The Democratic Party functions as a state department, not a real party

Evidence

AOC did insist that in any properly functioning party democracy, Manchin and she would not find themselves in the same party. Yet this wish did not change the calculus in which she was caught. Congressional discipline would reassert itself. The Bernie bloc had consolidated itself precisely due to the weakness of the Democrats as a party, which has revealed itself to be more of a state department than anything else. But this also implied working as a surrogate within the party itself. It allowed Bernites to maintain a critical distance which the Corbynites lacked. But it also put them in a position too close for comfort for a frontal assault. — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment, 324

Categorization

• XREF: Pays off the earlier claim that US parties were never mass parties and now function without democratic backing. — connects to: US parties were never mass parties but functioned as such via civil associations.; Black Southern voters’ party loyalty functions as ethnic cartelization blocking insurgents. — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment: The Left After the…, 239; Political parties can serve foreign powers rather than their own interests — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 683

Broader Connections

• Political parties can serve foreign powers rather than their own interests #exemplifies (0.85) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 683