The Millennial Socialists Are Coming.

[elleng]

'In May, three young progressive women running for the state Legislature in Pennsylvania, each endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America, won decisive primary victories over men heavily favored by the political establishment. Two of the women, Summer Lee, 30, and Sara Innamorato, 32, ousted incumbents, the distant cousins Dom Costa and Paul Costa, members of an iconic Pennsylvania political family.

Elizabeth Fiedler, 37, announced her run three months after giving birth to her second child, and she had a nursery in her Philadelphia campaign office so other parents could drop off their kids before canvassing shifts. Talking to voters, she spoke of depending on Medicaid and CHIP for her kids’ health insurance, and of the anxiety she felt during two weeks when their insurance lapsed.

Lee was open about the more than $200,000 in student loans that have weighed on her since graduating from law school, which gave her a visceral sense, she told me, of the “need for free, quality education for everybody.” (An African-American woman running in a largely white district, she ended up with 68 percent of the vote.) Innamorato spoke about how her father’s opioid addiction had pushed her and her mother from the middle class. “I’ve lived the struggles of my district,” she told me.

Their races were part of a grass-roots civic renewal that is happening across this country, something that is, for me, the sole source of optimism in this very dark time. Marinating in the news in New York City, I’m often sick with despair. An authoritarian president of dubious legitimacy and depraved character is poised to remake America for generations with a second Supreme Court pick. The federal government is a festival of kleptocratic impunity. Kids the same age as my own are ripped from their migrant parents.'>>>

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/30/opinion/democratic-socialists-progressive-democratic-party-trump.html?

[Wwcd]

1. Democratic Socialists? I cannot believe they think they created something new.

Because it all falls under the one umbrella of the Democratic Party.

The ideals they claim are theirs alone, are the SAME ideals of the Democratic Party as long as I have been aware.
They are the SAME ideals that defined the political fight of my parents from the 1920's/30's.

I believe the 'Millennial Socialists' have scant idea of the political purpose of Generations of Democrats that came before them.
Had they actually learned of what was being fought for & against in the lives of those generations, they would realize that there is NO defining difference between their newfound cool label & that of the Democrats of their great grandparents.

Its a label they need because the purpose for the battle has always been the same.

It is the many faces of Human Rights that has been the base of the Democratic Party.

I cannot see how they study political history & miss this.

Thank you.

[elleng]

2. Well how do so many Democrats miss the fact that Senator Sanders is a true Democrat?

Seems to me that this is an important message.

[bettyellen]

3. Sanders insists he is not a Democrat and we have to take him at his word.

[Wwcd]

4. He is Not a true Democrat by his own Admission

He has continuously demeand the Dem Party, he has not been consistant in his career as a fighter for Democratic policy.

Why is bernie trying so hard to redefine the basic tenets of the Democratic Party as tho they are his own?
They belong to all generations of Democrats.
And to claim otherwise is a slap in the face to every Democrat that has bravely stood to fight on political & geographical battlefields in the name of Human Rights.

I have no idea why he thinks dividing the Democratic Party into small warring factions , even though they all hold the same beliefis, is to anyone's benefit.


Dear bernie,
The entire tenet of the Democratic Party is about HUMAN RIGHTS.

If you believe that is yours too, then you are a Democrat.
Its all from the same broad group.

Socialist, Progressive, socialist progressive, democratic socialist, progressive democrat, ..

Why the need to splinter off into warring factions, those who have always defined the very united Democratic Party?
What's his goal.

He claims to be everything but a Democrat .
What's his real goal?

I have no idea why he has worked so hard at division & at muddying the picture of the basic tenats that define the Democratic Party.

Our fight has allways been about HUMAN RIGHTS & EQUALITY.
No part of the Democratic Party holds more ownership over that continuous fight than the other.
We run with each other not against each other.
Wish someone would explain the basic tenets of the Democratic Party to him, because I'm not so sure he understands it at all.

That's how I see it & why I have a difficult time accepting bernie sanders.

MY TRUTH

Thanks.

[joet67]

5. Bernie is more of a traditional FDR Democrat

than many.

[Wwcd]

6. That is false.

No one but bernie?

What a slap & a insult to all who believed in FDR.

He didn't invent FDR.
He is hardly the first & only to claim that alliance.
He doesn't get to claim the good FDR did for human uplifting as his own.

This campaign meme needs to die.
It is false.

[elleng]

8. I don't think joet said 'no one but bernie.'

you have posted a redherring, and it's not helpful to our task AT ALL.

[Wwcd]

9. Ha. What task is that? Dividing the Dem Party off into warring factions with labels,

rather than uniting by the basic tenets of Human Rights for All?

That's what is really being done to the Democratic Party.
It is undeniable. It is the reason why its being done, that is in question.

No thanks.

[elleng]

10. Right, so please stop contributing to it.

[Wwcd]

11. I question his purpose. He, himself can stop the division immediately.

He created it. He can stop it if he wants to.

[rpannier]

17. Okay

First... as was pointed out, nobody said no one but Bernie
Second... Blue Dogs/New Democrats
if any group demeans the Party it is that group of Democrats who go out of their way to claim they are independent, that the party is out of touch, etc

[elleng]

7. Yes, he is. Thanks problems I see that so many here DENY this.

[murielm99]

12. This is so comical.

We see a few so-called Democratic Socialists win primaries, and people here start to crow about how it is not your father's Democratic Party any more. In the next breath, they spout cliches abut FDR Democrats and swoon over an old man who is not a Democrat at all.

[Wwcd]

13. It's not your "father's Dem Party"... until you need him 😐

It is comical, if you've ever been around teenagers.

[appalachiablue]

14. It's encouraging to know of these engaged young women & others

speaking out and actively engaged in the political process. Systems and policies that are clearly not beneficial to American society and which harm families must be addressed- outrageous student loan debt, lack of affordable medical care esp. for children, the need for affordable housing, decent jobs and livable wages, and more.

I welcome the involvement of these Millennial Socialists. So do many Americans and Democrats and that applies to Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt, the 4-term US president and father of the modern Democratic Party that has produced outstanding representatives, activists and leaders, and enacted major progressive legislation and policies to advance the nations' economy and society and which led the modern world. Amen!

- 'Attacks,' the Presidential Campaign of 1944, for 4th term.

[mountain grammy]

15. Agree

[Uncle Joe]

16. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread elleng

[rogerashton]

18. What is new?

Some posts above suggest that the Millennial Democratic Socialists think they have discovered something new, but that their ideas are just those that Democrats have pursued for generations. I read the editorial and I don't think they imagine that their socialist ideas are new. The DSA emerged as a faction in the Socialist Party of the USA in the '70's. The SP had split three ways: one that attempted to maintain an independent party and two that entered the DP. Of those that joined the DP, the DSA was opposed to the Vietnam war and the third faction, Social Democrats of the USA, supported the war. The program of the DSA today remains pretty much the same. In particular they are comfortable with some sort of public ownership of industry, not, I think, a traditional Democratic Party view. But they make it clear that their objective is NOT to convert the Democratic Party but to work with Democrats, within the party, to advance common objectives, which again has been the DSA position since the 1970's -- to the best of my knowledge.

But two things ARE new. First, numbers. Since Bernie made it respectable to be a Democratic Socialist in this country, new members have transformed DSA and multiplied its size. Second, and more subtly, DSA is providing social services and creating community in their neighborhoods. Parties that do that have established very long-term loyalties and have persisted and exercised power despite minority status. If the Democratic Party as a whole were to follow that example, we might create a very different situation.