Tribulations of the U.S. Democratic Left

Paul Garver
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The Squad is neither a political party nor a formal caucus, although its members also belong to the larger, more inchoate House Progressive Caucus. Squad members support each other on issues and in fundraising, sometimes together with Senator Bernie Sanders. The post-Sanders campaign organisation Justice Democrats, together with the national Working Families Party and several progressive NGOs, is closely aligned with the Squad. Although several Squad members are also members of DSA and received initial backing from local DSA chapters, DSA is not a consistent ally for the Squad.

DSA membership is becoming an albatross for democratic socialists serving in Congress. DSA is a ‘big tent’ organisation that has grown dramatically since 2016 in numbers and influence, mainly among the generation under 35 years old. Although the impetus for many of its new members was the Sanders campaign, many of them do not support Sanders/Squad politics, including working within the general framework of the Democratic Party. A few thousand new DSA recruits were entryists from existing or defunct hard-left socialist organisations. For them, the growing Squad represents a dangerous political evolution that could help revitalise the Democratic Party rather than contributing to a purely ‘socialist’ or independent third party under hard-left influence.

Campaigns within DSA to break off any alliance with the Squad have taken several forms. ..
 
Published in The Chartist.  A U.K. Focused Magazine.
https://www.chartist.org.uk/tribulations-of-the-us-democratic-left/