CRASHING the PARTY with Southerndemocrats, Republicans, CHARACTERISTICS and the ROSA Thecrisis Rise of of U.S

NEOLIBERALISMCRASHING THE PARTY WITH SOUTHERNDemocrats, Republicans, CHARACTERISTICS and the ROSA TheCrisis Rise of of U.S. the Politics BRICS LUXEMBURG STIFTUNG NEW YORK OFFICE ByBy VijayJohn NicholsPrashad Table of Contents

Crashing the Party Democrats, Republicans, and the Crisis of U.S. Politics...... 1

By John Nichols

America’s Rapidly Expanding Demand for a New Politics...... 2

The Politics of Preventing Catastrophe...... 3

The Sanders Revolution Crashes into a Democratic Wall...... 4

The Republican Roots of Trumpism...... 7

Partisanship is Beginning to Derail the Partisans...... 9

A New Politics for a New America...... 12

Published by the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, New York Office, October 2016

Editors: Stefanie Ehmsen and Albert Scharenberg Address: 275 Madison Avenue, Suite 2114, New York, NY 10016 Email: [email protected]; Phone: +1 (917) 409-1040

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www.rosalux-nyc.org Crashing the Party Democrats, Republicans, and the Crisis of U.S. Politics

By John Nichols

The closest commentator that the contempo- proved to be capable of containing dissent, rary United States has to Mark Twain, satirist constricting the discourse and continuing pol- and television host Bill Maher, surveyed the itics as usual. Even when reasonably substan- sorry state of the American politics midway tial and progressive change did occur, during a through the 2016 election season and de- ten-year period from the mid-1960s to the mid- clared, “Our system sucks. The Constitution 1970s, the response of the system’s overseers needs a page-one rewrite.” (on the U.S. Supreme Court and in Congress) was not to open its doors to the new dynam- As Twain did in the nineteenth century, when ic. Instead of adjusting on the side of progress, he exposed the excesses of America’s first they erred on the side of reaction: with an up- Gilded Age and sought, without success, to dating of procedures and practices to make avert the young nation’s lurch toward imperi- the parties and their candidates more reliant alism, Maher spoke a truth that even the bold- on wealthy campaign donors and less respon- est of today’s politicians dare not detail—and sive to voters. Since the “Reagan Revolution” of that most media elites refuse to discuss. The the 1980s, both parties have competed for the American system no longer works in any realis- favor of a donor class of billionaires and corpo- tic sense. It is not just that it is “rigged” against rate CEOs, developing what veteran consum- the economic interests of the great mass of er activist and presidential contender Ralph Americans, as liberal Massachusetts Senator Nader describes as a “commonality” that is Elizabeth Warren suggests. It is rigged against “demonstrated in terms of allowing big money functioning as anything more than an enabler to corrupt politics, allowing Wall Street to over- of a failed status quo. The system can register ride and take much control of Washington, and disenchantment, yet it is structurally designed allow our foreign policy to be so militarized.” to disarm and defeat responses to that disen- That commonality has frequently made the chantment. give-and-take of American politics so tedious that election turnout even in presidential years The tensions that extend from this reality has declined toward a mere fifty percent of the have defined the electoral landscape of the electorate. 2016, the most volatile presidential election year since the explosive campaigns of the late It is easy to blame individual party leaders and 1960s. Nothing about the 2016 race will resolve candidates, but the real problem is structur- those tensions. But it has exposed the vulnera- al. Though it was not formally designed as a bility of the processes that will eventually have two-party system, American electoral politics to give way if there is to be a newer and more evolved into just that. The two major parties responsive politics in the United States. are now so protected structurally that the formation of alternative parties is always dif- At the heart of the crisis is a two-party sys- ficult—and it is especially difficult at precisely tem that for much of the post-World War II era the point when they might be most likely to

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develop: during volatile presidential elections form new coalitions—as is common in the when voters are dissatisfied with their choic- more flexible and functional democracies. es. Most American states make it hard for new parties to get on the ballot, and many actually This lack of political flexibility, while rarely require alternative political groups to secure discussed, actually defines modern Ameri- their ballot positions before the major parties can politics—and governance. The problem nominate their candidates. Thus, dissident is that the definition that has been reached contenders who are denied nominations have is not merely defective. It is antithetical to no real opening to leave their parties and democracy.

