nbcmontana.com/news/nation-world/democr…

Much of the DSA's problem (and I've actually met DSA members myself, as a part of my international duties, and talked with them about it) seems to be simply about how many factions the party has and how much of the organization's politics are internal (ie. trying to get one over your rival caucuses by getting your stuff in the program, which usually means that you're proposing something costly just to have a win) instead of external, ie. trying to make a change in the society.

I would guess much of this budget problem is caused by invisible past line struggles leading to weird budgetary choices that can't really be explained any other way. Indeed it's a rule in organizations, as far as I know, that their most inscrutable actions are explained by such internal invisible struggles, often solved by a compromise that makes only sense if you understand the hidden factors. If you're an outside, you can't see the sausage being made and just see the weird end result. Or you get extremist positions in the platform just because some caucus has pushed them to claim a win or try to push their hated enemy (the fucking moderates!) out of the party, or because the party dynamic has simply evolved in such a way that you can't argue against them without exposing yourself to a callout etc.

This sort of an internal focus is also probably an issue of having an organization that's stuffed with, for the lack of a better term, politics nerds - people for whom arguing, making resolutions, having votes etc. is actually delightful and enjoyable and who will thus contribute to it just from the love of game.

Also, it's interesting that, at least according to this reporting, it's member base who are realizing you can't get out of this whole without cuts, whereas the party board (ie the NPC) wants to spend even more money. Perhaps this also reflects that the party board is elected on the base of such line/caucus struggles, ie. its more important to elect people from your caucus and ideological position than ones who actually can tell their ass apart from their elbow.

In the end, they probably can't get out of this hole without firing people. That's going to expose you to mockery, of course, if you're a socialist org, but a lot of other things are going to do that, too. A cynical answer would simply be moving closer to the Dem mainstream, particularly concentrating on emotional "values" issues, since that puts you closer to millionaires with deep pockets who might drop a dime - but that, of course, would also be exactly the mechanic that has been described by countless theorists of how capitalism subverts left orgs.