Money and Consultants: The Underrated Cancers in the Democratic Party

Money in politics is the root of all evil.

After 1,000 lost legislative seats, after a $1 billion dollar campaign for the “most qualified” candidate loses to an Orange Frankenstein the DNC themselves — in tandem with the Clinton campaign — were so foolish as to prop up, one has to ask themselves:

Why are the Democrats doubling down on the tactics which failed them?

As wealthy donors continue not to feed the DNC’s coffers, one wonders: why do they keep staying such a morally and financially bankrupt course, even if it isn’t paying like it used to?

You would think that a party who genuinely wanted to resolve their issues and win seats again would have immediately had a full and proper autopsy. You would think they’d have been begging the most popular politician in the country for his leadership and guidance in genuinely rebuilding the party — rather than, to this day, scorning that he “isn’t a real Democrat!” You would think they’d have immediately purged failing staff from the top (not progressives from the Rules and Bylaws Committee) and, at the very least, embraced the optics of meaningful change with a prospective DNC chair like Keith Ellison.

But no — instead, we got Tom Perez pushed in under Obama’s orders, a rigged DNC chair race, multiple other suspicious DNC state races (pharma lobbyist Bauman in CA comes to mind), failures to support and even attacks on progressives, and innumerable other calamities — as though robbing America of a (fairly likely) Bernie Sanders presidency in 2016 wasn’t bad enough.

Corporate money looms large. It underpins much of why we can’t have nice things — things most Americans support.

But why continue to chase such money when you aren’t receiving much of it anyway? After all, Bernie Sanders proved in 2016 that running on popular ideas — rather than corrupt super PACs, strangulation by triangulation, and unyielding incrementalism — can truly bring in millions of small dollar donations. Over $200 million for a presidential primary, in fact.

There are other factors and influences in play —prayers for self-funded oligarchs to choose to run under their “more reasonable” banner, as well as Hillary Clinton still making “in kind” contributions to the DNC and multiple state parties in 2017.

But the other truly massive, under-discussed boat anchor sinking the Democratic party? The consultant class.

$800 million went to five consultants to help Hillary’s campaign in 2016.

One factor directly leading to the DNC’s financial ruin and subsequent protection racket by the Clinton campaign? Per Donna Brazile:

The party chair usually shrinks the staff between presidential election campaigns, but Debbie [Wasserman-Schultz] had chosen not to do that. She had stuck lots of consultants on the DNC payroll, and Obama’s consultants were being financed by the DNC, too.

More recently, a Democratic Party consultant — Sally Albright — was discovered to have been operating a network of fake accounts on social media for an “unnamed client.” How many other consultants are out there, engaging in or supporting similar behavior for the sake of protecting the status quo?

Many of them happen to be employed by the same firms who conduct lobbying activities. If that isn’t a walking nightmare of conflicts of interest, I don’t know what is.

How can a consultant who works at a firm who lobbies for fossil fuel companies ever encourage the party to embrace a ban on fracking? How can a consultant who works for a firm that lobbies for the pharmaceutical industry ever encourage the party to embrace prescription drug reimportation? How can a consultant who works for a firm that lobbies for defense contractors ever encourage the party to pare back on interventionist, perpetual warfare? How can any consultant who works for a lobbying firm ever encourage the party to embrace strengthened campaign finance laws which would shut out lobbyist influence?

And if the consultant doesn’t work directly for a firm with a contrary interest, it is far too easy in the DC bubble to be friends with and work with those who do — fostering a subculture and mindset that sympathizes with such interests over those of the working class.

Consultants are, often, to the donor class what the dubious “financial advisor” is to a bank — people who generate the flowery appearance of looking out for your best interests, when in reality, they are only looking out for themselves and their employers.

And so it all circles around, right back to the root of all evil — money in politics.

It is not in the interests of these consultants to step outside the DC bubble. It would not be in the interests of these consultants to suggest the party simply embrace popular ideas most Americans support, as can be evidenced by polling data. It would not benefit themselves, nor their employers, to suggest the party reject corporate, super PAC, and lobbyist cash and move to a grassroots, small-donor model. It would literally put them out of work to suggest Democrats instead “consult” grassroots activists and regular people directly, on-the-ground, and face-to-face in all 50 states.

Instead, these consultants spin and promote absurd fairy tales to anyone whose loyalty hasn’t already been fully purchased by the nearest special interest.

“Courting small-dollar donors is unrealistic. Either you get some of the corporate cash or the Republicans will get it all!”

“Don’t listen to the far left! You don’t have a chance in red states that way!”

Little wonder, then, why the establishment is desperately trying to get you to think Bernie Sanders is a terrible, narcissistic monster who “slammed Obama” rather than a man whose message and unabashedly progressive agenda is being heard and supported — even in the likes of Jackson, Mississippi.

The consultant class would never admit to this flaw in their fairy tale— they would prefer to keep money flowing to themselves and to their firms, while keeping the Democratic party lost in the political wilderness — in search of a gravy train that will never arrive.

1,000 lost legislative seats, rigged primaries, a comically out-of-touch message of “lesser-evilism,” scapegoating Russia and various other shiny keys over a full, internal autopsy, absurdly secretive accounting books at DNC HQ, rejection of policies most Americans support — all of these and a million other issues have been the rewards of continuing to cling to these old consultants and donors.

These twin, chained boat anchors— of special interest donors, and of the consultants who work for their lobbying firms — are sinking the Democratic party into a death spiral, and risk taking all the state parties with them.

Perhaps it’s time for progressives to demand a few more “purity tests” and “ponies” as we interlopers seize power both inside and outside the Dem apparatus in the fight for a new vision for America. Perhaps it’s time to purge the useless, out-of-touch consultants from the party, in addition to cutting off lobbyist bribes (on top of mere “corporate PAC” donations).

No doubt the Republican party will welcome them with open arms.