America’s Rapidly Expanding Demand for a New Politics

By taking advantage of media and governing by exceptionally wealthy donors and right- structures that are biased against the more wing media) and it is pulling the Republican adventurous and ambitious politics that can Party toward what was once considered the develop in multi-party democracies, the Dem- extremist fringe of the political spectrum. The ocratic and Republican Parties are now de- United States also has a rising generation of cades into the project of defining American younger, so-called “millennial” voters who feel politics narrowly. Unfortunately for them, no attachment to the old parties—and are America is no longer narrow. often repulsed by them. The center is barely holding in the Democratic Party. It has given The decline of traditional media and a so- way in the Republican Party. And the explo- cial-media revolution, decades of deindustri- sions are far from finished; both parties and alization, globalization and automation, and the electoral process that extends from them the rise of new movements to address wage have entered into a period of upheaval that stagnation, economic inequality, gender bias will alter American politics—perhaps beyond and discrimination, mass incarceration, racial- recognition. ly-insensitive, and irresponsible policing and a climate crisis that threatens the planet have This is the reality that runs deeper than the combined to create more urgent demands on personalities and the partisanships that have both major parties and on the body politic. dominated the political news on the 2016 elec- The United States has an expanding grass- tion cycle. It is simply and unquestionably the roots left (which since the rise of the Occupy case that both major parties are now under movement and state-based anti-austerity immense pressure to change—the most im- protests has drawn increased support from mense pressure they have faced since the late established labor groups and members of the 1920s and early 1930s, when the Democratic Congressional Progressive Caucus) and that Party went through a radical transformation movement is at once pulling the Democratic (moving dramatically to the left with Franklin Party away from the center while developing Delano Roosevelt) and the Republican Party alternatives to the party and to electoral pol- entered into a twenty-year period of failure itics. The United States also has a grassroots and self-doubt that only ended with the emer- right (which is linked to and often supported gence of Dwight Eisenhower and modern Re-

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publicanism. At the same time, the elites that erbate them in the years to come, is neces- have long dominated these two parties are sary if there is to be any hope for a positive determined to resist change—or, if change reform and renewal, not just of the parties but must come, to shape it in their favor. Under- of an American political process that is insuffi- standing the tensions, and the pressures that ciently prepared to meet the challenges of the exacerbated them in 2016 and that will exac- twenty-first century.

The Politics of Preventing Catastrophe

That the process is insufficient has been con- that it was essential for the fate of the nation firmed by the fall competition between Demo- and the world to prevent the other party from cratic nominee Hillary Clinton and Republican coming to power. Issues and ideas, immediate nominee Donald Trump, whom polls identify needs and long-term initiatives, were forgot- as the most spectacularly unpopular pair of ten in the mad rush to prevent catastrophe. major-party nominees in modern times. After a primary season that offered glimmers of rec- The problem, of course, is that when a coun- ognition of the economic and social challenges try develops a politics based on averting ca- facing America—and fainter glimmers of hope tastrophe rather than debating the best way for an appropriate response—the fall election to advance, when political parties build their season settled into an agonizingly familiar pat- messages around by-any-means-necessary tern: an uninspired centrist with close ties to arguments for preventing opponents from corporate interests and a penchant for caution coming to power (as opposed to making cases and compromise argued that it was urgent to for themselves), nations cease to advance. By vote Democratic in order to avert the election most measures, America has indeed ceased of an off-the-wall extremist Republican. to advance on the issues that mainstream leaders of the past (Franklin Roosevelt, Harry For all the talk about how Donald Trump rede- Truman, and John Kennedy on the Democrat- fined the 2016 campaign in the United States ic side, and Teddy Roosevelt, Wendell Willkie, as something different and more unsettling and Dwight Eisenhower on the Republican than ever before, the fall competition has side) argued were essential to the health and actually recalled the contest America experi- safety of the republic: toward greater fairness enced in 1964, when Democratic insider Lyn- and equality, away from concentrated domes- don Johnson faced Republican Barry (“extrem- tic power and foreign policies dictated by a mil- ism in the defense of liberty is no vice”) Gold- itary-industrial complex. In today’s America, water, and to only a somewhat lesser extent inequality is taking on epic proportions, wages the presidential election of 1980, when Dem- have been more-or-less stagnant for decades, ocratic moderate Jimmy Carter faced Repub- corporations are evolving into monopolies, lican Ronald (“government is not the solution and Pentagon budgets are giving new mean- to our problem; government is the problem”) ing to the term “bloat.” No one outside the one Reagan. In each of those previous election percent that benefits from the circumstance is cycles, the arguments of the Democratic and pleased with it; but the circumstance does not Republican Parties was essentially the same: change.

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Even when the voters try to hand a mandate was on a flawed trajectory, and people who to a new president who promises progress, as disapproved of the Democratic president and they did with Barack Obama in 2008, promises approved of the Republican House and Senate of hope and change get bogged down in oppo- thought the country was on a flawed trajectory. sition-party obstruction, and the work of gov- Something was clearly wrong. erning becomes so uninspired and ineffectual that frustration boils over. Yet the political and economic elites still saw smooth sailing ahead, predicting a “dynas- So it was that, by the time the 2016 campaign tic-succession” election in which the Demo- got going, grassroots Democrats and Repub- cratic Party would nominate Hillary Clinton, licans were in agreement on one thing: the the wife of a former president who had served country was headed in the wrong direction. as secretary of state for the sitting president, A fall 2015 Bloomberg poll found that 69 per- and the Republican Party would nominate Jeb cent of Americans thought their country was Bush, the son of one former president and the off course. A CBS survey put the dissatisfaction brother of another. Even as the campaign pro- measure at 68 percent, while the NBC poll put gressed, there was lingering certainty on the it at 70 percent. With a year to go before the part of the elites that the center would hold— 2016 election, people who approved of Presi- or, to be more precise, that candidates who dent Obama and disapproved of the Republi- were entirely acceptable to corporate elites can-controlled Congress thought the country and billionaire campaign donors would prevail.

