A Faux Centrist Distraction Is the Last Thing Needed Now
Once the President and his quislings end their desperate flailing about the election results, the Democratic Party and the Biden/Harris administration will have to get stuff done.
From what I can see, Trump is leading a campaign to torch the remains of the existing federal government with the aim of making the business of actually running the country as difficult as possible.
A collateral benefit --which explains Republican support for the doomed-to-fail election fraud legal assault-- will be to create a rationale for legislative gridlock based on questioning the legitimacy of the Biden/Harris win.
This gives Republicans a win-win-win situation.
They get a platform for obstructing repair of the damage done over the past four years; they don’t get held responsible for failures of the executive branch; and Donald Trump stays afloat financially and politically as the leader of a government in exile.
(The fine print in the multiple daily fundraising emails for Trump’s defense says much of the money is being used to retire campaign debt.)
I think the prospect of an opposition inauguration is more likely than the takeover/coup by loyalists currently circulating on social media. Who needs the headaches of running a government when you can build an unlimited grift machine and neutralize the opposition?
Now would be the time for a large number of human beings of the conservative persuasion to exhibit some decency, and I don’t think it’s going to happen.
Unless something changes radically in course of politics in the coming weeks, the hand wringing in the media about “centrist” Democrats vs. “leftist” Democrats will be for naught.
None-the-less, I can’t let this ginned up controversy go by without comment because it points to the biggest weakness in the party.
Exit polls of voters just about completely debunk the mythology being promoted by RINOs, washed up TV hosts, and pundits who take themselves too seriously.
Here’s an inconvenient fact: data show that Democrats in swing districts lost vote share as they moved further and further to the right.
Somehow, an interview of Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez by the New York Times where she pointed out the various tactical (not ideological!) mistakes made by the Democratic Party leadership is being held up as an excuse to rally moderates against a radical takeover.
The leadership and elements of the party — frankly, people in some of the most important decision-making positions in the party — are becoming so blinded to this anti-activist sentiment that they are blinding themselves to the very assets that they offer.
I’ve been begging the party to let me help them for two years. That’s also the damn thing of it. I’ve been trying to help. Before the election, I offered to help every single swing district Democrat with their operation. And every single one of them, but five, refused my help. And all five of the vulnerable or swing district people that I helped secured victory or are on a path to secure victory. And every single one that rejected my help is losing. And now they’re blaming us for their loss.
So I need my colleagues to understand that we are not the enemy. And that their base is not the enemy. That the Movement for Black Lives is not the enemy, that Medicare for all is not the enemy. This isn’t even just about winning an argument. It’s that if they keep going after the wrong thing, I mean, they’re just setting up their own obsolescence.
What this controversy was all about was an attempt by corporate-sponsored politicians to derail policy proposals they know the public supports. The more PAC support a congresscritter has, the more likely they are to be espousing this crap.
The Democratic Party’s failure to win some down ballot elections is, we’re told by the likes of CNN’s Chris Cillizza, the fault of the ambitious programs proposed by progressives.
Here’s Julie Hollar via Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting telling some truths:
As the New York Times‘ Jim Tankersley (10/14/20) reported just last month in an unusually frank assessment of the popularity of left-wing ideas, the right’s wall-to-wall attempts to bring down Democrats with the “socialist” label haven’t been very effective, despite Cillizza’s suggestion to the contrary. That’s in part because Biden and other centrists deny them so forcefully, but in part because “many of the plans favored by the most liberal wing of Democratic leaders remain popular with wide groups of voters, polling shows.” Tankersley pointed to a recent Times poll that found 2 in 3 respondents support a wealth tax, 3 in 5 favor Medicare for All (including 2 of 3 independent voters), and even higher numbers support free college tuition.
The Green New Deal is likewise broadly popular: One poll specifically of swing House districts (YouGov/Data for Progress, 9/19) found that respondents supported the idea by a 13-point margin, 49% to 36%—even when informed that it will cost trillions of dollars.
And with some races still not called, it’s safe to say that Medicare for All and the Green New Deal didn’t sink the Dems. Ocasio-Cortez pointed out (Twitter, 11/7/20) that every Democratic co-sponsor of Medicare for All in a swing district won re-election. And Gizmodo‘s Brian Kahn (11/9/20) found that of 93 Democratic incumbents who co-sponsored the Green New Deal—including five in swing districts—only one lost their race.
I’m not saying that every Democratic candidate has to swear allegiance to AOC and “the squad.” I’m saying that it’s a mistake to run against the ideas they espouse. Sometimes silence is golden. Or even being for something else.
So take the talk about moderates vs the left wing of the party with a huge grain of salt. As I’ve said elsewhere, Democrats and Biden/Harris need to go BIG, even if they lose a few battles. Not standing for something or being an incrementalist is not a viable political strategy at this point in history. And it's a terrible opening stance for any negotiation or compromise, if such things are even possible anymore.
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Lead image by Teddy Österblom on Unsplash