Time for Real Substantive Change

Why the Democratic Movement Must Start Moving

The disconnect between Democratic leadership and the grassroots has reached a breaking point. While mainstream voices on television urge everyday people to protest, those same voices retreat to comfortable chairs, plush studios, and limousines—well-fed and well-paid. Meanwhile, the foot soldiers of reform get nothing but sore feet, harassment,  jail time, suppression and the bitter taste of watching their ideas co-opted without credit or compensation.

The Exploitation of Activism

For decades, the masters of subterfuge have been instrumenting ways to misrepresent real minority voices. The party elevates the demure, meek sycophants, those who stand only for what benefits their bottom line. True activists for truth and justice remain in the shadows, unrewarded and unrecognized. If the Democratic Party truly wants to represent working-class values, it must make activism for truth attractive!

Deaf Ears at the Top

The party leadership doesn’t listen to its foot soldiers. There must be immediate change in course. The grassroots are demanding that establishment politicians step down immediately and be replaced with younger voices and different strategies. We need approaches designed to meet this urgent moment, not recycled talking points and performative politics.

The Myth of the “Good Guys”

Let’s stop perpetuating the lie that Democrats are simply “the good guys” who know what’s best for everyday working-class people. The uncomfortable truth is that the party has abandoned the working class and is actively suppressing diverse opinions and strategies within its base.

The evidence of this failure is all around us:

• We’re losing the fight for the environment
• We’re losing the battle for public schools
• We’ve lost affirmative action
• Women’s right to choose has been severely compromised
• Campaign finance reform has been abandoned
• Even Obamacare is gradually being dismantled

The Democratic Party has lost the plot. It now runs on fake principles, increasingly resembling a more subtle version of the Republican Party it claims to oppose.

The Need for Authentic Alternatives

You can’t build a movement on principles that contradict your stated ideology. If the rallying cries of Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez represent genuine desire for change, then it’s time to break up the duopoly and create a viable third party, not just another recycled version of establishment politics with new branding.

I don’t support Republican Ideology but at least Republicans are transparent about what they stand for, and they financially support their base. Democrats, meanwhile, hide behind the “good cop” façade while constantly asking average and poor income people for more donations. All while quietly supporting the same systems of white supremacy they claim to fight against.

Make It Attractive to Be a Democrat

The party should invest significant resources in truth-tellers of goodwill. Make it attractive to be a Democrat through action, not just through complaints about the opposition. Most people see the current strategy as just more bluster, a rallying tour of bombast and posturing with no real substance. 

Where is the movement? Why aren’t the old establishment figures stepping aside as we’ve repeatedly requested?

The Coming Crescendo

Democratic leaders have been absent as decades of progress have been undone with the stroke of a pen. The blood and sacrifice of grassroots activists past and present is being dishonored. If the Democratic Party doesn’t respond to its base soon, they risk watching their supporters turn against them, potentially even assisting in their complete decimation in the court of public opinion.

Minorities are gradually dropping their blind loyalty to a party that has continuously lied to them. Many are realizing they could easily become subject to the same treatment as Palestinians, with no meaningful recourse from Democratic leadership. The uncomfortable truth is that the Democratic Party is just as complicit in systemic racism as the Republican Party. The U.S. Gov’t couldn’t have sustained these systems alone without Democratic complicity over the years.

A Call for Authentic Action

It’s well past time for the Democratic Party to show what it truly stands for, not just with words, but with money, actions, and by listening to what the base demands. The clock is ticking, and the crescendo of chaos approaches.

If we want to believe that real change is possible, we need to see that change begin within the party structure itself. We need:

1. Democratic leadership to financially support grassroots activists and amplify authentic voices, not just the “acceptable” ones
2. Establishment figures must step aside for younger, more diverse leaders with fresh strategies
3. A commitment to genuine progressive principles, not watered-down compromises
4. Transparency about the party’s own complicity in systems of oppression
5. A willingness to consider breaking the two-party duopoly 

The moment for incremental change and empty promises has passed. We stand at the precipice of transformation or destruction. The choice is clear: embrace authentic, substantial change now, or watch as the movement collapses under the weight of its own unfulfilled promises. The time for listening is over. The time for action is now—before we reach that final crescendo of chaos from which there may be no return. The Balls in your court what ya goanna do, hit some jump shots or keep missing layups.  ~Balance Due