eat space: the alternate reality to Zoom calls, texting, and Netflix. Do you all remember? Yes, we used to gather in person. This Nation article lays out how the Democratic party left behind meat-space, the work of building a membership-based organization:
The Democratic Party was swept up in this civic transition. Today, the party focuses almost exclusively on election campaign sprints optimized (to use terms popularized by civic theorists like Jane McAlevey and Hahrie Han) for short-term mobilizing (squeezing donations and volunteer hours out of current members) rather than for long-term organizing (fostering the stewardship, growth, and leadership development of the party’s membership). Instead of funding itself primarily through membership dues, the party offers fancy events for the wealthy and ceaseless, disrespectful texts for the rest of us. Parasocial relationships with celebrities and famous politicians are emphasized over real relationships with fellow neighbors and local chapter leaders. When you go to Democrats.org, clicking “Take Action” does not direct you to a page with your local Democratic committee’s meeting times and locations. The bolded call-to-action button on the party homepage is “DONATE,” not “JOIN.”
“Bowling Alone” is a foundational sociological work on the hollowing-out of American civic life. As Democrats urged us to move to Zoom and further abandon our churches, mosques, synagogues, and meeting halls without an awareness of what that costs us, it was easy to see how further out of touch with the importance of civic life than Republicans they were. (Dear God, what a handout to big tech—their biggest donors.)
While dogged by winter and police during the 2011 winter of OccupyDC as we built Occupy Church and Occupy Faith, I read a book to draw inspiration from history, “All on Fire: William Lloyd Garrison and the Abolition of Slavery”. I was like: holy shit. Those 19th century Bostonians knew how to ORGANIZE. The way Mayer detailed the work of various organizations: they all seemed to be membership-based with yearly-elected officers. Officers were accountable.
(Now, in movements, I have frequently watched the failure of non-membership consensus-based decision-making, which seems to be the default way to run a grassroots organization until the status quo consensus breaks down and the movement devolves into factions, often caused by political differences overlaid with a sheen of identitarian bickering. But I digress.)
Yes, Democrats need to usurp online spaces with real-person spaces. VISIT A FUCKING CHURCH. Black churches know where it’s at. Black pastors wield real political power. Come to their church and you’ve learned something real and shown some real solidarity. Faith-based institutions know how to do mutual aid. The old communist party knew how to do it. It is clear to me, after knocking doors, that Kamala Harris did not knock a single door, or she would have pivoted so hard her carefully-wrought composure would have fallen away. Throw a party, Democratic party!
Online spaces breed disconnection and aren’t solid. If there’s anything I learned from Occupy, it was that real-person organizing can never be replaced.
Honestly, I want to get involved with the Democratic Party in order to tea party it, but I have no idea how I would even join a local chapter. There is not even a mechanism by which I might “tea party” the Democrats. Wow. Let that sink in. Effectively, rabble like me has been excised.
Why am I even giving advice to the Democrats? I’m a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and I’m likely going to join Working Families Party, a kind of party-within-a-party, for these next years, and let the corporate democrats, who hover above us like angels in heaven, get back to their work of pleasing Lord Mammon.
Solidarity.