Brandon Dothager, Justice Democrat

Neither Joe Biden nor Kamala Harris would’ve won the 2024 Democratic Primary that never took place.

Get organized.

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I need to buy a car before these tariffs hit.

I’ve got an explanation based on my education in political science and decade of experience in campaigns. Please disregard…

Democrats lose because Democrats excluded the new wave of Democrats - Sanders supporters.

Look around.
Who is keeping this party alive?
As Treasurer of the Highland Democrats, it’s striking to observe our list of contributors - it is the moderate network + Brandon’s 2016 Bernie network.

Moderates + Progressives… not minus.

If Highland Dems didn’t accept donations from Bernie supporters, we’d have $385 less. Aside from endorsements, speaking fees, & in kind contributions, HDPO raised $1267 this year.

30% of the HDPOs funds raised in 2024 were sourced from Bernie supporters.

Fundraising is the weakest campaign arm of the progressive movement. Therefore, the progressive floor for production is 30% monetarily.

But we all know, and have seen, witnessed, and experienced firsthand that *progressives,* not moderates, fuel the ground game.

During the Highland municipal elections, 73% of contacts in the VAN of a local municipal candidate were made by people who self-identify as progressive. The whole (denominator in dork terms) includes the contacts of the candidate themself.

So…. Progressives, roughly, contribute 30% of Democratic fundraising & 3/4 of time & effort.

Now…. A question for progressives only…

Out of 200 total percentage points in this equation, do you feel like you’re welcomed as 103/200 of the party?

No.

In fact, progressives often feel like their power constitutes, like, one eighth of the party at best.

Meanwhile, moderates with 97/200 party points insist on control over everything.

This is a failure of democratic governance by the Democratic Party.

In political science, the progressives have a plurality if not a majority. In practice, progressives have a plurality if not a majority. In party politics, progressives are consistently granted less than one quarter of power on the whole, yet constitute over 50% of time and money.

That’s the problem right there.

That’s what burns out new recruits. Not just locally, but everywhere nationally. We are not special humans here. We are not cool in NWI. We are not unique. What you see here in a microcosm of Democratic governance across the nation.

That’s what creates young people who feel unwelcome - because they objectively are. “No no no - you’re wrong! Progressives are welcome! Just as long as they ‘act mature’ and achieve our poltical objectives with their time and money.”

The bargain is broken in our big tent.

While the Republicans welcomed working-class populist sentiment into their coalition, we rejected it. Republicans met the populist moment in 2016. Democrats failed to respond in kind.

So what do we have now? A party of professional class college-educated elitists.

We’re all really smart! Great!

I would suggest reading some de Tocqueville, John Stuart Mill, or John Dewey on the theoretical underpinnings of how this ‘democracy’ thing works.

In 1906, scientist and statistician named Francis Galston came upon an opportunity to test how well regular people were at answering a question. He was at a fair where lots of people were guessing the weight of an ox. The most confident of all guessers were cattle farmers. They lined up in droves to take part in this contest, believing that their expertise lended them an advantage.

Galston decided to take the average of all their guesses and compare it to the correct answer. The average of their guesses was almost exactly accurate. The crowd was off by just one pound.

In classical economics, this is “the wisdom of the crowd,” which outweighs the expertise of one. Today, we call this “crowdsourced information.”

By definition, well educated elitism will not win a democratically contested election. By definition, the elites are in the minority of society.

The wisdom of the crowds will; the solution democratization.

Primary contests. Regular elections. Open meetings. Impartial application of the rules. Full voting rights. Those are concrete examples of democratization.

In my time in the Democratic committee, I have witnessed more overriding of democratic will than I’ve seen the Republicans do. Now… I think they both do so equally - it is a function of power dynamic - but don’t we purport to be better? To be more democratic? Not in my experience.

If we want to win a democratic contest, we must fulfill our own democratic process during our own party’s affairs.

Not to do so is hypocrisy and an infringement on the democratic values underpinning our organization. “Trump doesn’t respect democracy!” True. But do we?

No. So if we want to fix this, the solution is to do the hard work of fulfilling our democratic promise. As long as we play political games, we will lose these political contest because the public isn’t playing anymore.

Jennifer McCormick could’ve taken the easy path. She was the beloved Superintendent of Yorktown schools. She could’ve retired a beloved figure of the Yorktown community and left the rest up to us.

She didn’t have to cross the state for a decade.
She didn’t have to cross party lines.
She didn’t have to jeopardize every personal relationship, rewrite her path, rewrite our path….

Jennifer McCormick did. She did it because she loves public education. She cares - deeply - about the future of this state.

We’re always challenging people to get uncomfortable for the greater good. That has made every great leader in history.

Jennifer has already done it - and she hasn’t even won yet. She’ll be the best Governor we have ever had in our lifetimes.

Go vote McCormick today. Please.

Trump Is Planning a Third Red Scare Donald Trump and his allies aren’t making a secret of it: if they win, they’re going to launch a campaign of repression to destroy the pro-Palestinian movement and the organized left.

The next Governor of Indiana, Jennifer McCormick, addresses Jeffersonville!

Kamala Harris cast the tiebreaking vote to pass the largest cut of emissions by any government in world history to date.

At Penn State, Hillel students organized to desecrate a memorial to the innocent women and children killed in Gaza.

They filmed this, laughing, announcing genocidal slogans to a supportive cameraman, who then edited & posted the footage with pride.

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