What would you say to the young people who have become horribly disillusioned with the democratic party, especially since Bernie lost in 2020? Sander's presidential run in 2020 in the democratic primary united a wide swath of the left behind him, from normal democrats to the DSA to more radical groups like Socialist Alternative. With his loss, the left has really fractured and even recent heroes of the left like AOC and even Sanders himself are now seen by many (but certainly not all) of the most energized sections of the left as establishment figures, not much better then Biden. The US-supported violence in Israel and Palestine has brought this dissatisfaction/disillusionment with dems into sharp relief and I think has pushed many people who simply felt unenthusiastic about the democrats into outright hostility. I've seen this vocally expressed at many demonstrations for a ceasefire in Gaza. I think what makes all of this especially difficult is that there is no clear path forward. Calls for an independent third party for the working class, a massive logistical undertaking, are common on the far left. However in 2024 the various left formations (the Green Party, Party of Socialism and Liberation, the academic left as personified by Cornell West etc) could not even coalesce around one presidential candidate. At the same time, leading figures of the DSA have all chosen to endorse biden. The hand the threat of trump seems very real, at the same time the spectre of fascism seems already to be growing under the democratic party as in Atlanta with the "cop city" affair. What worries me even more then a trump victory (terrifying as it is) is that I can't imagine a viable way for a third party to emerge that would be backed by the traditional supporters of the democratic party (who are the constituency the left wants to represent) and the elements of the left that reject the democratic party. If Trump wins this year and the democratic party collapses, as some see as inevitable and even desirable, I don't see how a new third party would emerge that would not have the same divides as the democratic party and the radical left currently have.
What would you say to the young people who have become horribly disillusioned with the democratic party, especially since Bernie lost in 2020? Sander's presidential run in 2020 in the democratic primary united a wide swath of the left behind him, from normal democrats to the DSA to more radical groups like Socialist Alternative. With his loss, the left has really fractured and even recent heroes of the left like AOC and even Sanders himself are now seen by many (but certainly not all) of the most energized sections of the left as establishment figures, not much better then Biden. The US-supported violence in Israel and Palestine has brought this dissatisfaction/disillusionment with dems into sharp relief and I think has pushed many people who simply felt unenthusiastic about the democrats into outright hostility. I've seen this vocally expressed at many demonstrations for a ceasefire in Gaza. I think what makes all of this especially difficult is that there is no clear path forward. Calls for an independent third party for the working class, a massive logistical undertaking, are common on the far left. However in 2024 the various left formations (the Green Party, Party of Socialism and Liberation, the academic left as personified by Cornell West etc) could not even coalesce around one presidential candidate. At the same time, leading figures of the DSA have all chosen to endorse biden. The hand the threat of trump seems very real, at the same time the spectre of fascism seems already to be growing under the democratic party as in Atlanta with the "cop city" affair. What worries me even more then a trump victory (terrifying as it is) is that I can't imagine a viable way for a third party to emerge that would be backed by the traditional supporters of the democratic party (who are the constituency the left wants to represent) and the elements of the left that reject the democratic party. If Trump wins this year and the democratic party collapses, as some see as inevitable and even desirable, I don't see how a new third party would emerge that would not have the same divides as the democratic party and the radical left currently have.