DNC Chair Vote: Keith Ellison Has Already Won Much-- Sing Along To Help Him Win More!

Who would have thought so much drama, and fun music, could be catalyzed by the Democratic National Committee’s vote for a new chair (due on February 25)?

Even before the vote, Bernie-endorsed candidate Congressman Keith Ellison has accomplished much, including:

• Keith drawing public attention to the generally backroom selection process.
• Keith collecting enough support to force opponents to run a relatively high profile ‘non-Ellison’, which they found in Tom Perez, Obama’s ex-Secretary of Labor who was being groomed for higher office (such as by being floated in 2016 as a potential Vice Presidential running mate for Hillary).
• Keith creating enough competitive pressure to provoke Perez into publicly admitting the Hillary-Bernie primary “was rigged,” after which he retracted the admission, by claiming that he had “misspoke.” This has highlighted Perez’s lack of experience in message discipline under the pressure of public scrutiny, and is a reminder of Perez’s track record of ‘only following orders,’ notably on Obama’s big push for mainly Republican lame-duck passage of the labor-opposed Trans Pacific Partnership.
• Keith announcing major labor union endorsements as pushback to Perez’s recent attempt to replicate Hillary’s usage of friendly press mouthpieces to create ‘inevitability’ by adding up anonymous private voting commitments.
• Keith making it obvious that a Perez win would constitute DNC defiance of demands for major changes in business as usual, despite the catastrophic electoral failures of the DNC, and of its favored candidates from Hillary on down.
• Keith making himself a lightning rod to attract the kinds of underhanded attacks that any progressive candidate would face, and giving himself opportunities for creative compromise. For example, if Keith’s being too ‘Muslim’ is the main problem for pearl-clutching (and Haim Saban-clutching) voters, then Keith could propose a compromise candidate like anti-corruption legal expert Zephyr Teachout, who would probably horrify friendly lobbyists so much that voters would be relieved to accept a compromise candidate like Bernie-supporting Congressman Raul Grijalva. The identity-flaunting Perez anointers could even claim Grijalva’s election as a win for them, by announcing: "We got a non-Muslim Latino just like we wanted!"

DNC members voting to elect the new chair are mainly office-holders, candidates, operatives, lobbyists and/or donors who have benefited from the inside game’s domination by fundraising. So they will only vote against Perez if they fear they will lose more from electing him than from loosening establishment control of the DNC.

What’s their main fear now (other than their never-ending fear of losing donor funds)? They probably don’t believe that Bernie could win the Democratic Presidential nomination in 2020 (partly because the establishment would hit a 2020 Bernie candidacy earlier and harder than they did in 2016), but they do understand that Democratic nominees will be weak unless they can retain support from most of Bernie’s supporters and sympathizers.

One way to increase their fear of angering Bernie supporters is to show them that we too can start the 2020 nomination contest earlier and more effectively than we did in 2016. The earlier and bigger we can make a ‘campaign-in-waiting’ (or a People’s-Party-in-waiting) for Bernie, the more establishment Democrats will fear to publicly show disrespect towards Bernie’s allies (like Keith) and visibly dismiss our concerns about donor-driven nominations and policy positions.

In other words, the more we #FeelTheBern, the more they will pretend to #FeelTheBern, out of fear that we will make their well-covered posteriors truly #FeelTheBern. We face years of effort to make the DNC and other insiders responsive to reality, so let’s take full advantage of Bernie’s and Keith’s hard-earned visibility and seat at the table by strengthening their hands. And let’s have some fun while doing it. In this spirit, and to highlight the importance of the ‘trench-warrior’s-eye-view,’ we are publishing the above music video “The Fine & The Mighty”, with apologies to Pete Seeger and Lead Belly, who sang for their era's veterans who survived military and social wars abroad and at home.

Readers can help by singing along, by creating more lyrics of Bernie-themed criticism of politics as usual, and posting them in our comments section. Even better, we encourage readers to make videos of groups singing their own lyrics, or our lyrics, and to post them online. Or send us a copy and we’ll post it alongside our music video here: