Neither do men put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish-Matthew 9:17
What brings AOC and that issue to mind this week was her resounding defeat Thursday for a seat on one the most powerful, and hence coveted, committees in the House of Representatives.
Some brief background: There is no "membership" in the Democratic or Republican parties. There is party affiliation, the only indicium of which is voter registration. Like sexual identity, you are what you call yourself and you can change. A red wine today may have been a white wine yesterday and may be a merlot that once was a chardonnay tomorrow. Mx. Take Donald Trump: Republican (1997), Independence Party of New York (1999), Democrat (2001), Republican (2009), no party affiliation (2001), Republican (2012). Won the presidency in 2016 as a Republican. Majority owner of GOP since.
Take Bernie Sanders. Liberty Union (1970), no party affiliation (1978), Democrat (2015), no party affiliation (2017), Democrat (2019-2020). Ran hard for president as a Democrat in 2015-16 and 2019-20.
Which brings us back to AOC: Democrat (2018 is the earliest year) and Democratic Socialists of America (ditto). AOC won election to Congress in 2018 by defeating an incumbent Democrat. One reasonable criterion for a party gate-keeper to have if membership is a desideratum is "do not commit fratricide", but the parties have never had that as a criterion, that, in fact, is why God invented "primaries." You're allowed to eat your own. Except when you're not.
AOC has been pain in the assholes to Democratic leadership in congress, viz:
-Has been told, in so many words, to mind her manners by Grandma Pelosi.
-Has not minded her manners. Was the catalyst that pushed Pelosi to start impeachment proceedings against Trump when Pelosi really didn't wanna.
-Endorsed challengers to incumbent Democrats in 2020.
-Gets the cold shoulder from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
-Called out Rep. Conor Lamb of Pennsylvania by name for not effectively using social media in his reelection campaign, which Lamb won.(?)
-Has been criticized by other Democrats and by pundits for the Party's abysmal showing in congressional elections in November; Fires right back and accuses them, like Conor Lamb, of responsibility for the losses. Has recently called for Pelosi in the House and Grandpa Schumer in the Senate to be replaced.
None of that is a fireable offense since she is not a "member" of any party that has the power to fire her, but she is a member of Congress. Members of Congress vie for plumb committee assignments. Getting plumb committee assignments requires a modicum of kissing the plumb on senior members' backsides and AOC don't do that.
She also doesn't pay dues. Literally. There is some congressional thing or whatever, maybe the DCCC, that elected Democrats are supposed to pay dues to. Both of these reasonable criteria for exclusion were voiced by other congressional Democrats when it came time for voting on who of two New York congresswomen would get the committee assignment. AOC took the silver medal 13-46.
The Party Decides is the most unfortunately titled book in American political science history and the most quickly "obsoleted." Shelf life: 2008-2016. The Party don't decide shit because there is no membership, no privileges to membership, no punishment for lack. See wines above. Democracy in America is not conducted on the parliamentary model where the party decides. DIA is bottom-up not top-down. Should there be membership with criteria? which is, like, the subject of this post. The downside to not having either is cataclysmic. See Trump. So I think there should be.
My criteria however take account of the rules of democracy in America and the manner in which the game is being played currently. The Democratic Party and the Republican Party are not suitable vessels to hold the current polity. Democracy and anti-democracy are. AOC emphasizes the "Socialist" in her self-label "Democratic Socialist" and that's okay, she's on the pro-democracy vector.
But the old pro-democracy Republican Party has ceased to exist. Anti-democratic authoritarian vinegar has been poured into the vintage GOP bottle and it has broken and the vinegar hath runneth out.
Anti-democrats cannot politically exist in a democracy. The authoritarian uses the democratic vessel only to steer it to a new land, anti-democracy island. The election of an authoritarian, as Hitler in 1939, is the last election. Therefore, to be entitled to participate in democracy at all, and at any level, that is, as voter, activist, candidate, I propose an oath. To register to vote one should have to take the Democracy Oath, the money shot of which would be something very close to,
"I solemnly swear that I will engage in no anti-democratic actions by word or deed and that I accept unconditionally the democratic processes that they who receive the most votes govern and that they who do not do not."
Violation of the oath would be a fireable offense.