Evan Barker, a former progressive campaign organizer, grew up in a union household and joined the Democratic Party because it represented the working people. Around 2016, many of her family members started switching parties. Barker joined the Bernie Sanders movement because he was anti-establishment, not a proponent of open borders, and less strict on guns, but he changed too. She left the party after the 2024 Democratic National Convention. She then wrote a book, Nothing Left: Confessions of a Democrat Operative.
Her Journey
Barker noted tht union workers saw the open borders as the greatest scab operation in history. The aliens coming in illegally took their jobs and brought down wages. The progressives abandoned the working class and said they can’t win them back. The working class doesn’t support socialism or open borders.
Mrs. Barker explained that many of the people in the movement are very wealthy and want socialism, which working people don’t want. Then she saw Bernie’s wing was taken over by luxury beliefs, DEI, and a visceral hatred of men.
She doesn’t believe in DEI and then was told she had to take a DEI training because her mannerisms were problematic. Barker didn’t know what that even meant.
The bumper sticker party
The Democratic Party became the party of culture issues, no substance, the anti-Trump party, and they seemed to dislike ordinary people. Everyone was drinking the Kool-Aid. They saw no problem with torpedoing Biden’s campaign and anointing Kamala Harris. It marked a turning point for Evan Barker, away from the party.
They believed they could browbeat the public into accepting their policies. The adherents claimed the moral high ground but never explored their own policies, remaining superficial. It was like bumper stickers, she said. No one digs into how to make it work. For example, with Medicare for All, they never considered the root issues, like there aren’t enough hospitals and doctors, and the costs are very high, so how do we make it free?
The staffer class
She said there is a Democratic staffer class who are far more progressive than the politicians they work for. They come from the coastal areas, and their parents are professors, lawyers, and donors, and they live in a blue bubble. The staffer class pushes politicians to do what they want them to do. The Democrat establishment is captured by donors, staffers, and its base. [We have seen that with the RINOs and even some who aren’t RINOs. Many hire Democrat or very liberal young staffers.]
Since the newcomers were novices in things like fundraising, Justice Democrats set up training through the Movement School. The purpose was to build an alternative parallel structure inside the establishment. It became the DSA. DSA isn’t what you think. It is a constellation of firms, coastal billionaires, and big donors who support this, including George Soros. She predicts they will overtake the party.
She wants Democrats to return to the party they were and believes two parties are good for the country. Evan believes this is why Donald Trump won a second time.
— Nicholas Giordano (@PasReport) October 1, 2026
Watch the full clip here. The The PAS Report, hosted by Professor Nicholas Giordano, a political science professor and national commentator.