As the summer winds down, now is the perfect time to catch up on any last-minute summer reading. Read on to see what I’ve got on my plate.
Month: August 2021 (Page 2 of 2)
The online version of the DSA Convention, as one might expect, didn’t have the kinds of large crowds, side debates, and raucous noise one might expect at a leftist convention with more than 1,000 delegates. But it wasn’t too far off. I’ll collect here a few thoughts about my experience as a delegate from Iowa City.
The first thing I’ll say is that the DSA Convention was still huge and a bit overwhelming. Delegates received tons of emails and discussion options. We had dozens (hundreds?) of pages of material to read on resolutions, bylaws changes, NPC candidates, and so on. Yes, it was pretty chaotic. But DSA staff did an excellent job putting materials into shape and organizing the online experience.
I’ve been thinking recently about how politics changed in the era of COVID-19. In doing so, my mind drifted right away to two emerging movements. I’m talking about right-wing death cults and leftish doom cults. But we’ll get there in a bit.
Before that, I want to issue a call for compassion. The last year+ fucked people up in lots of ways. 600,000 Americans died (so far). Millions lost family or friends. Millions got COVID themselves, and they spent weeks – even months – recovering from it. Let’s say it hasn’t been a great time for mental health.
Back, then, to the topic at hand.
In both 2016 and 2020, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) went all-in on Bernie Sanders. It did so for strategic reasons. In particular, a theory drives these decisions: endorse Sanders, identify with the Bernie brand, and then gain new members from Bernie association. Maybe it doesn’t announce such things that explicitly (though it kinda does), but anyone familiar with DSA knows this was the basic idea.
Sanders lost in both 2016 and 2020. But in each case, the DSA grew enormously.
And so, in one sense, the DSA wildly succeeded. It started as a marginal organization of a few thousand mostly older leftists. It emerged as the largest U.S. socialist organization in a century, boasting around 100,000 members. Along the way, it transformed itself from a minor, largely irrelevant discussion group to a (arguably even the) major player in US leftist politics. Furthermore, the DSA grew not only in membership, but also in ideology. It grew not by tacking to the center, but rather by moving to the left. At both its 2017 and 2019 conventions, its new, younger member base pushed the org to the left.
What if, though, Sanders had won in either 2016 or 2020? What if he were president right now? In that scenario, what would the DSA look like?
Let’s take a look. I think this exercise reveals both opportunities and weaknesses in the DSA’s political model.
