Indivisible: The establishment freaks out with NY primary wins + getting into election protection formation

Last edited Tue Jun 30, 2026, 01:24 AM - Edit history (2)

https://indivisible.actionkit.com/mailings/view/126186
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Lots more links here. This post is mostly text.

I posted the TO-DO's separately here
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100221338406


Does solidarity politics have to be hard? Call me naive, but I have a super basic approach to electoral politics in a year where a deranged, sociopathic authoritarian is threatening to sabotage the midterms. My strategy goes like this:

1. Support whoever you want in the Democratic primaries.
2. Win or lose, unify behind whichever Dem wins the primary.
3. Crush the fascist bastards in the general.
4. Fight out your disagreements within the Party after the election.

This is so straightforward that we might assume it was common sense among professional political types. Unfortunately, that’s not the case.

Grassroots wins are sparking an establishment freakout. Following the historic anti-establishment primary wins in New York last week -- including both Indivisible-endorsed candidates, Brad Lander and Darializa Avila Chevalier -- the establishment wing of the party is having a public freakout. Rep. Tom Suozzi led a handful of other establishment Democrats to sign a pledge in response to the electoral upsets, spouting Republican talking points about some Democrats being “ashamed of America.”

The signers of the pledge aren’t committing to anything new -- it amounts to a commitment to keep on keepin' on. Every one of them still takes corporate PAC, AI, crypto, and/or AIPAC money. A pledge to "be proud of America" rings hollow when PACs linked to AIPAC dropped $1 million to buy your primary (Janelle Bynum), when you're one of the biggest recipients of crypto money (Don Davis), or when the biggest Artificial Intelligence PAC endorsed you (Josh Gottheimer). That's all technically legal, but it's the kind of purchased influence that drags down the party brand and makes it harder to win in November.

That’s why all Indivisible-endorsed candidates reject this money -- the point of challenging unpopular establishment politicians with grassroots candidates is to demonstrate to voters that the party is legitimately changing. Given the Democratic Party brand is so toxic, working to rehabilitate that brand is just smart politics.

James Carville and the bygone era of American politics. The Suozzi pledge isn’t a sideshow. Famed commentator James Carville called for a breakup of the Democratic Party -- a “schism” -- in response to last week’s primary upsets.

I have to admit, growing up as a southern, rural Democrat I started out as a big Carville fan. Watching the “Ragin’ Cajun” spew real talk about real politics in the 1992 “The War Room” documentary was some of my earliest political education.

Say what you want about Carville -- he has the gall to say out loud what most establishment Democratic politicos only say to each other and their donors in private. Last year, as Trump took office, installed Elon Musk to ransack the government, and steamrolled through Project 2025, Carville’s bold proposal for Democrats was to “roll over and play dead.” That was the unspoken establishment position at the time. And this is the kind of political consultant freaking out now about Democratic primary wins and calling for the Party to fracture.

Fight, then unite. I disagree with Tom Suozzi and the pledge signers -- and also I am not confused that come the general election, the choice is between a fascist party member and some flavor of Democrat. So I support Suozzi in the general because he won his primary, and I support Brad Lander and Darializa Avila Chevalier because they won theirs. That’s the Indivisible way. And that's the only credible strategy if you're serious about taking back Congress this year. Fight in the primary, fight after the general, but in the few months between: unify.

And if you want to be part of a strategic grassroots effort to defeat authoritarians, boy do we have some ideas this week!

In solidarity,
Ezra Levin
Co-Executive Director, Indivisible

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Edit to add. I am posting this verbatim from Indivisible.
I just so happen to agree with the main point, and I have posted on this.

The Democcratic Party needs to be REVOLUTIONARY, not reactionary. That is how we win. PERIOD.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1016&pid=420478
Lots of linked material there.

That POS Trump positioned himself as a "revolutionary" after his media pals painted Dems as "establishment" and convinced people that Biden's Revolutionary Economics and great success was instead a depression.
And by NOT appearing revolutionary in the good sense, we reinforced that mistaken impression.
Even if the platform was.

This was in response to an OP
https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1016&pid=420466

My own TLDR? Progressives are winning, and


When we fight oligarchy, the root cause of GOP rot, we win, if we have the stones to do so.

Compromise gets you what?
Two FUCKING terms for Trump.