Look, I agree with almost everything in the PAC's platform, so I really would like to come on board. But I think its current strategy model just isn't going to get us there.
First of all, Justice Democrats co-founder Kyle Kulinski recently claimed that the DNC did not rig the 2016 Democratic primary:
"The idea that, you know, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and the DNC, despite how corrupt and grotesque they are, that they've directly hacked into voting machines and directly turned it over to Hillary Clinton, and it was flat-out rigged, as opposed to biased, well, that's just not true."
The problem with that is: if the establishment really does flat-out rig elections, and Justice Democrats doesn't come up with a plan to secure them...
Kulinski not only claimed that the DNC didn't rig the primary but also neither provided evidence to support his claim nor explained away the evidence that suggests it was rigged. Not to mention, how would he even know it wasn't rigged? After all, under normal circumstances, the public isn't allowed to review the software voting machines run on, since it is proprietary.
As far as I know, Kulinski hasn't even addressed this TYT Politics video:
Update
Around half a year after I published this article, this happened:
Then there's Ro Khanna, the first member of Congress who joined Justice Democrats.
Like Hillary Clinton, whom he supported from 2000 to December 2015, Khanna claims to be a progressive. But, like with Clinton, there are more than a few things pointing out that he actually isn't, and Justice Democrats doesn't really seem to mind.
Then, in an interview with Tim Black, Khanna was given the chance to address all of the things I just referred to. After he only addressed a few of them, he was asked, "Is there anything that we left out that you wanted to mention?" But, instead of actually clearing things up, he decided to mention random progressive talking points:
There's also the question of whether or not Justice Democrats's existence makes sense in the first place.
Since Justice Democrats's opinion of a candidate may differ from yours, I think it makes more sense to just directly donate to a candidate you like instead. Plus, this way your donation won't be used to pay Justice Democrats's staff.
Of course, Cenk Uygur is the founder of The Young Turks, so you can even argue that it's hypocritical of him to also be a co-founder of Justice Democrats, as he frequently criticizes the mainstream media for being biased towards certain politicians.
How does Justice Democrats handle the situation?
Instead of welcoming the free constructive criticism, Justice Democrats called it rooting for their failure and arming the enemy.
As of May 18, 2017, Justice Democrats hasn't explained away all of the things pointing out that Khanna is not actually a progressive, and Justice Democrats's platform, website, Facebook page, and Twitter account (1, 2) haven't even mentioned the dangers of electronic voting.
To be fair, when I asked the PAC where it addresses the corruption and election rigging within the Democratic Party, I did get an answer:
That was over three months ago.
Update
The Tweet above is no longer available. But it's archived here. And, as of November 20, 2019, Justice Democrats's platform still doesn't address electronic voting.
Whoever runs Justice Democrats's Twitter account decided to at least mention election fraud in one single Tweet:
As I've alluded to before, I think getting rid of electronic voting machines is basically the most important thing to do if you want to get anti-establishment candidates elected. But, so far, Justice Democrats hasn't really tried to inform people about the need for hand-counted paper ballots. So I'm basically left with three possible explanations for the behavior of the people running Justice Democrats: they're uninformed about the issue, they're willfully ignorant about it, or they're controlled opposition.
Now, aside from the fact that the PAC tweeted it is "quite aware of election fraud," Kulinski tweeted that he read this Election Justice USA report, which suggests voting machines were manipulated in favor of Clinton in the 2016 Democratic primary.
Uygur, too, knows that electronic voting machines are vulnerable to tampering, yet his coverage of this extremely important issue has been quite sparse.
The Tweet was deleted on or around May 15, 2017. It's archived here. No explanation was given by The Young Turks.
Taking into account that Justice Democrats co-founder Zack Exley has worked as a computer programmer, and has also been in politics for a long time, I think it's safe to assume he knows electronic voting machines can be manipulated. But, oddly enough, I couldn't find a single instance where he addressed this, and that's far from the only thing I find suspicious about him (1, 2, 3).
So, since I really don't think the people running Justice Democrats are uninformed about the problem of electronic voting, I'm left with the two remaining explanations for their behavior: they're either willfully ignorant or controlled opposition. Both explanations leave me with the same conclusion: fuck Justice Democrats.
Update
Debbie Lusignan's video was deleted (as was her channel), so now I'm quoting her instead:
'To take back the Democratic Party from within, you have to address the corruption and the fraud. You don't make a Santa Claus wish list to be like: "When we vote them in - even though we can't because they cheat the elections, and it's totally scammed and rigged - then we're gonna have this happy wish list come true." It's magical thinking. It makes no logical sense. And people are like: "Well, your tone's wrong." Oh, is my tone wrong?'
Update
Update
Uygur and Kulinski have left Justice Democrats.
Update
I realized that nanotechnology ballots may become a problem (if they aren't already), so I guess voting by hand-raising is the actual solution to electronic voting.