DSA- backed candidates also wind up being unaccountable to the membership most of the time, because membership in the DSA isn’t required for endorsement and accountability basically begins/ends at the point of endorsement.
Ideally, you want to, yourself, be a member of an organization that fields candidates from within the organization to run on a democratically-decided platform.
Problem is even then, once they get elected they can just nope out on DSA, and since they didn't run specifically on a DSA ballot line but a dem one, DSA doesn't have recourse by pulling them off of the ballot
I hope that changes in the future as DSA continues to grow but it's not quite feasible right now in the congressional districts we backed candidates in. I think for NYC city council there may be a push for requiring membership, at least I will be pushing for it. The chapter is large enough that its city council candidates being backed in this way is viable imo.
DSA- backed candidates also wind up being unaccountable to the membership most of the time, because membership in the DSA isn’t required for endorsement and accountability basically begins/ends at the point of endorsement.
Ideally, you want to, yourself, be a member of an organization that fields candidates from within the organization to run on a democratically-decided platform.
Problem is even then, once they get elected they can just nope out on DSA, and since they didn't run specifically on a DSA ballot line but a dem one, DSA doesn't have recourse by pulling them off of the ballot
I hope that changes in the future as DSA continues to grow but it's not quite feasible right now in the congressional districts we backed candidates in. I think for NYC city council there may be a push for requiring membership, at least I will be pushing for it. The chapter is large enough that its city council candidates being backed in this way is viable imo.