Why Corporate Democrats Need to Stop Manipulating the Primaries

Hello Friends,I'm seeing another wave of memes that say things like, “There's no such thing as a perfect candidate, so get behind our guy so we can win.”On the surface, that seems like a pretty good message. The problem is that when I read it, I feel like it's a veiled way of saying, “We're not interested in fighting for universal healthcare or universal education, so just quit asking for it.”For the last few election cycles, we've seen corporate democrats circle their wagons and freeze out progressive candidates in a way that's extremely hostile. Then, they encourage us to “get behind their movement” even though they absolutely refuse to listen to the will of the people.This is a cry for division disguised as a call for unity.The way I see it, one of the biggest problems our nation faces is that our politicians feel that they're entitled to keep a seat forever. It's shameful the way the DNC establishment bristles at the thought of primaries. They're still angry about the New York primary for mayor where they backed Cuomo.Have you seen one post about Mamdani with the oft-repeated line of “Mamdani is not a perfect candidate, but we need to get behind him if we want to defeat fascism?”No, establishment Democrats aren't saying that and it's super irritating. Instead, they're sitting petulantly and stewing in their fury. That's the exactly wrong thing to do. The New York primary for mayor offered a read on what the American people want. It's not that shocking.They want affordable rent.They want affordable groceries.They want access to health care.What they don't want is another billionaire backed candidate that will steadfastly refuse to fight for any of these things.There are some irrefutable facts that everyone needs to accept about primaries. Primaries are visual. Primaries are newsworthy. Primaries allow candidates to come to the forefront of the media cycle and discuss ideas.The way you win elections is by seizing control of the narrative. You also win by listening to the people.I realize that many political offices are held by entitled men who have never had to work for their whole lives and who think they're better than us because of their ivy league degrees, but the people aren't satisfied with the job they're doing.“Oh, there's no such thing as a perfect candidate...”I'm not asking for “perfect,” I am just looking for basic competence at this point. Many seated politicians don't have it.It's really distressing when people like David Hogg say we need to have robust primaries only to have the establishment run him out of office. Hey, David Hogg wasn't a “perfect” advocate, but maybe we should have considered getting behind his message?Democrats keep losing elections because they stubbornly refuse to fight for what the American people want. It should also be noted that the DNC establishment is a conservative party. Every politician in the United States is to the right of center. We have absolutely no liberal representation at all and that's a large reason why so many people don't get out and vote.The choice is always “passive billionaire candidate” vs “extreme billionaire candidate.”The only time the DNC shows any spine is when a progressive starts gaining some momentum.Throughout the last few months, Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have been out hosting rallies, organizing people, and setting the stage for the resistance. Meanwhile, prominent figures in the DNC have been complaining about these actions.If you've got a platform and you claim to be a Democrat, it seems to me you shouldn't waste one pixel of print complaining about actions that are actually mobilizing the people. Go and complain about concentration camps or something.Again, it's infuriating that the establishment Democrats will say, “There's no perfect candidate” even as they attack the candidates the voters clearly prefer.They should practice what they preach and they don't. They just don't.A lot of establishment Democrats have been content to blame the 2024 “loss” (I still think there was cheating) on misogyny and racism.That's what we hear again and again and again.“Oh, it was misogyny and racism.”“There was nothing we could have done.”“We ran a perfect campaign and lost.”Well, maybe we should pause for a moment and, for the sake of argument, discuss whether it might have hurt us not to have a primary.I was delighted that Kamala Harris was selected as the candidate. When the whispers started about Biden's withdrawal, I was terrified that they were going to stick us with some “establishment preferred” candidate. Tell me honestly, did you feel that every Democrat did everything they could to get Kamala a win? Did they practice their mantra of “there's no perfect candidate, let's get behind the movement?”I don't feel they did. I feel there was some resentment behind DNC elitists who thought they “knew better” than the rest of us.It's like they sit behind closed doors and say, “If we have a fair primary, the voters will just pick somebody who can't win.”Then they put their finger on the primary, get a guy who loses, and they blame us again.This cycle never ends.I staunchly supported Biden leading up to the withdrawal because I thought it might hurt the ticket to run a candidate without a primary. Yeah, he flubbed the debate. But his opponent flubbed his debate against Kamala Harris and apparently that didn't hurt him.The phrase “Did Biden drop out” was one of the main search queries on election day. That should tell you something about where the mind of the electorate is at. The DNC establishment failed to reach them. That's an irrefutable fact.Maybe we should consider fixing that problem rather than trotting out Schumer to look down his nose at the voters all the time?Now, I realize that primaries are a complicated business. You need some sort of mechanism that prevents nefarious forces from manipulating the results. We do need a primary system that gives us the best chance of selecting the most popular candidate.But this needs to be a scientific process. We have to establish a good system and then live with the results even if they don't align with our preconceptions.The problem is that men who live in gated communities look at who the people vote for and they say, “Oh, the voters are ignorant, that candidate can't win the general election.” So, they manipulate the result.We saw it in 2020 as well. There were endless delays providing the results of the Iowa primary. Whether the delays were legitimate or not, everybody has to admit that it wasn't a good look. In 2020, the American people were desperate to find a candidate to rally around. However, the DNC always saves its greatest effort for attacking candidates who say things like, “the cost of living is too high.”That hurts us.Biden eventually emerged victorious in that primary because all the other establishment candidates dropped out. People forget that for a while there it looked like Bernie was going to win.I don't have anything against Biden. He turned out to be a very progressive president, which is probably why the DNC turned on him. The simple fact is that you don't see record economic growth unless you elect a progressive. That's always been true. But when he won the primary, I thought, “I hope he's not too old to run for a second term.”And here we are.Then there are the primaries in 2016. I'm not going to write anything salacious. There are a lot of unfair rumors out there and I don't want to get into that. But everybody should at least read what a court had to say about the affair. Again, that's not some barstool grumbling, that's a substantiated LEGAL conclusion.Corporate Democrats keep falling over themselves trying to distract us from what has become painfully obvious. The reason Democrats keep losing is because the people don't feel as if they're being heard.We expect bad people to behave badly. But when good people stand by and do nothing, it's soul crushing.The time has come for the Democratic establishment to embrace the idea of a free and fair primary. If the people decide to get behind a progressive, the Democrats have to follow their own motto. “There is no perfect candidate, let's get behind the people's choice so that we can win and reclaim our country!”You all make this newsletter happen! Thanks for your sponsorship! I have payment tiers starting at as little as twenty dollars a year.Upgrade at 30% offUpgrade at 40% offUpgrade at 50% offUpgrade at 60% offI'm so happy you're here, and I'm looking forward to sharing more thoughts with you tomorrow.My CoSchedule referral linkHere’s my referral link to my preferred headline analyzer tool. If you sign up through this, it’s another way to support this newsletter (thank you).I'd Rather Be Writing is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to I'd Rather Be Writing at walterrhein.substack.com/subscribe