The Sanders Revolution Crashes Into a Democratic Wall

There was much talk of “inevitability” until Sanders was right about the fact that Ameri- the campaign actually began, after which this cans are ready to think outside the box; polling veneer of certainty quickly began to crumble. data and at least some voting patterns con- It turned out that the dissatisfaction was real, firm this. He was also right that it would take and far more likely to influence the electoral a sweeping political revolution to upset and process than the pundits and political strat- alter a system that is controlled and guided by egists imagined. As Vermont Senator Bernie an establishment that does not permit such Sanders, who upset and transformed the thinking. But even Sanders underestimated Democratic process with an insurgent cam- the determination of that establishment to paign that promised a political revolution, maintain its grip on the party. If the 2016 cam- told this writer after his presidential run was paign proved anything, it is that Democratic done: Party elites take very seriously the mainte- nance of their political advantages—and the Going through 46 states, we met so many fan- economic advantages that extend from them. tastic people who are prepared to think outside of the box, who understand that the limitations Sanders learned this the hard way: by taking that the establishment imposes on our thinking of what we can or cannot accomplish is non- on the establishment with a campaign that sense, that we can do far, far more, and they are challenged the boundaries imposed on the prepared to fight for that. process by political and media elites. He ac-

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cepted some political boundaries; an indepen- (so-called “super-delegates,” who play a piv- dent who had never before run as a Democrat, otal role in choosing Democratic nominees he entered the Democratic primaries because but who are not accountable to Democratic he said it was simply too hard to build an in- voters). So, too, was calling for constitutional dependent candidacy or create a new party reforms to declare that corporations are not in the time that was available. But even as he people, wealthy individuals should not use joined the Democratic race, Sanders refused their economic advantage to shout down the to except traditional limits and constraints. majority in elections, and citizens and their The senator campaigned as a proud democrat- elected representatives have a right to orga- ic socialist—something no serious contender nize elections where votes speak louder than had ever before done in a race for the nomina- the dollars that corporations and billionaires tion of the Democratic Party. And he outlined donate to their favored contenders. an agenda that blended ideas borrowed from European social democrats (national health Sanders made all of these arguments. And, to care, free higher education, economic plan- the surprise even of the candidate’s most ar- ning and infrastructure investment) with the dent supporters, his campaign took off. ideals of the anti-austerity movements that developed in the U.S. and Europe following the The radical critique that Sanders brought to global economic meltdown of 2008. the 2016 campaign trail, and the determination with which he advanced it, proved to be More domestically focused and less explicitly enormously popular. He won 23 Democratic internationalist in his approach than British primaries and caucuses, secured 13.2 million Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, Sanders votes, and went to the Democratic National said, Convention in July with 1,865 delegates (out of 4,763)—the largest delegate total secured I believed from my heart of hearts that the ideas by an insurgent challenger in modern times. I was talking about were not courageous, radi- Sanders proved to be so popular as a contend- cal, bold ideas. The ideas that I was talking about are what most Americans would support if they er that Clinton had to rip up her own program had the chance to hear these views, which they and adopt much of his: formally, in a Demo- do not under normal circumstances. You could cratic Party platform hailed by Sanders as “the watch CNN for the next 14 years, and you’re not most progressive in history,” and informally in going to hear a discussion about the need for a a series of announcements and agreements single-payer health-care system. You’re not going to see a critique of the drug companies, and that saw the eventual nominee move toward you’re not going to hear much discussion about Sanders’ positions on a host of trade policy, income and wealth inequality. higher education and health care issues.

But of course it was radical to argue that pop- Clinton’s moves helped her to beat Sanders in ular ideas are not given a fair hearing, and enough Democratic caucuses and primaries to that popular proposals are not implemented, secure the party nomination. But she was also because of a media system that prioritizes helped by the structural advantage that media commercial and entertainment values over and political systems accord candidates fa- civic and democratic values. So, too, was ar- vored by the elites when there is a threat that guing that the Democratic nominating process democracy might erupt. is rigged to limit the influence of new voters (particularly young people) and independents, America’s media is diverse, and it includes and to enhance the influence of party elites newspapers, magazines, websites, and radio

