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Consider this for a moment: If you were 10 years old when the Sanders campaign was derailed by the Democrats, you're 21 now. How much does the typical American 21-year-old even know about that part of recent history? Even still, there were countless people radicalized by what happened to Burnie's campaign, and many became right-wing instead of left-wing. Those people still hold those economic populist values, and Donald Trump capitalized on that in the following years. The Trump Mamdani crossover vote is very real, and so is the Trump AOC crossover vote. There is a common denomimator here, and it is economic populism. Obviously, this is because when the economy takes a nose dive, it impacts everyone on class lines. It's pretty obvious evidence of class warfare.

I doubt it's enough to prevent them voting for Newsom.

I agree with this fully; however, as I said, I take a longer view on this issue. I don't expect these latent conditions to suddenly lead to voters, in mass, rejecting the Democratic candidate for president in favor of someone else. Though there is evidence that voters would simply disengage all together if Newsom is goulish enough. Engaging in electoralism isn't simply showing up and voting. Engaging in electoralism is about building a working-class party that the working class can vote for that holds party lines on working-class intrists and agitates the masses through the parties participation in the electoral system. Sanders does this, but then funnels those agitated masses back into the Democratic Party. He could be redirecting them to the DSA, but he's never shown much interest in the organization, from what I can tell. He could be funneling them into a new, working-class party, but he says now isn't the time.

The DSA, for all its flaws, is one of the largest left organizations in the country that also has a proven record of running working-class campaigns and winning. Their strategy of entryism into the Democratic Party seems to be engendering a growing aversion within the Democratic Party establishment, especially now that the Democrats are becoming more openly fascist. This could, should it continue to be successful, lead to a full separation between the DSA and the Democratic Party. This presents an opportunity within the DSA to pivot into becoming a fully fledged ballot party. The presedental race will be, for a long time, dominated by the Democrats and the Republicans, for many reasons, but not the least because of the way electoralism is structured in the country. Should this pivot to becoming a fully fledged ballot party come to pass, the DSA needs to build its base, and I can think of no better way to do that than with local races for mayorships, govenors, and state legislatures. One of the things that made Zohran successful in New York was their focus on the non-voting class.

Mamdani, 33, was unapologetic, and in his post-primary remarks pointed out that 40 percent of the population in NYC was born outside the US. His primary run as a Democratic Socialist got the attention of thousands of previous non-voters, drastically changing this year’s electoral map. According to a New York Times analysis, about 37,000 people were newly registered to vote for the first time in the recently concluded Dem primary, compared with only about 3,000 newly registered voters back in 2021.

Broadly, young people constitute the largest share of nonvoters, according to Pew Research. Circle has data from 2024 that shows only 9 states had more youth registration than in 2020, and overall, it was a net negative registration of young voters across the country. That would suggest the non-voting class is growing. Yet, when a candidate like Mamdani engages with the struggles these young people see so clearly, he turns out almost two to three times youth voter registration compared to 2021 in some districts.

All this tells me that a working-class party would undoubtably be successful if time and energy were put into building one. It will be a long project, but a project worth engaging in to agitate the masses and raise class consciousness. While youth comprise a large portion of non-voters, since 2008, according to census data, youth engagement in electoral politics is at an all-time high. It tells me that electoralism isn't "politically obsolete." To quote Lenin,

Even if only a fairly large minority of the industrial workers, and not "millions" and "legions", follow the lead of the Catholic clergy---and a similar minority of rural workers follow the landowners and kulaks (Grossbauern)---it undoubtedly signifies that parliamentarianism in Germany has not yet politically outlived itself, that participation in parliamentary elections and in the struggle on the parliamentary rostrum is obligatory on the party of the revolutionary proletariat specifically for the purpose of educating the backward strata of its own class, and for the purpose of awakening and enlightening the undeveloped, downtrodden and ignorant rural masses. Whilst you lack the strength to do away with bourgeois parliaments and every other type of reactionary institution, you must work within them because it is there that you will still find workers who are duped by the priests and stultified by the conditions of rural life; otherwise you risk turning into nothing but windbags.