Member-only story

After what happened in Buffalo, I don’t want to hear ‘vote blue no matter who’ again.

The democratic party doesn’t want unity. They just want the left to bend.

Lauren Elizabeth
4 min readNov 4, 2021
Reuters/Lindsay DeDario

With everything going on and all the frustration associated with American politics, every once in a while it’s been not only welcome but necessary to see a small glimmer of hope. A little something that might restore the dwindling faith in electoral politics that seems to be getting us nowhere. In Buffalo we found it with India Walton, the first socialist in decades winning the democratic primary and primed to become the mayor.

Of course, the powers that be decided they would not have it.

After incumbent mayor Byron Brown lost the democratic primary to Walton, he immediately responded by launching a well organized write in campaign that he coordinated with the right wing, and spending — of course — massive amounts of money. A write in campaign that resulted in his re-election even though he lost the democratic primary, and India Walton losing.

I never, ever want to hear “vote blue no matter who” again.

Imagine if the roles were reversed.

Imagine if it was India Walton who had lost the primary against incumbent Byron Brown, and decided that she was not going to accept defeat but would rather steamroll him and align with the right than allow Brown to win. Imagine if it was Walton who had decided that she didn’t feel as though respecting the results of the primary was necessary. Imagine if it was Walton who decided to undermine the results of the primary in an effort to serve her own interests.

Or better yet, imagine if it was Bernie Sanders.

Imagine if Bernie Sanders had not accepted the results of the 2016 primary and decided he was going to launch a mass write in campaign. Imagine if Bernie Sanders decided he didn’t like that Hillary Clinton won, so he decided that he did not need to accept defeat. Imagine if Bernie Sanders had decided that the primary was beneath him, and he would fight to get in office no matter the cost or the will of the voters.

The democratic party organizes better against the left than it ever has against the GOP, and it would be…

--

--

Lauren Elizabeth
Lauren Elizabeth

Written by Lauren Elizabeth

Lauren is a writer & leftist with analysis on topics related to politics & policy. She can be reached at LaurenMartinchek@gmail.com or Twitter @xlauren_mx

Responses (49)

Write a response