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programs that speak truth to power. But the 20-30 percent of primary voter support,” ob- media system as a whole errs on the side of the served Eric Boehlert of Media Matters in late centrist social policies and conservative fiscal December. standards favored by the economic elites that invest not just in multinational corporations Obviously, Trump is the GOP front runner and but in media properties—and on the side of it’s reasonable that he would get more attention than Sanders, who’s running second for the veteran political figures, such as Clinton, who Democrats. But 234 total network minutes for have historically been aligned with the elites. Trump compared to just 10 network minutes for The only deviations come when politicians are Sanders, as the Tyndall Report found? sufficiently entertaining and/or frightening (as Donald Trump proved to be in 2016) that they Imagine if Sanders, the democratic socialist can generate internet clicks and broadcast rat- who argued that working people should unite ings more commonly associated with sports and take on the elites, had gotten media cov- figures and pop stars. Sanders did not fit into erage that was comparable to that accorded the calculus, and the media let him know this. the billionaire Republican whose faux popu- lism sought to divide Americans along lines At the end of 2015, at a point when all the of race, ethnicity, and religion. Might Sanders candidates on the Democratic and Republi- have upset expectations and won the Demo- can sides had been campaigning for months, cratic nomination, as Trump did the Republi- Trump and Sanders had attracted roughly sim- can nod? Sanders thinks that he was able to ilar levels of support. The “Real Clear Politics” communicate effectively with younger voters website’s poll averages had Trump attracting who “do not watch the evening news” but rely 30.4 percent support nationally among voters on social media. At the same time, he admits who might reasonably be expected to partic- that the media’s failure to cover his campaign ipate in Republican primaries and caucuses. at critical stages, and its focus on political gos- On the Democratic side, the RCP poll averag- sip rather than substantive issues harmed his es had Sanders attracting 31 percent support. prospects. “I think it hurt us a whole lot with Though they were dramatically different con- older people, who really did not hear from us tenders offering polar opposite proposals for directly through ABC or CBS,” said the senator, the United States, both men were attracting referencing major television networks that re- mass support for their challenges to politics as main prime sources of political news for voters usual. So they should have been attracting rel- over age fifty. atively similar levels of media coverage, right? Wrong. When Sanders was able to make a direct connection with voters, turning the focus away Media analyst Andrew Tyndall, who tracks from personalities and toward the issues, as news coverage of candidates, determined he did in states such as New Hampshire, Mich- that, though Sanders and Trump were gain- igan, Wisconsin, Indiana and Oregon, the dem- ing equal levels of support, 234 minutes of ocratic socialist won overwhelming victories. network news attention had been devoted That rattled party leaders, as was revealed to Trump in 2015 versus just ten minutes for by WikiLeaks shortly before the Democratic Sanders. “The network newscasts are wild- National Convention. The publication of thou- ly overplaying Trump, who regularly attracts sands of DNC e-mails confirmed the suspicion between 20-30 percent of primary voter sup- of Sanders supporters that the committee port, while at the same time wildly underplay- sought to tip the balance of the nominating ing Sanders, who regularly attracts between process toward Clinton. In the e-mails, top

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DNC staffers speculated about attacking Sand- who were supposed to treat both campaigns ers based on his religious faith; an attorney fairly—Weaver observed that “much of what offered the committee advice on defending we felt was happening was in fact happening.” Clinton against complaints about fundraising schemes that favored her candidacy; and Was- Wasserman Schultz was forced to resign. But serman Schultz called Sanders’ campaign man- the party chair and her allies got the nominee ager Jeff Weaver “particularly scummy” and “an they so obviously preferred. At the same time, ass.” The e-mails from supposedly unbiased they earned the distrust, and in some cas- party officials were frequently dismissive of es open antipathy, of Sanders backers. That the candidacy of the progressive senator, even distrust and antipathy created divisions, and as he won key primaries. When Sanders sug- challenges, for the party as the fall race began. gested during the campaign that he would like While Sanders himself endorsed Clinton, the to replace her as chairman, Wasserman Schultz nominee struggled to hold her own against replied to an aide with a sharp e-mail that de- Trump, a candidate who even Republicans clared, “He isn’t going to be president.” Asked like Ohio Governor John Kasich (a former GOP about the bias displayed in the e-mails from presidential contender) described as unfit for Wasserman Schultz and other DNC insiders— office.

The Republican Roots of Trumpism

While the Democrats saw off the Sanders in- of conservative southern and rural voters, and surgency, perhaps to their own detriment, the then they would govern as representatives of Republicans got Trumped. What’s the differ- wealthy campaign donors and Wall Street. As ence between the two parties? Why was the long as they ginned up fears about integra- Sanders insurgency blocked at the same time tion and immigration and affirmative action that the Trump insurgency was prevailing? The and abortion rights and marriage equality for answer, of course, is that Donald Trump was lesbians and gays at election time, the GOP in- far less of an insurgent than Bernie Sanders. siders calculated that they could keep winning Trump was portrayed as a “billionaire popu- elections with a carefully-orchestrated politics list,” but he was always more billionaire than of division and foreboding. The problem was populist, and some Republican elites recog- that Republican presidents and congresses nized that right away. Others resisted him, but rarely used the power that came with their vic- they were doomed from the start. tories to deliver any kind of economic progress for those who provided the party’s essential Trump was destined to win the Republican votes; indeed, by embracing race-to-the-bot- nomination because he had figured out the Re- tom trade deals, bailouts for banks and every publican Party. He knew that, since the time of other agenda item advanced by Wall Street, Richard Nixon’s “southern strategy” and “mor- party leaders in Congress made their base al majority” campaigning in the early 1970s, voters more economically vulnerable. Trump party leaders had made the most cynical of po- figured out that he could insert himself into litical bargains. They would seek power prom- the Republican primaries, describe the other ising to advance the right-wing social agenda candidates for the party’s nomination as cam-

