Misery Chastain

When archeologists find my skeleton with a "male" pelvis, they will know I was a hot trans woman from my sumptuous feminine grave goods.

to those who think an all member poll would be overly influenced by caucuses and whip lists: a) explain the problem of reaching out to people and trying to convince them b) ask yourself, who is more subservient to caucuses- the NPC and DSA convention, or all members?

Democratic socialists that want to build power through mass politics, join groundwork: groundworkdsa.com/join-groundwork

DSA’s national leadership (the NPC) just voted to overturn our convention & took away rank and file members’ right to vote in an all-member poll on presidential endorsement. The NPC taking away our members’ right to vote while NYC-DSA members send them ~ $2M per year in dues.

DSA tried this with AOC before, and it fell apart in 2024. That June, the NPC awarded her a conditional endorsement three days before her primary, when she had already basically won, and with conditions on Israel/Gaza that she did not meet, which was rescinded within weeks after NYC-DSA’s own steering committee called for a walkback. That episode is our best proof that “move fast and break things” isn’t always “move fast and break clean." Where it becomes problematic is whether AOC’s real ideas, especially on Israel, can help keep an endorsement that isn't immediately being challenged from within. The essay’s endorsement process, a national poll based on 2020, doesn’t solve that; it simply transfers the debate from the NPC floor to the membership floor, where the same fault line will re-emerge on a much larger scale and in a much broader arena. There’s also a premise problem: DSA hasn’t approved a presidential candidate for 2028 yet, and DSA’s own national spokesman has said it’s “too soon to say” who they’d support, even as individual leaders say they’d be thrilled by an AOC candidacy. The vote in April 2026 from NYC-DSA was an endorsement for her House seat, not for president. The narrative is worded as if AOC’s candidacy and DSA’s support for it are givens that merely need a procedural trigger. Indeed, the more contentious topic—whether AOC will run at all and, if so, whether she’ll advocate beliefs the membership will really endorse—is precisely what a rushed timeframe is least well-equipped to accommodate. It’s the 2024 dilemma, played out in the heat of an announcement, with no time for the kind of dialog the piece decries as “navel-gazing,” enthusiasm outrunning verification, followed by a public retraction that costs DSA more credibility than sitting out would have. A stronger version of this argument would stick to the “move first” instinct but pair it with a clear, pre-negotiated framework of conditions—democratically decided now, before an announcement, not as a hurried rider onto the endorsement poll itself—so DSA doesn’t have to renegotiate its own withdrawal publicly a second time. There is nothing wrong with the infrastructure-building argument on its own terms, whether or not it is sponsored by a particular candidate who is not yet a contender. The real issue here is to attach it to a politician who is not yet a contender.

The way DSA engages with the 2028 presidential election is far too important not to give every member the opportunity to have their voice heard. A non-binding all member poll must be part of our endorsement process!!

@aumyric Cool you can oppose endorsing AOC when the org takes up that question. This is about the process for making that decision.

in 2025, DSA voted to unite Labor & the Left to run for President in 2028- so let’s get started! For months, a multi-tendency committee has been crafting a plan to allow members to debate and weigh in on a '28 candidate. Now that plan heads to a vote by the NPC this Sunday!

Well. It has turned out to be embarrassing.

Platner is a example of both the failure of the Dem establishment to field a competent candidate and the consequences of progressive populism untethered from a organization like DSA that can responsibly vet and develop cadre candidates over years to run for office.

@timerube JJ Abrams

morris katz has brought us: 1. john fetterman 2. graham platner but people still think he's a genius because he rode zohran's coattails to the top. there has to be at least ONE other person who knows how to put lens flares in a campaign ad

This is 100% correct. Graham Platner was not recruited or endorsed by Maine DSA or national DSA. He should never have been a candidate, but don't put that on DSA.

@chorizanthe Unfortunately I'll be shocked if we do

I wonder whether any of us who had concerns about Platner's character from the start will ever get an apology from his defenders now that he's been credibly accused of rape by an ex-partner.

All of the people who kept this man in the race for so long after it became clear he was an absolute piece of shit owe the entire state of Maine and the whole progressive movement an apology, to put it mildly.

I never ever ever want to hear the names Graham Platner or Morris Katz ever again.

@thestustustudio Stu, I want to make sure you understand so I will use small words: you have not achieved anything in your life. Your entire career is predicated on harassing people that want to make this country and world livable. You will be forgotten. Nothing you say to me can change that.

On the USA's 250th birthday, Groundwork co-chair Joe W. argues that our history offers both a legacy of shame and a hope of liberation. In order to fight for a better world, the left must develop a conception of the United States that is built out of both.

tried to articulate the tension between my own anti-Americanism, my personal inescapable American-ness, and my defensiveness when Europeans are anti-American. Please read!

take 10 minutes and read this piece by @joeywhitc. Really excellent and moving geesemag.com/articles/a-ref…