What Is a Democrat?
Democratic voters aren't members of the Democratic Party. They're its target market.
Why do national Democrats seem so feckless when it comes to elections? Look no further than the consultant-ridden DNC, the Democratic National Committee, nominally the governing institution of the Democratic Party.
James Zogby is a long-time member of the DNC, and has long railed against its practices. Consider what he has to say in the following interview with Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti on a recent Breaking Points show.
The whole interview is good, but here are a few juicy quotes for those with less than a little listening time.
On Democratic Party “membership” (lightly edited; all emphasis mine):
I grew up, my mom was a precinct captain and I used to go door to door with her, and go to Ward meetings, and on Election Day we'd get poll cards and we'd go to the polls and pass them out. You belonged to something, and you felt like this was part of who you were.
That's no longer the case. Being a member of the Democratic Party means nothing more than: I'm on a email list, I'm on a text message list, I'm on a hard mail list, I'm on a phone list, and I get asked for money. Nobody asks my opinion. There is no way to record your feeling about an issue.
On whether the DNC controls the Party:
In all the years I've been on the DNC, first time we had an actual election was when Keith Ellison and Tom Perez faced off after the Bernie-Hillary race.
First time we had a floor vote and a debate on an issue was at that same meeting when we debated whether we should accept money from PACs that emanated from businesses that violated the DNC positions on oil, fracking, whatever.
The fact is that DNC members even were like props who go to meetings and fill chairs and, I can say it because I'm a Catholic, you know we know when to stand up, when to sit down, when to clap, when to leave. Votes are a done deal. Staff decide what we vote on.
On who controls the money:
[E]very year, every cycle, the DNC spends hundreds of millions of dollars — this year well over a billion — and guess what? I have no idea where it's going to go.
The Harris campaign raised a billion dollars. It's in the red. We will never know where that money got spent. We will never evaluate was it effective or not.
People give $3 donations monthly [and] we have no idea where that money goes. And as opposed to being a governing body, like I said, we [the DNC] are props at meetings.
The fact is, Democratic voters aren’t members of the Party in any sense of membership. You can’t be a card-carrying Democrat. There are no cards, and the national party itself is just a tiny group of people with enormous power. Democratic voters are just supporters, sideline cheering fans at a game they can only watch. Or more accurately, Democratic voters are the Party’s target market, one source of its funds.
Is the same true on the Republican side? Of course it is. But unlike Democrats, Republican fear their base…
…while Democrats ridicule theirs…
By “socialist” Biden means people like these, marginal and easily ignored:
Victories are nice when they come, but it's really all about the Benjamins. The Party raises money from everywhere it can and gives it to their consultants, many of whom sit on the DNC itself and have ties to the campaigns they advise. And while the candidate may win or lose, no consultant comes out of a contest unenriched. The Harris campaign is currently in the red, but I don’t think consultants are sitting on IOUs. The game’s as corrupt as it looks.
We all want the U.S. to march into a better future. The Democratic Party is having trouble convincing voters it should lead that mission. This is why.
The Democratic Party is a fund raising entity. The beneficiaries are those for whom the funds fund, chiefly campaign consultants and fund raising strategists.
Another way of putting it is the Democratic Party is marketing. No wonder they offer no alternatives to the unbridled capitalism that is ruining the planet that hosts us.
Your description of party "members" as "sideline cheering fans" is apt. It reflects the reality of what I call the ESPNification of politics in this country.
Politics became sport.
Parties became teams.
Voters/citizens became fans.
Fans do NOT change allegiance. You root for and vote for the laundry, the name on the front of the jersey as it were.
Politics is now covered like sports, right down to the betting lines. Groups of talking heads (ex players and coaches and media shills) sit at desks and blather on about today's trending topic, about what this player or that said, about which team will win this game or that, about which team is set up best to win the championship. No meaningful discussion of issues. No honest debates. No consideration for the impacts, except that EVERY impact must put "Democracy at Risk"(tm). Nothing but the discussion of the competition for the sake of eyeballs and advertising money. Get the fans' attention and keep the fans' attention.
It's worse than that, of course, because unlike in the sports departments the network "news" rooms have been fully politicized. They no longer actually cover politics (the sport). They're no long journalists (most never really were). They are entertainers. More than that, they themselves are fans. But fans with power. They aren't there just to cover the game. They are part of the game. They are there to make sure that the teams are well defined and evenly matched. They are there to make sure that the game goes on.
The. Game. Must. Go. On.
And so it will, until politics becomes the business of running a country instead of sport entertainment, and we, the fans, become citizens... you know, We, The People.
Sadly, I'm not holding my breath on that happening any time soon. :-(