How To Radicalize The Democratic Party

Why the internet won’t move the party left but filling seats will.

The internet loves to yell at “the Democrats,” usually meaning the national brand and a DC set of corporate-friendly centrists. Meanwhile, national approval for Democrats has been stuck in the low thirties, and the doom loop starts with complaining about “the DNC,” assuming it’s an untouchable cabal, and ends with them doing nothing.

For regular Lone Star Left readers, this isn’t a Texas story. In general, Texas Democrats know that our base has been electing young, progressive leadership (i.e., James Talarico, Jasmine Crockett, and Greg Casar), while our state party has been decentralizing power and passing the most progressive Democratic Party platform in the country. Oh, and for those who were asking, the Spanish outreach DID pass at the last SDEC meeting.

No, this is about the national party ecosystem, who actually holds the keys, and how ordinary people can radicalize the institution from the ground up. Because if I have to listen to one more viral rant or see one more social media post that starts with, “The Democrats,” I might lose my mind.

First, let’s demystify the DNC.

Recent bad take: Guy was complaining that he thinks the DNC has consistently moved right since the 90s. I told him, “Then we should radicalize the DNC.” He said, “You can’t. That’s literally impossible.”

The first thing you need to know is that the DNC is not the convention. Y’all remember the DNC, Lil Jon sang, Hasan’s uncle broadcasted, and Hasan was there. It was a big TV show, and then everyone went home. The convention and the DNC aren’t the same thing. The Democratic National Committee is the boring-but-powerful machine that runs the party between conventions, budget, rules, strategy, and what gets funded and what gets buried. You know, like, any resolutions regarding Gaza.

Who votes? A few hundred DNC members, chosen by state parties, along with state chairs, vice chairs, representatives from allied caucuses, and constituency groups. Real people. With names. Who meet. Who raise their hands.

Where does anything actually happen? Quarterly meetings. There’s a general session for speeches, but the real work is in committees, which include Rules & Bylaws, Resolutions, and Budget/Finance. Most fights are won (or quietly killed) in those rooms, or even earlier, inside your state party, long before DC press ever tweets about it.

Why should you care?

If you want the party’s message, rules, or money to move LEFT, the lever isn’t a quote-tweet dunk. It’s WHO your state sends to the DNC and whether they show up organized, with votes in hand.

Get the right people in those seats, line up your votes, and you’ll move the center of gravity. If you want the DNC to be more progressive, it’s up to each state to elect more progressive members. Of course, now you’re probably thinking, How do I do that?

How do people actually get those seats?

The state party is the pipeline. Full stop.

Your state committee, whether it’s called SDEC, SEC, DSCC, or whatever, chooses most of the DNC members. That means if you want to shift national votes more to the progressive side, progressives have got to win the state committee first. Win the state, win the DNC.

How do you get there? Precinct conventions. County conventions. Then the state convention. That’s where committee members, officers, and national delegates are chosen.

Is it thrilling? No. But one million and one think pieces on how the Democratic Party, a.k.a. the DNC, needs to move left won’t solve anything. If the droves of leftists, or progressives, or whatever the cool kids call themselves in states that aren’t Texas (because I found out it’s not all the same), are serious about wanting to move the DNC left, this is the route they have to take. Every county chair that gets filled, every delegate you organize at state convention, is one more lever you control when it comes time to send people up the ladder.

Officer and committee elections follow rules set out in advance, so don’t show up clueless. Build your slate early, whip votes like it matters, and get endorsements from the caucuses that carry weight, including labor, disability, veterans, rural, Black, AAPI, Latino, LGBTQ+, and environmental. Those are the people who can turn out votes in the room.

The bottom line is that the road to “national” runs through your county and state. If your state party is mid, fix that first. And yes, I’m looking at a lot of blue-state leftists who are loud online but won’t even bother to show up at a county convention. You want the national party to change? Stop doom-posting and start filling state chairs.

Oh, what’s that? It’s all about capitalism? Funny, this Gallup poll last week said 68% of Democrats see socialism in a favorable light. The fucking answer is right there.

Besides, pushing your state party more progressive in the long run will only make you happy. 😁

Instead of complaining and then doing nothing. Actually, do something.

