Conversion By Infiltration

We need a ready alternative to third-party solutions

Photo by Ritish Jarodia on Unsplash

At the beginning of this week, Democrats did one of the things they’ve truly turned into an art form: surrendered to Republicans without gaining anything in the standoff. For the second time this year, they rallied their voters and disgruntled nonvoters to march, protest, call their representatives and get involved to give them needed leverage in negotiations over Republican demands to pass a spending bill. They held out for forty days and forty nights, only to let the gangway of the ark down, waterlog it and drown their supporters.

This was one of the rare times where the stars aligned in favor of Democrats to move the lever for the benefit of poor and working people. Courts ruled that the SNAP funds held in reserve must be released for the purposes they were budgeted, just like in the past. Yes, there was an appeal made by the White House to the Supreme Court, but would SCOPUS Dei truly rule against feeding the hungry, angry and heavily armed MAGAs dependent on food aid at Trump’s bidding in that political climate?

People who aren’t news junkies and policy wonks, realized that their health insurance premiums were set to spike, with many already seeing new rates double and triple what their policies cost before. Most people understood that House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson purposely wasn’t gaveling in the House, preventing negotiation on a spending solution or swearing in the deciding vote to release the Epstein files. Their orange leader’s polling was in a nosedive and the usual firehose of BS wasn’t achieving its previous thick coverage over the truth.

The nation was only a week removed from resounding Democratic Party wins in elections nationwide, held during that very shutdown. Most notable was the race for NYC mayor won by Mayor-elect and declared Democratic Socialist, Zohran Mamdani. His platform of affordability, freezing rent increases, free buses and affordable childcare resonated with voters in the boroughs. He beat disgraced, credibly alleged, sexually harassing booby-grabber, Andrew Cuomo, in the mayoral primary. This is a big deal. Cuomo is a scion of NY political royalty with broad name recognition. NY has closed primaries, so only registered Democrats can vote in theirs. Generally speaking, it’s the really die-hard party faithful who show up for primary votes. So, Mamdani, a child of recent immigrants, practicing Muslim and proud Democratic Socialist winning over the party’s most loyal core, against a well-known prior governor in the primary, is a shockwave to establishment politicians.

Cuomo ignored the rejection, as he’s allegedly ignored other noes, and insisted on running for mayor anyway. He lost by almost ten percentage points. The energetic, young candidate with proposals to address affordability and focus on improving delivery of government services was the message voters liked. A lot. Seattle elected a new mayor running on a similar platform. Apparently, they liked that message there and in many more places.

None of that mattered. After all of the phone calls, marches, protests, appeals to legislators from both parties to fund the ACA policy subsidies that helped people afford insurance through the marketplace, Dems collapsed like a card table underneath two husky Bills fans doing a Suplex.

True, Minority Leader Jefferies kept the Democrats united in the House against Republican aggression against working people. The number of treasonous defectors in the Senate was seven of them, not all. So, yeah, maybe “not all Dems.” However, I’m still no less pissed at this party. I’ll keep saying it; you can’t present yourself as the true opposition to fascism and oligarchic takeover, but get rolled every time your constituents’ benefits and rights are under threat by the white supremacist reactionaries on the other side.

If the other side can fight tooth and nail to get wins for racists and people so rich they couldn’t run out of money if they never earned another dime, Dems can stand firm for minorities, poor and working people until they get a win. Or at least they should be able to. You’re either fighting for your voters or you’re not, and in my opinion true warriors don’t tap out, they win or get knocked out.

The surrender came again from the Senate, whose minority faction is under the control of the bony, feeble hands of NY Senator Chuck Schumer, bleating limply while looking over his readers. There are many things I could say about this man, and nothing that comes to mind is complementary. I’ll leave it at this: at a time where the Senate Minority needed a brutal, bare-knuckled fighter, he’s not the man for this moment. Far from it.

He’s not alone, though. Sure, he cast a no vote this time, after it was known that he had seven Dems and one Independent to be the turncoats to reopen government and squander voters’ efforts. Yes, it was only seven Democrats who conveniently aren’t up for reelection that saved Republicans from themselves, again. I’m still unconvinced that this little charade wasn’t arranged by Chuck himself. Either way, this party as a whole seems incapable of holding firm to do the things their constituents voted them in for, or fulfilling them after emphasis from all of the tools noted above.

Here is where, in my rage, I would usually say something like, “Throw the whole thing out! Abandon this party of surrender monkeys. These guys all suck and the only solution is a true third party!!” The reality is that this route gets you Nader/Stein-ed, which goes as follows:

Republicans lock up their base with the usual culture war nonsense they seem to be so susceptible to. Left-wingers go for the third-party candidate and the centrists and historically Democratic caucus stay with the Democratic Party. Republicans keep all of their voters; Democrats bleed off some of their voters to the third-party and neither Dems or the third-party have enough votes on their own to win the office. The net effects of all of those actions ultimately give you a Republican win. (See Gore 2000, Harris 2024)

So, I propose a third option. Getting a third party in place in every district and state is a tall order, period. Doing so in time to respond to current threats in time for 2026 is damn near impossible. Instead, hijack the Democratic Party. No, don’t stuff them all in a plane and order it flown to Belize while holding the pilots at gunpoint. I mean infiltrate it and take control like happens in a zombie ant.

