game can essentially unseat any incumbent politician. This in combination with the Working Families Party, there is essentially a party apparatus waiting to be used behind the “Smash Glass In Case Of Working Class Politics” sign.
We actually came quite close to using this in NYC this mayoral election cycle should Zohran have lost the primary. We were strongly considering throwing our weight behind running him on the Working Families Party ticket in the 4 way general election. Turns out he was too popular for that to be necessary lol
While DSA members cannot join the PSL or vice-versa
This is not true actually. At the most recent DSA National Convention this year the anti-democratic centralism clause was repealed, so there is no problem being both part of DSA and PSL anymore
critical support to the DSA because this would be very funny if they pull it off
I wish the DSA luck in its efforts to pry the Zionist ticks out of their seats.
As annoying as Torres is, Jeffries is the far more important one to boot out immediately. Schumer has to be forcefully evicted as well.
I'll be honest though. If the proposed replacements aren't solidly hardline anti-Israel, anti-imperialist, anti-ICE (abolition AND MORE IMPORTANTLY prosecution of every single person connected even tangentially to it), etc. then... why bother? Getting a less assholish asshole is still getting an asshole. Lesser evil stuff repeated. I find it infinitely hard to believe anyone with (D) in their title will be even close to my personal criteria above despite that stuff polling well. Especially explicitly anti-Israel. It's got like 96% democrat voter support. You'd probably get elected just saying you'll propose a bill yearly to carpet bomb Tel Aviv. Like that Roman senator who used to always say "Oh, just one more thing. We must destroy Carthage" or whatever. Nerds know who I mean. The famous asshole. This time for good.
I 100% agree with everything you said
Personally, I think a challenge to Jeffries is coming alongside a challenge to Schumer. The way AOC is posturing seems as though a run for president or senate is coming. AOC isn’t perfect but would be a hell of a lot better than Schumer and wouldn’t take a ton of heavy DSA lifting to win that election. If she were able to campaign alongside somebody challenging Jeffries in NY I think it would be a pretty easy two-for-one campaign.
I love it here on hexbear but it’s wild to me how hostile a few of us are to a large group of people getting together weekly to attempt to further the goals of socialism.
I mean my main gripe originally was posting this in the news comm with big exclamation marks acting like this is big important news. The headline is literally just “somebody is considering primarying a Democrat!” It’s nothing. Not news even if you are pro-electoralist.
This was met with such doubling down and pushback that the clown on the succ session has to be started up
Attempting to further Democratic Party entryism is not an attempt to further socialism and I don’t know why we have to keep re-learning this every two weeks.
Ritchie Torres is just one rep and afaik not one with much power, but he’s known nationally for being an over-the-top Zionist. Defeating him might just be symbolic but I think it would a mistake to disregard symbolic victories. They absolutely matter.
It’s like with Zohran, even if he’s stymied and isn’t able to accomplish much, just someone with a class-conscious platform enjoying electoral success means something. It shows people are hungry for change and are more open to our ideas about class and society. And a symbolic win can give a good morale boost to all of us and help in all facets of the work we are trying to do.
Of course there are non-negotiables. If someone who identifies as a socialist is able to win material improvements for their constituents, that is good for us and building class consciousness. Someone who identifies as a Socialist makes some pro-Zionist comments? That is bad for us (and evil ofc) and there absolutely needs to be consequences. I just cannot vibe with the stark black and white thinking around electoralism that some of you have.
There is so much work to be done here in order to build the class consciousness necessary to be the foundation of revolution. Avoiding the political sphere (or any sphere) is intentionally ceding ground to our class enemies.
Critical support to DSA libs seeking to unseat AIPAC Shakur.
Who care. Fall for it again if you want
The only other candidate i've heard about was Jose Vega, and he claims to be a LaRouschite, and I still dont know what that is.
Oh I highly highly recommend browsing the Wikipedia article on the LaRouche movement. It’s an incredible read and several times more nonsensical than you can imagine. Part of the movement revolves around the dialectical differences between Plato and Aristotle lmao
Oh and at this point would it surprise you if I mentioned LaRouche started his journey in political beliefs as a trot?
Anyway, as for other candidates nothing is official yet, just internal discussions surrounding fielding a candidate. A lot hinges on how much Mamdani momentum we can carry after the upcoming mayoral election in November
Political impotency with praxis paint
Any expected positive outcomes from this are the result of a uniquely american collective amnesia
The best that can be hoped out of this is that the rise in left adjacent electoralism stokes fear in the moderate and fascist right, provoking a tragedy that would do more for class consciousness and solidarity, than years of short lived legislative and electoral gains ever could
Critical support to the 
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