Here’s a common story about what happens when someone joins DSA.
A politically engaged person arrives who cares a lot about one issue or approach. They join DSA to work on their special interest. As they join, they engage in a flurry of activity around their special interest: signing up with a national working group devoted to it, pushing their chapter to work on it, writing a Convention resolution about it, and so on.
In many cases, it ends badly.
Perhaps the Convention votes down the resolution about the person’s special interest. Perhaps no one else in the person’s chapter is interested in the topic, or the chapter takes a different approach to it. Or perhaps fights and feuds tear apart the national working group. Even if none of those things happen, the person might just burn out from putting all their time and effort into a single topic.
They leave DSA in a huff.
We see this story with a wide range of special interests. I’ve seen people go through this process on mutual aid, the Green New Deal, Palestine, disability justice, trans rights, Medicare for All, and other issues of note.
And so, I think DSA has a ‘special interest’ problem. I’ll also say a word about what do to about it.
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