Rank & file establishment Democrats continue to show their colors. Neoliberalism is real and it is the establishment of both parties. New York is a good example.
In fact, for some time even as most elected New York Senate politicians were Democrats, a group of Democrats formed an alliance to give control of the Senate to Republicans in 2011. If New Yorkers wanted Republicans running the Senate, they would have elected Republicans.
The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, a Washington, D.C.-based group that works to elect Democrats to state legislatures, said that the six Democrats will need to explain themselves to voters who favored Democratic “values” in the legislature. “The people in New York voted overwhelmingly for Democrats to represent them in the legislature,” DLCC spokesman Daniel Roth told HuffPost. “This gamesmanship goes against the voters of New York. Ultimately they will have to go back to their districts and explain themselves.”
Nationally, Democrats had touted the party’s apparent win of the Senate following the election. Cuomo has been criticized by progressive leaders in recent weeks, who have said that he did not do enough for elected Democratic senators. Cuomo also endorsed several Republican senators who backed his push for same-sex marriage in New York.
I have been following a fairly new story about some changes to qualifying political parties for the ballot in New York for some time,
Recently VOX reported it as follows.
AT A MEETING ON MONDAY, a commission created to implement New York’s public campaign finance system voted to pass a proposal that would make it significantly more difficult for alternative political parties to operate in the state. The proposal would change party qualification rules and, combined with an earlier measure to end fusion voting, is seen as part of a larger set of attacks by state Democrats, led by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, on Cuomo’s nemesis: the Working Families Party.
In doing so, state Democrats go against national party leaders, who have spoken out against attempts by the state party to end the WFP’s ballot line. Both party leaders and the WFP say the change would also build a structural advantage for Republicans in swing districts across the state by eliminating the WFP’s margins and boosting numbers for the state’s biggest minor party, the right-leaning Conservative Party.
And there you go. Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo rigging the game on an ever-growing progressive New York to give an undemocratic advantage to Conservative Republicans and Democrats (read the plutocrats, the corporatocracy.)
In 2018 Democrats took total control of New York’s government. There really was no need to change ballot access. But if you want to rule for the plutocracy, you have got to get rid of your progressive flank, the Working Families Party (WFP).
DailyKos’ Blue Tuesday explains it best.
While the legislature was able to pass some big election reforms, it failed in its effort to get a larger public election financing bill to Cuomo’s desk. That was, admittedly, a major failure, but they couldn’t have known what would come next. They (stupidly) empowered Cuomo and legislative leaders to pick members of a reform commission, which would then recommend a public financing system; the whole process was flawed and opaque from the start, and the group, led by a Cuomo loyalist indeed recommended some devastating new policies.Instead of focusing on the public financing, their real goal is to destroy third parties. In New York, candidates can run on multiple party lines in a process known as “fusion voting,” which helps parties like the Working Families Party stay on the ballot and press change. Right now, they only need to receive 50,000 votes in a gubernatorial election to get on the ballot for another four years, but the new commission proposal would more than triple that to up to 160,000.
Not only that, but according to experts, it would create a built-in advantage for Republicans and their big “third party,” the Conservative Party.
Now, this recommendation has been roundly condemned by just about every major New York Democratic politician, including Sen. Chuck Schumer, who is no bleeding edge liberal.
But so far, Cuomo doesn’t really seem to care — earlier this week, he gloated and tsk-tsked the party, which would fall about 18,000 votes short of ballot placement based on last year’s election.
“The Working Families Party I think would meet that threshold,” Cuomo lied. “You [may] have to work to meet that threshold, but if you’re not working to meet a threshold, then you shouldn’t be qualifying for public money anyway.”
The WFP and other parties are suing, but it’s unclear what will wind up happening — we know that relying on the courts these days is a very bad idea. So the WFP needs to go harder than ever, and to do that, it needs our help.
Don’t be fooled. There are forces that are scared that Americans are waking up and it is manifested in the Progressive Movement. They will lie, misinform, confuse, conflate, cheat, and steal to maintain the reign of the extractive plutocracy. Stay informed and objective with eyes wide open.