NC Triangle DSA condemns the anti-democratic, dishonest attempts of the Democratic Party to block the Green Party from the 2022 midterm ballot.
After the Green Party collected nearly 16,000 verified signatures on a petition to appear on the ballot this year, far exceeding the required number of signatories, the Democrats immediately set out to invalidate this work. Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee contractors, in some cases claiming they were affiliated with the Green Party, canvassed petition signatories to coerce them into removing their names from the petition. Last week, the Democrat-controlled NC State Board of Elections voted 3-2 not to certify the petition, in defiance of the wishes of tens of thousands of voters.*
While the unelected, unaccountable political aristocracy of the Supreme Court strips away our right to bodily autonomy, the Democratic Party exploits this tragedy for its own gain, offering us nothing but fundraising emails and toothless half-measures. Rather than putting their considerable resources into fighting the rising right wing, they smother any grassroots fight that has not been pre-approved by their donors. In doing so, they flout democracy, paying canvassers to harass petition signatories and turning certification of ballot access into a partisan weapon.
The Democrats feel threatened by the possibility of socialists like Green Party candidate Matthew Hoh appearing on the ballot, rightly recognizing that their claimed mandate as a party of the working class is increasingly tenuous. Rather than responding to a threat from their left by fighting boldly for basic human dignity, they engage in dishonest tactics to crush their competition. As socialists, we know why: the Democratic Party’s ultimate allegiance is to oligarchy, and the oligarchy fears working people fighting for our interests far more than they fear any rollback of our rights. Their continued success is predicated on remaining the “lesser evil” for the marginalized and working class while never straying too far from the interests of their big business donors. Any attempt to upset this balancing act incurs the wrath of the party elite who understand the party’s purpose: providing liberal cover for the atrocities of capitalism and our current social order.
This is just the latest example of how limited our so-called democracy is in practice, even when Democrats are in charge: it is a democracy for the wealthy, not for ordinary people, and as such it cannot bring about our liberation. The Democratic Socialists of America aims to build a true democracy: a system where the working class is at the helm and ordinary people have a real say. Our working-class, socialist organization is building a grassroots movement here in the Triangle, by engaging our fellow tenants to take on our landlords, by talking to coworkers in our workplaces to build unions, and by conversing with other transit riders to win fare-free transit. In our democratic organization, neither the ruling oligarchy nor their mouthpieces in the political establishment have any say in how we fight for the interests of ordinary people. To those who seek an alternative to politics as usual, we ask you to join the movement for radical democracy and real change.
*The Green Party is requesting volunteers to challenge the Board's decision. If you were contacted by the DSCC to have your name removed from the petition, you may contact the NC Green Party, which is filing a lawsuit against the State Board of Elections to gain ballot access before November.