Texas is having its next state convention in 2026. I would assume the rest of the states are too, but I’m not looking up every single one. So, you have to look up your own state if you don’t know it. Recruit your friends, convince your local DSA chapter to get involved, start a PAC, whatever it takes for you to start building those coalitions statewide, in every district and county. I’m writing you from Texas, so don’t tell me that’s a big task.

How did Texas become more progressive? It all started with the Texas Progressive Caucus, who were actually made up of members of the state party who were more progressive than the party in general. They launched in 2022 and quickly became the Texas Democratic Party’s (TDP) biggest caucus by membership. Then, in 2024, the TDP held its SDEC elections, which:

• 80% of candidates endorsed by the Texas Progressive Caucus won.

• 34% were under the age of 41.

• 60% of the SDEC was supported by the Texas Progressive Caucus (endorsed and recommended).

Then the TDP passed the most progressive Democratic platform in America. The TDP Wikipedia page even says, “the Texas Democratic Party was the first among all states to call for a ceasefire in Gaza.” Of course, that progressive transformation wasn’t really complete until this year, when the TDP elected a 35-year-old, millennial, progressive State Chair, who has started out hitting the floor running.

Some will say, “But this is the TDP’s first real election under the progressive chair and progressive SDEC members, how do you know 2026 will be a good year for Texas Democrats?”

I don’t do prophecies. But the trajectory in Texas is up because the inputs changed. So, lord willing and the creek don’t rise.

However, the specifics may vary by state. The powers that will enact it in each state will have to determine the details. Know your state party like the back of your hand. Who’s on the county exec committee? Who’s on the state exec committee? When are elections? Where are the bylaws? Put everything on one sheet of paper, including a contact list. If you can’t draw the org chart, you can’t move it.

You want power? Fill the damn seats. Then move it left.

But the DNC is moving right and losing its base.

Some national figures have drifted right. But they drift because the inputs never change. The same state party votes, the same DNC members, the same committee chairs keep showing up, year after year. If you want a different outcome, you don’t whine about the outputs. You swap the inputs.

The numbers are right there. Polling shows Democrats warming to socialism, softening on capitalism, and holding strong support for progressive planks. That’s mainstream. Tie those numbers to material wins people actually care about, like rising wages, affordable rent, and healthcare that doesn’t bankrupt you, just like Zorhan Mamdani is doing.

And guess what, Mamdani is running as a Democrat. The rules are that way in New York, Texas, and possibly in your state as well. Don’t get hypnotized by the noise. National rhetoric isn’t destiny. If your state flips its delegation and sends six, eight, or ten progressive DNC members with an actual plan, you will move national dynamics faster than a thousand viral stitches on TikTok.

Maybe you’re the right person in your state to make it happen.

A note to the very online left.

There was a recent Gallup poll that said 68% of Democratic voters see socialism in a favorable light. (If I didn’t already mention it.) Maybe if you spent less time scolding liberals about dialectical materialism and more time talking to them in terms they understand, you’d find you have more in common than you think.

Y’all have been talking about a revolution for ten years. Whelp. If you can’t wrangle together 50 people for your Decolonial Praxis Bookclub, then how are you ever going to gain political power?

And that’s the disconnect. Online, it’s all insurrectionary anarchism this and historical materialism that. Offline, most people want to know why their rent keeps going up and their wages don’t. If you can’t bridge that gap, you’re not building a movement.

So what does “radicalization” actually look like in practice?

It’s not a theory, it’s the boring stuff. Start with the bylaws. Make primaries neutral and stop tipping the scale. Make appointments transparent by opening them up instead of handing them out in a backroom. Push for open or expanded primaries where it makes sense. Make ballot access easier for challengers and local candidates. Pass anti–dark-money planks that actually have teeth. And end the pay-to-play vendor culture.

Finally, build the pipeline. Train people, mentor them, place them, and repeat the process. The DNC ignores hashtags. It listens when states send fighters who already have wins under their belt.

The path is straightforward but not glamorous.

Precinct chairs → county committees → state bylaws → DNC member slates. That’s how power actually moves. It’s how the center slid things right, and it’s how you slide them back. Fill the seats, count the votes, change the rules. That’s the work.

• November 4: Constitutional/TX18/SD09 Election

• Who Will Be On The 2026 State Ballot?

• Who Will Be On The 2026 Federal Ballot?

• Click here to find out what Legislative districts you’re in.

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