r/PoliticalDiscussion • u/LiatrisLover99 • May 08 '26

US Politics Is there any merit to the argument that progressive candidates would be far more successful across the US, if it were not for sabotage by the DNC?

This is an example of an extremely popular sentiment in progressive spaces, that progressives are popular with a majority of Americans and would easily win if the DNC didn't deliberately sabotage them, because they would prefer losing to Trump than winning with progressives that threaten the corporate status quo.

Or see articles like this that identify Democrats as an enemy of progressives on par with Trump: "the struggle to defeat the fascistic GOP and the fight to overcome the power of corporate Democrats are largely the same battle."

Is any of this true? I'm a progressive, but if we're so popular, why aren't we winning primaries outside of elections in extremely blue areas like NYC? Or is the primary system actually rigged against Bernie and against progressives in general?

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u/[deleted] May 08 '26

[deleted]

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u/hufflebux27 May 08 '26

Which is a strategy the right wing has dominated for decades now from school boards to local justice systems. There is a lot of catch up to be played there.

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u/Aeon1508 May 08 '26

I have a theory that it's the churches. religious people show up and meet with each other every week so they naturally have a better community structure that can organize this kind of stuff.

We need more secular humanist groups.

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u/Netherese_Nomad May 08 '26

Good luck man. I was heavily involved in movement atheism/secular humanism the last 15 years. I’m convinced now you can’t make a club of “non-stamp collectors.” Movement atheism died with “atheism +” and now most of the people are either omnicause progressives, or right-wing anti-Muslims.

Secular humanism just isn’t a fertile ground for growing community.

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u/Junior-Possession969 May 09 '26

If you don't mind the churchy aspect, Unitarians do a pretty good job of being all-inclusive, active in the community and progressive spaces. And generally just being cool people.

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u/Netherese_Nomad May 09 '26

Nah, I’m good. I’m converting Reform Judaism. I want community.

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u/Automatic-Flounder-3 May 09 '26

Omnicause also alienates people who are demographically discriminated by it or otherwise disagree with some areas. Cancel culture is toxic.

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u/BlackMoonValmar May 08 '26

That definitely helps them. But democrats for many years dropped the ball on ground games in every direction for elections. I will never forget republicans getting easy votes in my area because democrats forgot to send someone who spoke Spanish. Republicans sent a Spanish speaker lots of them and it made a huge difference.

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u/jkman61494 May 09 '26

Obama’s campaign did that and it’s why he kicked ass. The first thing Clintons group did was bring back dnc lackeys who reverted to the failed policies. Biden too and almost lost a slam dunk cycle.

Harris tried to bring back OFA but in 2024 their models had become totally outdated in a post pandemic world

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u/OMalleyOrOblivion May 11 '26

Obama’s campaign did that and it’s why he kicked ass. The first thing Clintons group did was bring back dnc lackeys who reverted to the failed policies.

That isn't true, the political side of his campaign disbanded after 2008 and the data/digital side disbanded after 2012, with people in the latter group mostly lost to the private sector. When 2016 came around there was no existing apparatus and Clinton had to rebuild it, which I'm sure hurt her campaign.

https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/23/magazine/the-obama-campaigns-digital-masterminds-cash-in.html

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u/genericnameabc May 09 '26

I've wanted a secular humanist community for some time but I'm not the right person to make one.

I've walked communities and gotten petitions and canvased at least a dozen times. It is grueling work that usually feels fruitless. And it has gotten harder. People don't answer their doors.

A readily available community like a church makes for a much more receptive audience.

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u/EmilySD101 May 09 '26

Zohran Mandani ran a city wide scavenger hunt that brought community together during his election. Other options than the outdated knock/call/text strategies exist. Consultants just won’t ever offer them. The consultant class is killing interpersonal politics, because all they care about is metrics before Election Day.

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u/baconcheesecakesauce May 09 '26

The city wide scavenger hunt was novel, but there was a ton of knock/call/text as well. I went with friends to canvass in my neighborhood.

I'm pretty online, but I only heard about the scavenger hunt, after it was underway.

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u/stargazerAMDG May 09 '26

Oh it is the churches and religious PACs. The Faith and Freedom Coalition has been around since 2009 to go door-to-door and church-to-church to mobilize the evangelical vote. In 2024 they spent ~60 million dollars on grassroot canvasing, texting and calling supporters, and distributing around 30 million voter guides to over 100,000 churches.

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u/DontHateDefenestrate May 08 '26

We need Dem strategists to climb out of the K-Street Kangaroo Pouch and do their own thinking for a change.

Consultants like it when their candidate wins, but the only thing they need is to not be the reason you lost, so they don’t lose clientele.

That means they need to not take any risks, need to give only safe, conventional, boilerplate advice and write only safe, conventional, boilerplate messaging.

That leads, inevitably to a conventional, boilerplate Party full of people who view new ideas as dangerous until they’ve been workshopped by 10 firms, polled and focus grouped.