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paign-finance crooks and double-dealing po- that had for two decades been fed a steady litical grifters, and win. diet of lies and hatemongering by right- wing media and cynical political strategists. It was not hard for Trump to beat the 16 oth- It made him the trusted and favored choice er Republican contenders and “the smartest of the Republicans who were most likely to people in the room” cadres of consultants vote in party primaries, and of more extreme and strategists they had assembled to elect voters (including followers of former Ku Klux one of the insiders. Trump faced tepid re- Klan Grand Wizard David Duke and the wild- sistance from conservative elites and dis- eyed anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant zealots believing conservative pundits, who did not who formed what came to be referred to as want to see the old calculus that empowered the “alt-right”). It should not have surprised them politically and paid their bills upset by anyone that Trump would win Republican an upstart billionaire. These elites, who gen- caucus after Republican caucus, Republican erally grouped around the family of former primary after Republican primary with the Presidents George Herbert Walker Bush and support of voters who got most of their in- George Walker Bush, had seen off past chal- formation from the right-wing Fox television lenges to their authority from religious-right network, the right-wing Rush Limbaugh and extremists such as Pat Robertson (in 1988) Sean Hannity radio programs, and the right- and right-wing populists such as Pat Buchan- wing websites that peddled precisely the sort an (in 1992 and 1996). And they imagined that of conspiracy theories and hatred toward they could do so again by rallying around an- immigrants, refugees, and minorities that other member of the first family of insider Trump proposed to mainstream. Trump did Republicanism: former Florida Governor Jeb not create a new movement; he simply told Bush—or, failing that, a generic insider Re- voters who had been taught to hate Dem- publican such as former Massachusetts Gov- ocrat elites that they could also feel free to ernor Mitt Romney (the party’s hapless 2012 hate Republican elites. nominee who deferred early in the process to a Jeb Bush juggernaut that relied on the old Trump’s task was made dramatically easier combination of massive fundraising from do- than it might have been by wall-to-wall media nors with corporate ties, big-name endorse- coverage from outlets that craved the ratings ments and the same crew of strategists who he could generate; CBS chief Les Moonves ac- had put a Bush on six of the past nine Repub- tually admitted at an industry gathering that lican tickets). the ratings and revenue bonanza associated with the Trump moment “may not be good Trump knew something the Bushes and Rom- for America, but it’s damn good for CBS.” neys refused to admit: that the par t y base hat- The coverage of the billionaire was lavish, ed not just Democrats such as Barack Obama and constant. “Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, and Hillary Clinton but also Republican lead- Trump, Trump, and Trump” is how veteran ers who treated Obama or Clinton with any- political observer Larry Sabato summed up thing less than overt and unyielding disdain. mainstream-media’s approach to the pri- Trump’s embrace of conspiracy theories that mary season. By late February of 2016, the imagined Obama to be a Kenyan-born Muslim billionaire had, according to figures cited by radical, or that portrayed Clinton as a criminal The Economist magazine, enjoyed ten times mastermind who belonged in jail rather than as much attention on network evening news- in the State Department or the White House, casts as Florida Senator Marco Rubio, a candi- did not disqualify him with a Republican base date seen by many in the party establishment

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as their last best hope to upset Trump. This done, McConnell and Ryan were on board overwhelming over-coverage of Trump’s can- the Trump train—and eventually, so too were didacy made “The Donald” the defining figure bitter Trump rivals such as Texas Senator Ted in the GOP competition. As Amy Goodman of Cruz. Democracy Now! put it: “Trump doesn’t even have to go out on the road—he’s piped into The lesson from Ryan and McConnell and everyone’s home.” That was invaluable for Cruz was blunt and unequivocal: partisanship Trump. would always trump principle; nothing mat- tered more than maintaining the party’s grip Equally invaluable for Trump was the deter- on power, and its ability to grasp for more mination of the nation’s most prominent and power in the future. With their choices, Ryan powerful Republicans, House Speaker Paul and McConnell and Cruz made what was still Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mc- sometimes referred to as the “Party of Lin- Connell, to maintain their prominence and coln” or the “Party of Reagan” into the “Party power. During the primary season, Ryan of Trump.” They lied to themselves, imagining and McConnell occasionally grumbled about that they could after the Trump interregnum Trump’s racism, sexism, xenophobia, and at- restore some semblance of dignity; that they tacks on the judiciary and the rule of law; but could renew the once-successful strategy of they always attached to their mild rebukes a presenting themselves and their party as re- promise that they support the party’s even- spectable while winking and nodding as con- tual nominee. That empowered Trump, as spiracy theories and racist appeals were used the message that Republican primary vot- to stir the base into an anti-Democratic fren- ers got was that his excesses were never so zy every four years. But Trump had opened a great that they would cause key Republicans political Pandora’s Box that was not about to to reject him. Once the nomination fight was close for the Republicans.