The making of a zombie ant is an interesting occurrence. I remembered hearing about it and recently it came to mind again. I hit a wiki page and learned that it’s the result of infection with a fungus. That fungus, Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, infects the ant and then drives it to do uncharacteristic things. The usual victims live inside colonies in tree canopies, but once they’re infected, the fungus drives them out of their colonies and to the forest floor. Why? The temperature and humidity there is ideal for the fungus to proliferate. Then, it drives the ant to attach to the major vein on the underside of a leaf by its mandibles and become a host for the fungus. After a period of days, fruiting bodies grow from the ant’s head, they eventually release spores and after this reproduction process is over, it leaves a dad ant carcass stuck to a leaf with an exploded head.

The Democratic Party as it stands, is no use to the minorities, poor and working people it claims to represent. Left in its current state, it will continue to do the same things and let voters down in the same ways ad infinitum. What if we could make it leave its usual colony and hit the forest floor? I think we can and I make the following proposal.

As seen above, the Democratic Socialist agenda registers with voters. I think it appeals to right-leaning voters too, but the word socialist scares them away almost as quickly as diversity. In those districts, run candidates on a progressive agenda but don’t use the usual labels. Call it working people’s government or something else that sounds even more grassroots, folksy and pairs well with a rural twang. The playbook is there and Bernie Sanders, AOC and now Mamdani showed that it wins. The first two people listed showed it gets a response in blood-red states too. So, rebrand it for Murricah and go.

Flood every congressional district in the nation with candidates running on a progressive working people’s platform and have them challenge in Democratic primaries. If the incumbent Democrat, possibly under the control of corporate interests wins the primary, concede, do what you can to push their campaign to the left and then try again next race. If the progressive wins the Democratic primary, as they did in NYC and Seattle for mayor, they become the official Democratic candidate. Schumer and Jefferies misplayed this at their peril, so from here on out the party has to back the candidate or risk cannibalizing itself. If someone thinks they can try this in their district on the Republican ticket without the racism and religious platitudes, by all means have at it.

I won’t dictate how to direct fundraising efforts but I do think that independent, small donors is the way. That, supplemented by the kind of in-person outreach done by Mamdani and AOC before him, has proven to connect to voters and drive winning results.

This is a grassroots effort so these upstarts shouldn’t look for Democratic Party blessing, approval or endorsement before starting. Go forth and do. Frankly, I’m not sure the DNC’s kind of “help” that way is worth much to candidates lately anyway. Their proposals are Republican-ish, they don’t recognize the urgency of the moment and the slow-and-steady-wins-the-race attitude is turning the usually reliable voting blocs off and away. Enlisting their involvement at inception risks being influenced to “moderate”, which leaves you no different than the incumbent you’re challenging. If someone progressive in a district is interested in wresting government out of corporate hands and back to the people, they should put their names in the mix and challenge.

After the dust settles, some of those primary challengers will win their contests and become the official Democratic Party nominee. It is my view that this offers two advantages. First, the person is the official nominee for one of two major parties in the nation. That prevents them from needing to start a party, explain what it is, its stances, get the party registered to appear on the ballot and get awareness of their candidacy out there. Second, even if it’s a begrudging welcome, they become a member of one of the two largest parties in the nation. They’ll have access to all of the resources a party member is due to help their election prospects after locking nomination, while not being personally indebted to any wealthy donors to get them.

They’ve gone on to the general election and the progressive candidate has won their district. Congratulations!! Enjoy the confetti, accolades and the desiccating flat cake celebrating the win. They’re representing their district, elected on progressive principles, not beholden to some backer of Francis Underwood and can give or withhold support and votes on bills, motions and other actions that provide for and protect working people.

Given how slim the margins of control are in the legislature, even a small sliver of a progressive voting bloc that moves together can force the Democratic party left. It would be a vocal and visible subgroup for Dems, like the Tea Party and House Freedom Caucus are on the right, including the constant media blitzes to sell their points, but without the antisemitic, racist and xenophobic animus those right-wing groups converge around.

Think of how differently proposals in the House would look if “centrist” Dems needed to entice fifteen or twenty true progressives to join their cause. How would that change the calculus in the Senate if three or four Democrats were true progressives? Do those seven members in the Senate still tuck tail and give Republicans a win, if those vocal progressives poison the ground and declare immediately in the media that any Dem who concedes is abandoning the needs of their constituents and every American?

Does this proposal have holes? I’m sure of it. I’m one guy banging away on a keyboard in the middle of the night, not an entire think tank. Are there seeds in this that could sprout the weeds of a Democratic Party takeover, away from big money donors and back to everyday people? I’m confident there are. People adding, tweaking or customizing for whatever corner of the country they’re in can’t do anything but give it the chance to work better and presenting solutions are the aim. We’ve seen what the status quo is getting us and it’s unsatisfactory. It’s nothing at all.