[...] historical memory that stretches back further than when hipsters started joining the Democratic Socialists of America would be helpful. Even going just one decade back from when the pyramid scheme to get the editors of the misnamed Jacobin magazine jobs in a never-gonna-happen Bernie Sanders administration (excuse the lengthy but more accurate name for the DSA) started gaining steam would be helpful.

Cynthia McKinney [...] is a telling example of what happens when you refuse to renege on principled stands with the oppressed people of the world while being a member of Congress. A Black woman elected from the district of northwest Atlanta and its environs, McKinney consistently took principled stands against the atrocities perpetrated by the Bush administration, including its widespread use of legalized torture as part of the “War on Terror,” and even brought articles of impeachment against President Bush. McKinney did not limit her actions to the talk shop of Congress, but also joined with resistance movements against imperialist war, torture, and the gross mistreatment of Katrina evacuees, making allies with those acting outside the bounds of bourgeois politics. When she refused to back down from these principled stands, she was run out of office by the (likely coordinated) efforts of the Democratic Party establishment and wealthy Black elites, losing the 2006 Democratic Party primary, and thus her seat in the House of Representatives, to Hank Johnson. Since being ousted from Congress, McKinney has continued to stand with the oppressed people of the world, even being detained and deported by the Israeli military for trying to deliver aid to the Gaza Strip by boat. Know your friends, know your enemies, and know how the bourgeois electoral system spits out the former, welcomes the latter, and has great skill and proven practice at turning the former into the latter.