a respected mufo told me something along the lines of "we're so late in the game that our best bet is using DSA's considerable resources toward basebuilding ends". i asked a former DSA steering committee member (who left to help form a better local org) to respond to this idea:

as is always the case in politics, money dictates policy...

...so expecting the DSA's political line to be democratically chosen and not dictated by funding and entrenched national leadership is folly ("the fish rots from the top")...

...but even if DSA's politics were determined democratically by membership, you would need to stop new liberals from joining in order to change its composition, and leadership is hellbent on recruiting said liberals

the former DSA steering committee member's final thoughts to those who aspire to leverage DSA to more revolutionary ends: