In a letter to the editor, Jersey City Ward D council candidate Jake Ephros, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, gives his take on why “independent political power” is needed in the wake of Donald Trump being elected president again.
Dear Editor,
The Hudson County GOP chair, Jose Arango, recently wrote that “liberal progressive policies” are detached “from the priorities of working people.”
But working class people in Hudson County, in New Jersey, and across the country are winning policies that the GOP will never champion and the Democratic Party itself often fails to lead on.
Arango writes in response to Dan Laine, whose recent letter rightfully criticizes a rusted, corrupt political machine that has dominated Democratic Party politics locally since the times of Frank Hague.
Arango’s call for ordinary people to join Donald Trump’s anti-union, anti-choice, anti-immigrant Republican Party is perverse. But he is right that we cannot simply get rid of dirty machine politics and expect a people-powered Democratic Party.
Rather, both major parties are dominated by corporate interests, and the working class deserves independent political power of our own.
While Trump swept the election, many of his voters also cast ballots to raise the minimum wage, protect abortion access, and legalize marijuana.
Despite Hudson County’s dismal turnout for federal-level Democratic candidates, working people in Hoboken commanded a massive three-to-one victory defending their rent control, beating back the corporate landlord lobbyist Ron Simoncini and his Mile Square Taxpayers Association.
When workers see tangible, material concerns on their ballots, we often know just how to vote. But the Republican and Democratic Parties alike spend egregious sums of money to confuse, distract, and divide voters with focus-group-tested messaging.
Many small donors aside, GOP and Democratic candidates are significantly funded by many of the same corporate donors, from real estate giants to AIPAC lobbyists.
None of this is to discount the work that Democratic activists did on the ground to try to prevent another Trump presidency.
Knocking doors, having tough face-to-face conversations, making endless phone calls—this is all the grueling work of people who believe that we’re better off without a fascistic demagogue like Trump in office.
And it’s a great thing that activists in New Jersey have put up a formidable fight against the restrictive ballot line.
Unfortunately, the Democratic Party establishment would rather take in vain the hard work of on-the-ground activists than take the kinds of bold positions workers deserve.
Where is the Democratic Party’s commitment to overwhelming popular programs like Medicare For All? Where is its commitment to overwhelming popular demands like an immediate ceasefire in Gaza?
Where is its commitment to raising capital gains taxes on the biggest corporations, rather than its 2024 proposal to lower them?
Maybe when insurance companies, weapons manufacturers, and finance giants have no more influence over Democratic Party politicians, things will change. But it keeps choosing to react to the GOP’s lurches to the right, by also lurching further rightward itself.
This is the structure of our two-party system: both the Democratic Party and Republican Party establishment need each other as mutual boogeymen, and will violently resist any independent party trying to wrest away some of the electorate.
It’s a disgrace that the Democratic Party in Hudson County and across New Jersey has long operated in its notoriously corrupt fashion. But it isn’t enough to clean house locally.
All the deals and compromises made among the top brass of the national party trickle down to even the best-intended politicians who try to make progressive inroads; even they will find themselves constrained, needing endorsements, and exchanging favors.
We deserve independent political power—independent of corporate donors at any level, and rooted in real working class politics, not GOP genuflection.
Only through independent political power can we address key, local issues like making housing a human right, getting resources to students in our public schools, winning great public transit and other public services, and passing pro-worker, pro-immigrant policies that expand democracy in the community.
We can build that people power together.
Jake Ephros
Jersey City Ward D council candidate
“Where is the Democratic Party’s commitment to overwhelming popular programs like Medicare For All?”….says Jake Ephros. It’s these types of statements that show how ignorant and dangerous these socialists truly are.
Most of the revenue to the healthcare system comes from private insurance provided by the business community. It amounts to trillions of dollars. So, when fools like this say “Medicare for All” how is it to be paid for? The UK finances their subpar healthcare system (the NHS) with an 8% payroll tax. So, fools like this hippy would save the business community trillions of dollars a year while transferring the cost onto the workers they profess to care about.
What are that person’s pronouns ?
My favorite thing about this guy personally, is he claims he is pro-palestine, and then decides to run against one of the only palestinian electeds on the entire east coast.
Typical white liberal behavior.
Democratic Socialists of america. thats jusy sounds like nonsense.your a sociaist atleast own it
Go back to the burbs little boy
Jake Ephros,
You misspoke when you erroneously said that Democrats want to lower existing capital gains taxes. Neither your party, nor the Green Party can ever effectively challenge the Republican Party like the Democratic Party, from the Greek, Power of the People. But what your faction sadly does do, is cost Democratic Presidencies, as the Green Party directly did in 2000 and 2016. Nader received more votes that Bush, Jr.’s margin over Vice President Gore in Florida AND New Hampshire. Stein received more votes in PA, MI, and WI than Trump’s margin over Clinton in those three states. This cycle, the Green Party cost the Democrats a U.S. Senate seat in Pennsylvania. I am a damn proud, Progressive Democrat. What you sadly don’t get, is that the average American voter is slightly right of center. That person would certainly choose the Democrat as his second choice, rather than your Democratic Socialists or the Green Party. Come back in the fold, Jake, and help us stem the tide of Trumpism.