Kate Aronoff explores the possibilities of a new political party emerging out of the Bernie Sanders campaign, one that is led by millenials and communities of color.
“For Cho, holding today’s politicians accountable is a key part of the democratic process. Just as important, she contends, is to support insurgent ones. “Movements will be movements, and parties will be parties,” Cho says. “We need a movement party that’s decentralized, that many people can identify with, organizationally.” She likens such a formation to the Tea Party- not in its Koch Brothers funding or Fox News cheerleaders, but in the more than 900 local chapters that led to a values-driven transformation of the Republican Party from town halls and church basements.
“Anyone across the country can identify with the Tea Party,” Cho says. The open-source nature of it…that’s something our movements already are. We need to actualize that in a party structure.”
While the politics of this new party would differ significantly from the Tea Party, debates remain as to exactly what form “independent political power” might take: Who is involved? What are its hallmark values and policy platforms? Is it a third party, DNC insurgency, or something else entirely? These questions are bubbling in movement spaces across issues, constituting more of an ecosystem than a consensus. All see this year’s groundswell of ire at the political establishment- on both sides of the asile- as fertile ground for electoral outsiders.