The Indianapolis 13th District City Council Race Part 3
What is the Democratic Socialists of America?
Jesse Brown, the Democratic Party candidate (“Meet Jesse Brown, Marxist Indianapolis City Council Member-Elect”) for the Indy CCD 13 election race was endorsed by The Democratic Socialists of America. So, who are the Democratic Socialists of America?
In an article about Congress member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on the World Socialist Web Site, author Paul London does a deep dive into the far-Left origins of the DSA and its evolution into an organization with ties to the Democratic establishment.
Ocasio-Cortez and the DSA are carrying forward their pro-imperialist, anti-communist traditions into the 21st century. Their main role, as expressed in the interview, is to serve as gatekeepers of the bourgeois political left, channeling social opposition into the Democratic Party and placing its left opponents beyond the pale. Those who fight to mobilize the working class (“class essentialism”) for a break with the Democratic Party are “cynical bad faith actors” who want to “destroy.”
But the frenzied tone of these McCarthyite attacks betrays a high level of anxiety in leading Democratic Party circles over the growth of social opposition to conditions of massive inequality and the ruling class’s response to the pandemic, which has killed over 550,000 in the US alone. Under these conditions, Ocasio-Cortez and the DSA serve as the keystone in the architecture of the capitalist political system. This is a lesson of the reactionary role played by the political tradition that calls itself “democratic socialism,” which really has nothing to do with socialism at all.
Readers may recall that Representative Ocasio-Cortez ran from the Left against an entrenched, powerful mainstream Democrat and won. Since she was elected her politics have evolved to the point where they are not too different than her predecessor. Ocasio-Cortez recently endorsed Joe Biden even as the Biden administration approved sending cluster ammunition to Ukraine.
How likely would Jesse Brown evolve into an establishment Democrat? Will Mr. Brown adopt the political outlook & manner of Indy Council Vice President Zach Adamson, who Mr. Brown defeated in the Democratic primary?
Reddit user “naptownjbrown” who I am assuming is Jesse Brown, cast himself in the role of crusading reformer, referring to Mayor Joe Hogsett in a 2-month-old Reddit post as “Boss Hogsett” and that “Hogsett is attempting to create a Daley-style spoils system and is not motivated by values or policies as much as loyalty.” — Spicy stuff, right? … well, maybe not.
My prediction is this; as we’ve seen with his fellow DSA politician Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, Jesse Brown will very likely fall in line with the establishment and pledge his loyalty to “Boss Hogsett”. All will be forgiven as Council Member Brown is given his assigned role as a useful cog in the machine.
“The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."
-George Orwell, Animal Farm.