College Dems Fight Anti-Worker Policy from Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC)
In March, the DCCC announced a bird-brained policy blacklisting vendors who support primary challengers to incumbents. Since then, progressive organizations across a broad sociopolitical and ideological spectrum within the party are punching back at The Establishment, demanding the right to fair competition and a place on the field as Democrats fight over the ideological future of the party.
The latest resistance to the policy comes from some of the party’s most dependable volunteers: the College Democrats. 68 chapters of the organization are encouraging donors to boycott the DCCC until they drop the policy. You can read the full story over at The Atlantic.
The DCCC should drop this policy immediately. Whereas the Democratic Party can sometimes look like a tug-of-war between supposedly rational pragmatists and supposedly wild-eyed progressives, this is a circumstance where everyone can agree that the DCCC is being wrong-headed. Pushing young organizers out neither protects Democratic seats nor supports forward-thinking policies. Worse, it shuts voices out of the party. Democratic incumbents still skew white and male. Handicapping primary challengers means locking in a white male majority among part powerbrokers. As for staff, it’s no secret that people who are hungry for opportunity are the ones most likely to get picked up by primary competitors. This rule intentionally attacks new staffers and shoves them into a corner where they have to decide to either back the Establishment or go hungry.
Young voters and others who are pushed out of the process are not going to put up with this. Unless the DCCC wants to turn Democratic congressional efforts into a few leftover old guard volunteers and paid prep school brats, they better drop the nonsense.
Editor’s Note: The Democratic Establishment for a reason few understand continues to institute policies that most upset those who are adamant that the party stand for the values it purports to represent. It is clear that their goal is to stay in the good graces of the large donor class.