There’s been a lot of discourse lately about what the “Democratic Party” should be doing — especially in the wake of Zohran Mamdani’s defeat of Andrew Cuomo.

But here’s the thing: the “Democratic Party” isn’t some unified entity. It’s not a monolith.

At the local level, the Democratic Party is a mix of:
* a small group of sincere true believers acting in good faith;
* a larger group of former true believers who’ve stuck around long enough to grow more cynical, but still believe meaningful work can be done;
* a handful of genuinely toxic figures who cause constant problems but remain influential because no one has figured out how to get rid of them; and
* mostly, it’s just a ton, a ton, a ton of staffers trying to play the game, climb the ladder, and find purpose in it all — in the same way you might feel fulfillment leveling up in a video game.

As you move from the local level to the state and national levels, the already dominant presence of game-playing staffers becomes even more overwhelming — and they’re joined by significantly more money, power, and ties to the corporate elite.

That’s why figures like Zohran Mamdani, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Bernie Sanders talk about the “rigged system.”

The Democratic Party didn’t become what it is because someone sat down and made a clear, conscious decision — like choosing what to eat for dinner.

So yeah, it turns out the green-haired social justice warrior from 2010 screaming that “this is the inevitable consequence of a system designed to screw people over” was kinda right.

Which means here are some paths forward:
* People can try to build powerful political structures outside the Democratic Party.
* People can try to radically transform the structure of the Democratic Party so it’s no longer dominated by careerist staffers and corporate-aligned politicians.
* People can work to achieve broad-based, mass (lowercase “d”) democratic participation so that we don’t have to rely on the Democratic Party at all.

Personally, as someone who still identifies as a former true believer turned more cynical — but still holding on to the hope that meaningful work can be done — idk.

But I do know this: yelling at “the Democratic Party” to just make better decisions isn’t going to get us anywhere.

Turns out, 18-year-old, green-haired me screaming that “the system is bullsh*t” was accidentally correct.