Partisanship is Beginning to Derail the Partisans

The Republicans were not the only ones lying of Sanders backers were attracted by Trump; to themselves. in fact, they were disgusted with him. But they were also angry with Democratic leaders who Democratic insiders imagined at the start of had schemed to derail the Sanders insurgen- the fall 2016 campaign that it would be pos- cy. Recognizing the depth of the anger, Clinton sible to run an old-fashioned “we’re better backers joined Sanders backers not just in than them” campaign against Trump and the moving to displace DNC chair Debbie Wasser- Republicans. But Clinton’s poll numbers sug- man Schultz from her position, but also to es- gested that she was struggling to attract the tablish a commission to reform the nominat- independent progressives, the working-class ing process. That represented progress. But men and women, and especially the millenni- not enough progress. als who had been excited by Bernie Sanders and his democratic socialist candidacy. The Democratic leaders have yet to fully recognize polls did not suggest that substantial numbers that the Sanders campaign was not just a chal-

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lenge to Hillary Clinton but to the Democratic federal government to address major issues Party as it currently operates—and, indeed, to facing the United States as a “crisis” accord- the political process as it currently operates. ing to a Gallup Poll conducted early in 2016, The senator from Vermont is right when he while 51 percent say the dysfunction is a “ma- notes: jor problem.” Roughly the same percentage of Americans see the tendency of political party We went into state after state where we took on leaders to place partisan concerns ahead of the entire Democratic leadership. We took on the the common good as a “crisis” (30 percent) Governor. We took on two United States Sena- tors, we took on all the Mayors, and we won big. or a “major problem” (55 percent). These dis- What does that tell you about the relationship of gruntled citizens do not place the full blame the Democratic leadership to their own constit- for their country’s problems on the two ma- uents? The Democrats have got to, I think, open jor parties—polling suggests that many voters the door to the young people. Welcome them recognize, correctly, that a consolidated and in and understand that that will be messy, that many of these young people are not profession- dumbed-down media is also a major factor. al politicians who have spent 30 years making But Americans are starting to recognize that contributions to the Democratic Party. The Dem- they need more choices if they are going to get ocratic Party is going to have to adjust itself to government that reflects their values and that their reality rather than forcing these young peo- responds to their demands. ple, these working-class people, to be adjusted to the Democratic leadership reality. A September Gallup poll found that only 38 It is optimistic to suggest that even a “messy” percent of Americans felt that the two major process can succeed in opening up a party that parties did an adequate job of representing is not inclined toward openness. The more the will and the desires of the American peo- likely scenario, for the Democrats and the ple. Sixty percent of those surveyed said the Republicans, is that party leaders—and most country needed another party. That’s a dra- pundits—will continue to misread the mo- matic shift from just four years ago, when 45 ment and imagine that the upheavals of 2016 percent said the existing parties were suffi- will be contained on the calendar of this par- cient and 46 percent wanted another option. ticular year. That’s not going to happen. The realities of globalization, deindustrialization, Perhaps more significant than the polling data automation, failed austerity schemes, bloated is the practical evidence of interest in and sup- military budgets, and warped national prior- port for multi-party democracy. Despite the ities are not going to be altered by this elec- many barriers to third parties in the United tion. In fact, they are likely to metastasize as States—they have historically been neglected the United States and other western democra- by the media, denied a place in presidential de- cies wrestle with a new world order that they bates, and forced to engage in a costly process ushered in but can no longer manage. And the of petitioning their way onto state ballots—the inability of a narrowly-defined two-party sys- socially-liberal and economically-conservative tem to give voice to an ever-expanding spec- Libertarian Party succeeded in getting on all trum of American ideals and demands will be- 50 state ballots and that of the federal Dis- come ever more evident. trict of Columbia in 2016, while the left-leaning Green Party approached the election with 44 Americans are dramatically dissatisfied with state ballot lines and that of the District of Co- politics as usual—and the gridlock, inequality, lumbia. As the fall campaign got going, the Lib- and injustice that extends from it. One-third ertarians were polling in double digits in many of Americans now see the inability of their states and in some national surveys, and were

