Leid Stories—Discussing the New Democratic Party—02.27.17

The Democratic National Committee held its expectedly raucous winter meeting in Atlanta, Ga., over the weekend, to take care took care of urgent party business. Most importantly, the DNC needed to name a chairperson.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Florida congresswoman who had headed the DNC, was forced to quit last year after DNC emails published by WikiLeaks showed Wasserman was actively sabotaging Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign and supporting her longtime friend and ally Hillary Clinton instead. Party insider Donna Brazile, a frequent political commentator on major media networks, was named interim chair, but when WikiLeaks documents showed that she had passed primary debate questions to the Clinton campaign, she quickly served notice she would not serve her term.

Various factions of the Democratic Party turned up in Atlanta to turn up the heat on the party’s lackluster leadership and to push the new ideas that several new candidates had been campaigning on. But they were outdone. The party machine announced a spectacular “remake” of its leadership to take on Trump and the future: Tom Perez, former secretary of labor President Barack Obama, and Rep. Keith Ellison, of Minnesota’s 5th District, as deputy chair.

Leid Stories discusses these and related developments and their impact on progressive politics.