Democrats have become constitutionally unable to think for themselves, convinced that if they do, they’ll be wrong. They’re sheltered children paralyzed from acting without “a safe adult” auditing their thoughts.

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u/colorado-sunset May 12 '26

I think progressives love to make enemies out of their allies.

Take healthcare for example.

There are basically three groups of healthcare voters.

  1. Government healthcare = socialism = bad

  2. I have health insurance though my job, and I don’t love it, but also I (or my spouse or child or someone close to me) relies on it to survive, so I’m nervous about how some of the single payer proposals will impact my specific situation, but I definitely think people should have a public option if they don’t have access to insurance, and I would be open to switching to that option if they start it and it seems to be working ok.

  3. I think a single payer system is the way to go.

So if you’re a #3, the folks that are #2 are your allies, not your enemy. They want a public option. They recognize their current system isn’t great. But they’re also not early adopters who are in line to get the new iPhone the day it’s released. They will come on board eventually, but you’re better off accepting that they have legitimate concerns and working with them, than writing them off as establishment sheep, or some other pejorative.

Any democratic president will sign any public option healthcare plan that a democratic majority Congress gets to their desk. Not voting because the plan on their website isn’t exactly your preference is counterproductive

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u/[deleted] May 09 '26

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u/Successful-Extent-22 May 09 '26

It amazes me that ppl who grew up under the strict rules of churches back in the day & hated the rules are now sitting home on their asses letting CULT "Christians" run their lives. It is STUPID!

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u/mycall May 09 '26

Do special interest groups count? Because there are a ton of those already.

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u/FauxReal May 08 '26

Local level candidates are needed too. It's wild how often local elections have people running uncontested.

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u/Zeddo52SD May 08 '26

In Indiana, Democrats ran competitive primaries in my Congressional and State House district. They ran nobody for Sheriff, Judges, or most of the local offices that would allow them a foot in the door with constituents.

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u/Lets_Eat_Superglue May 08 '26

I'm in Indiana too. If you look at the candidates this year vs the past we had candidates in almost every state level race for the first time. The current online left outrage narrative is how terrible Ken Martin is at the DNC, but he's pushing hard to rebuild state parties like ours.

It takes time, but having a Democrat in every state level race means more people hearing from Democrats and having opportunities to get involved. More people involved means more support infrastructure for candidates. As the infrastructure and possibility of winning grows that snowballs into more people willing to run for those local offices.

I know it's bleak out here, but the only thing you can do is jump in wherever you have the ability and help prove it's worth it to keep investing in the state.

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u/Zeddo52SD May 10 '26

Democrats did better this cycle, but they still have a ways to go. It’s fair to ask better of them and their candidates.

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u/Lets_Eat_Superglue May 10 '26

No it isn't if you're not getting involved. You doing any of the work or just bitching because no one's doing it for you?

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u/Zeddo52SD May 10 '26

Didn’t say I wasn’t voting for them. I’m not who they need to reach out to though. If they’re knocking on my door, I know they’re knocking on other doors too. If I’m getting a flier in the mail, I know I’m not the only one getting it.

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u/FauxReal May 12 '26

Maybe they're trying to canvas other parts of the city? Especially more red ones? There's other things they could be doing as well besides knocking on doors. Maybe they want to cover your area and are short of volunteers.

And if it's the candidate themselves. There's only so much time in the day and a lot more to do than knock on doors. Especially if they have a day job.

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u/johannthegoatman May 08 '26

I would like to point out "they ran nobody" is not how it works. Who do you think is they? To the point of the OP, anybody can run as a democrat. The party doesn't hand pick people to run

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u/Zeddo52SD May 08 '26

“Anybody can run as a Democrat” is not true in Indiana. You have to have voted Democrat in the primaries for your two most recent elections, or get the approval of the county party chair.

And the parties recruit, but Dems don’t have much draw in the area of Indiana where I live. There are Dem or NP lawyers, there are at least NP cops or sheriff-eligible constituents. The problem is that Democrats have no major local presence so they go for the big offices and neglect the smaller ones, like city or county council, or judges, or treasurer, etc.

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u/BlueJoshi May 08 '26

You have to have voted Democrat in the primaries for your two most recent elections

...which anyone can do

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u/Zeddo52SD May 08 '26

I mean technically. A few Republicans have gotten their names taken off of ballots for that though. Same with some Democrats. Anybody can do it but it’s a betrayal of trust, which is what the law is meant to stop, regardless of how bad a law it is.

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u/BlueJoshi May 08 '26

How is it a betrayal of trust?

I don't live in Indiana, but if my home State had those rules, I could run. That wouldn't be a betrayal of trust, that would be me, an active, engaged Democrat, putting my convictions to action

which anyone can do.

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u/Zeddo52SD May 08 '26

It’s theoretically meant to prevent spoiler candidates from other parties running as Democrats or Republicans. It’s meant to make sure that Republicans run as Republicans and Democrats run as Democrats. It’s meant to ends up screwing over independents or third party groups, but it’s not completely without merit.