10 JOHN NICHOLS CRASHING THE PARTY

actually earning endorsements from major energized and expanded by the experience of newspapers. Meanwhile, at one point during the 2016 primaries, and of a fall election sea- the campaign the Greens were polling as high son that saw the hands of the Libertarians and as five percent nationally, and doing even bet- the Greens strengthened in many states. ter in major states such as California, suggest- ing that they could earn a record vote in 2016. Already, there are movements for ambitious reforms, some of which have the potential to Additionally, the New York-based Working be as transformational as the Progressive Era Families Party, which frequently endorses reforms of a century ago (which during the pe- left-leaning Democrats but sometimes runs riod from 1910 to 1920 saw the Constitution and wins on its own, has been rapidly ex- amended to create an elected U.S. Senate, to panding to states across the country—and provide women with the right to vote and to securing additional ballot lines in the process. dramatically expand federal taxation and reg- And the victories of Seattle City Councilmem- ulatory powers in ways that would eventual- ber Kshama Sawant, as a Socialist Alternative ly empower Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New party contender, have inspired other candida- Deal). Today, there are new movements for cies by municipal socialists in cities across the constitutional reform. By mid-2016, 17 state country. legislatures had asked the Congress to take steps to amend the Constitution in order to Yet, for all the evidence that Americans want reform campaign finance laws in a way that more choices, prospects for opening up the could level the playing field for all candidates country’s political process face structural bar- and parties. riers that are daunting even for the most optimistic reformers. And there are no guaran- At the same time, a new voting rights move- tees that multi-party politics would suddenly ment has developed and seeks to remove make the United States a green and pleasant barriers to electoral participation. The ger- land. After all, countries with a more open and rymandering schemes that the major parties functional politics have economic and political use to create districts that favor their candi- problems that go unresolved. dates are being challenged in the courts with renewed vigor. And a national group, FairVote, When the dust settles from the 2016 election, has helped community activists across the the elites will speak among themselves about country to implement local “Instant-Runoff” how to address the political vulnerabilities that and “Ranked-Choice” voting systems that al- were exposed by the campaign. There will cer- low the votes of losing candidates to transfer tainly be discussion about whether a two par- to more viable contenders. This reform elimi- ty system that developed in the 1850s is the nates the prospect that support for an “ideal” right fit for twenty-first century America. But, third-party candidate might spoil the election at the elite level, these discussions will invari- prospects of an acceptable major-party can- ably err toward tinkering with existing struc- didate—or vice versa. By removing the fear tures rather than overturning them. At the that votes for third-party candidates might grassroots level, where social media and in- be wasted, ranked-choice voting in cities such dependent journalism are creating new webs as San Francisco has already resulted in the of connection and engagement, there will be election of candidates backed by third parties. a richer and more enthusiastic conversation And there is now a push to implement the about structural change. That discussion (pri- system for statewide elections in the state of marily on the left, but also on the right) will be Maine.

11 JOHN NICHOLS CRASHING THE PARTY

A New Politics for a New America

It is dangerous, however, to underestimate the President Hubert Humphrey, many liberals strength and determination of the partisans and progressives sitting out the fall election, who will resist even the most modest reforms. and southern segregationists and northern The two major parties have maintained their reactionaries backing the renegade indepen- duopoly for 160 years—adapting just suffi- dent candidacy of Alabama Governor George ciently to stifle the independent and alternative Wallace. As a result, Nixon’s 43 percent was parties (Populist and Progressive and Socialist) sufficient to claim the presidency and, from that have at times threatened their ability to the White House, the master political strategist define politics in their favor. Despite their gen- built a new Republican Party that attracted not uine differences, the Democrats and Republi- just the Nixon voters of 1968 but a great many cans frequently join together to draw electoral of the Wallace voters. district lines, set voting rules, and thwart oppo- sition. They are likely to do so again. Republicans are not likely to be so lucky this time. There is no space for it to grow on the For this reason, much of the agitation for right, and Trump’s candidacy has “branded” change will take place within the major parties. the GOP as a racist, xenophobic, and sexist The highest-profile struggle is likely to take party that will have an exceptionally hard time place within the Republican Party, where the appealing to the country’s rapidly-expanding traditional leadership split between a small Latino community or to young voters of all rac- #NeverTrump contingent that refused to sup- es and backgrounds. Nor is there a Nixon on port the nominee and a larger group (including the horizon: a senior party figure with national House Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Republican name recognition, clear political skills, and con- leader Mitch McConnell and most Republican nections to the various factions within the par- governors) that imagined it could accept Trump ty. And whoever tries to be that figure—Speak- for the election season and then get their party er Paul Ryan perhaps, or Ohio Governor John back. It won’t work that way. Trump’s fall cam- Kasich—is all but certain to face sniping from paign, while chaotic and often dysfunctional, Trump. Unlike Goldwater, who stepped back succeeded in winning over many grassroots from the national limelight after losing, Trump Republicans and also in drawing independent will not fade away. And media outlets that are Trump enthusiasts into the party fold. They always searching for the lowest common de- are not going away. So the likelihood of many nominator will continue to use the billionaire years of bitter internal division, struggles for to attract clicks and ratings. control of the party apparatus at the state and national levels, and primary fights is real. The It will be somewhat easier for the Democrats. party experienced similar disarray after Bar- But only somewhat. The divide between the ry Goldwater’s loss in 1964 and reconstituted Clinton and Sanders camps never ran so deep itself only sufficiently to attract 43 percent of on the Democratic side as did the divide be- the vote in 1968. Luckily for the Republicans of tween the Trump and #NeverTrump camps on the late 1960s, the Democrats were even more the Republican side. But many Sanders sup- divided. Democratic President Lyndon Johnson porters were angered by the revelations about dropped his bid for reelection in the spring of how Democratic National Committee insiders 1968 and the party atomized into competing abandoned neutrality and ran interference on camps, with the establishment backing Vice behalf of Clinton during the primaries. Despite

