Curt Ries is an organizer and Democratic Socialists of America member, and the former national texting organizer for the Bernie Sanders 2020 campaign.
Joe Manchin’s blocking of the Build Back Better Act is maddening. But it was only possible because we live under a deeply undemocratic political system and are stuck with a Democratic Party still dominated by corporate interests.
Bernie Sanders lost in large part because we lacked the strong working-class and leftist institutions needed to defeat the establishment. Key to rebuilding those institutions is waging more class-struggle electoral campaigns and ramping up rank-and-file labor organizing.