In the first week of our #DSA100k recruitment drive, 2500 new members joined! Stand with our 75,000+ fellow members to organize for the election and beyond. https://t.co/WBWtgQ1LUQ pic.twitter.com/IBPqnQZapq— DSA 🌹 (@DemSocialists) October 9, 2020
Theres been concrete gains made from this strategy though. If Bernie didn't run as a socialist or if DSA didnt get affiliated with these people like aoc or Tlaib we wouldnt have gotten such a large resurgence on the left. How was PSLs membership in 2015 compared to today? This pays off for the entire socialist movement, not just DSA. Getting people like Jabari, Phara, Marcella, and Julia in is important for building legitimacy, propagating socialist ideas, and creating mainstream discourse. These people would never have been elected as 3rd party, Jabari even tried before. Whether these people will all one day secede to join a newly formed central socialist party is a matter of more things than people like to actually admit to, and if our aim isnt to drive real change through electoral means but rather use it strategically than how is running 3rd party candidates that probably wont win better than getting actual socialists in? On the national level 3rd party is entirely irrelevant. On the state level it depends from state to state, very few have ranked choice and non partisan primaries, and most have huge impediments to 3rd parties getting on the ballot, plus it takes way more energy and resources to campaign as 3rd party.
Theres been concrete gains made from this strategy though. If Bernie didn't run as a socialist or if DSA didnt get affiliated with these people like aoc or Tlaib we wouldnt have gotten such a large resurgence on the left. How was PSLs membership in 2015 compared to today? This pays off for the entire socialist movement, not just DSA. Getting people like Jabari, Phara, Marcella, and Julia in is important for building legitimacy, propagating socialist ideas, and creating mainstream discourse. These people would never have been elected as 3rd party, Jabari even tried before. Whether these people will all one day secede to join a newly formed central socialist party is a matter of more things than people like to actually admit to, and if our aim isnt to drive real change through electoral means but rather use it strategically than how is running 3rd party candidates that probably wont win better than getting actual socialists in? On the national level 3rd party is entirely irrelevant. On the state level it depends from state to state, very few have ranked choice and non partisan primaries, and most have huge impediments to 3rd parties getting on the ballot, plus it takes way more energy and resources to campaign as 3rd party.