12 JOHN NICHOLS CRASHING THE PARTY

Sanders’ endorsement of the eventual nomi- to a far greater extent than anything Clinton nee, bitterness lingers. and his allies do—since the Sanders camp rep- resents a dynamic force that has the potential Sanders backers are organizing on many to renew and build the party in a period where fronts to take over the apparatus of the par- the economic and social concerns raised by ty. They have already succeeded in a number the senator will become ever more pressing. of states, and they will be highly active in the Savvy party leaders, such as interim chair upcoming review of nominating procedures, Donna Brazile, recognize the need to bring the which could weaken the influence of party el- Sanders backers to the table. So, too, do the ders who serve as so-called “super-delegates.” more progressive members of Clinton’s team. But the divide between the corporate-tied But there will be clashes, and they are likely to centrist Democrats, who have run the party get intense when it comes to questions of how (and produced its presidential nominees) for the party will finance its campaigns, how it will decades, and the younger, more working-class frame its agenda, and how it will organize a and radical Sanders supporters, will not be genuine “50-state strategy.” The core question easily resolved. The senator from Vermont will be this: Does the Democratic Party remain is right when he says the process of opening a part of the status quo, or does it become a up the party will be “messy.” But it could also movement that seeks to change not just the become urgent. The Sanders insurgency was politics of the United States but the economic not primarily powered by the candidate’s per- and social infrastructure of a country where sonality—although polls suggest he is one of too many dreams have been deferred for too the few politicians who Americans of varying long? ideologies and partisanships trust and, in fact, currently the most popular American politi- Sanders is serious when he says that the Dem- cian—but it was powered by the candidate’s ocratic Party must undergo “revolutionary” issues. Sanders did not deliver traditional change. The party must overcome what the stump speeches during his run for the nomi- senator describes as its “same old weakness. nation; he delivered tutorials that often last- That is, much too much dependency on con- ed for more than an hour on the need for a sultants and TV ads—rather than mobilizing single-payer health-care system, free higher people.” education, massive investments in infrastructure, jobs programs for inner-city youth, and “People are hurt,” argues Sanders. a $15-an-hour minimum wage. He decried austerity and talked up social democracy. And The truth is that we have had for forty years a he argued that both major parties were too declining middle class. People are hungry, and deferential to Wall Street, campaign donors, they’re hurting, and they’re very, very worried and corporate lobbyists. More than 13 million about their children. People are worried about themselves, yeah, but they’re worried about their people voted for Sanders and for the “political kids, and the future of their kids: Will their kids revolution” he proposed. And millions more ever pay off their student debt? Will their kids would have voted for him if the Democratic ever get a decent paying job? Party had removed the structural barriers to mass participation caucuses and primaries. In order to speak to that hurt, both the Dem- ocratic Party and the Republican Party must Sanders and his supporters say they will keep evolve. Neither will do so willingly, or easily. fighting to remove those barriers. Their suc- The partisans of the past remain; they may cess or failure will define the Democratic Party even retain the upper hand, for now. But it is

13 JOHN NICHOLS CRASHING THE PARTY

a weaker hand after the turbulent 2016 nomi- ably functional, there are going to have to nating fights for Democrats and Republicans. be structural changes to update an archaic political system that maintains an unpopular If we presume that an election season so cha- status quo. America is a long way from the otic as the one America has experienced in “one-page rewrite” of the Constitution that 2016 is unlikely to settle much, and that the Bill Maher entertains, and which the most chaos is likely to continue, then we must also ardent reformers imagine could usher in an presume that internal and external pressure American version of European-style parlia- on the parties to change will increase. Ulti- mentary democracy. But if and when the mately, it is hard to imagine how the center parties change—or if and when their failure can hold. That may be an unsettling notion to change invites the development of new for some. But it is hopeful for those who seek parties—the underpinnings of an old and a better politics in America—since changes in dysfunctional politics could give way to a new how parties see themselves and the process politics. in which they are engaged create an opening for broader changes to the political infra- That new politics, with its roots in the upheav- structure of the United States. als of 2016, might not “suck” quite so horribly, or quite so completely, as a status quo that Those broader changes are necessary. For just about everyone agrees is insufficiently American politics to become even reason- democratic for a new America.

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