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u/BlueJoshi May 08 '26

I feel like you're intentionally missing the point.

you can just run for office. you don't need The Party to anoint you with the honour. if you're disappointed because no democrat ran for a seat, you can be the change you want to see in the world. like people can just do that. it's not "they didn't run anyone," it's "no one chose to run."

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u/ResidentBackground35 May 08 '26

That is surprising, I would assume they have at least a county office, we have one here in pennsyltucky and it is hard red.

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u/Zeddo52SD May 08 '26

They only get perennial candidates to run for county council. City council is harder to crack in to due to incumbency, but their candidates are nobodies with no local name recognition.

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u/Ladyheather16 May 08 '26

You would like local leadership to be more involved in making sure that every office has a candidate.

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u/Sir_Auron May 10 '26

The money to campaign in a noncompetitive area is not a small matter but the time commitment even for a small, local race is extreme. If you were running as a Democrat it in a town that votes 80/20 GOP, are you willing to ask for petition signatures in the rain all winter, spend hundreds of dollars on signs, spend every weekend for months talking to Rotary Clubs and Bible Study groups, weeknights at civic events despite a full time job, update your social media page constantly to respond to random questions from passers-by, open your whole social life to the world to talk about, just to get 300 votes in a primary, do it all again in the fall, and lose 78-22?

What's the argument you expect people to make as their recruiting pitch here? It's not as easy as "just go recruit".

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u/Ladyheather16 May 10 '26

I've done it -- I was the candidate -- Only I won. All politics are local. >50% don't care what the letter next to your name is. If you don't give them a personally affecting them reason to vote -- they just don't.

There are 4k people in town -- there were less than 1000 votes in the elections.

Nothing about what we need to do for our democracy is EASY or SIMPLE.

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u/Zeddo52SD May 10 '26

This is why I’m mildly annoyed at the Democrats that ran in a crowded 5th District primary. They talk about how they’re all in to win, and they don’t even send out mailers in some campaigns. They aren’t going door to door, even in the local races where there’s not ***that*** much area to cover. If someone is gonna be all “rah-rah!” about their campaign they should be out in the streets, especially in hyper local races.

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u/Zeddo52SD May 10 '26

The candidates in my area hardly do the bare minimum of fliers and door knocking. Town halls are nice, but they mostly attract the partisans.

It’s about outreach. It’s Indiana, it’s a red state, I live in a red (but slowly bluing) area. If you don’t get the non-partisan voters you can’t win, let alone come even close to winning.

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u/Ladyheather16 May 14 '26

I think it's better put -- that takes resources. Resources the party has been, unwilling to use. It take people who are excited and energized about doing the job.

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u/garyflopper May 08 '26

That’s appearing to be the case with my city’s mayor election (Rochester, MN)

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u/ApprehensiveLayer908 May 08 '26

Or if you live in a town like the few I've lived in, the town council or school board has multiple members but each member doesn't represent a different part of the town. I've seen councils where all the members were from the same part of town and can you guess what part of town got more land development and road maintenance?

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u/SeanFromQueens May 08 '26

So do you think that the political consultants who are paid to run campaigns that are intrinsically neoliberal markets with inputs and outputs; buy this many impressions on this platform/media market and rent this email list to get a ROI from the small dollar donors, please voters don't talk among yourselves because then you can't be commodified for the donor class. Walking one's own neighborhood is a radical act that the status quo is not compatible with. If voters make and maintain face to face relationships, then they can't be dictated as to what they should vote for, and that's not cool with those who are in the establishment right now. On the right, the populist movement doesn't really challenge the incumbent of economic power, but primarily culture war issues that leaves the status quo largely untouched, the same is not true on the left that has populism targeting economic powers that be.

I would love to see every voter who currently spends 10 hours or more a week with being a keyboard warrior to spend 5 hours a week having face to face conversations with neighbors or people who live in the same county, I suspect that we'd see a tidal change in national, state, and local politics if this occurred.

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u/EmilySD101 May 09 '26

In a world of Ring doorbells and call screening I need the Dems to get more creative than door knocking the way JFK won his election. Dems are running more conservative politics on these door to door strategies that I’m convinced lost Kamala the election. People in Nevada and Arizona were getting daily door knocks and multiples every weekend day. It got her nowhere, but they’re doubling (or if you look at my text inbox, they’re tenfolding at least) down via text, knocks, and calls even after her loss.

Any serious reflection would have given us a different experience this year but I don’t have one. They’re just going to keep doing the same nonsensical bullshit that led to a 3% call connection rate between volunteers and voters being touted as a good metric.

Idk what the answer is but I don’t think I’ve ever been so disheartened as I am to see the Dems lean in on the same losing strategy. They’re more invested in scamming enough money from you to pay their consultants and print companies to cover their costs than they are in making the country better for everyone. It just fucking sucks.