No need for Democrats to fear their progressive wing: join it, instead
newsdepo.com
Last Tuesday's primary elections were a near-perfect day for progressives. They won races in Pennsylvania, Nebraska, Idaho, and Oregon. Should this outcome worry rank-and-file Democrats? The answer is a categorical no—and here is why. The progressive wingNo need for Democrats to fear their progressive wing: join it, instead
Last Tuesday's primary elections were a near-perfect day for progressives. They won races in Pennsylvania, Nebraska, Idaho, and Oregon. Should this outcome worry rank-and-file Democrats? The answer is a categorical no—and here is why. The progressive wing is living up to the spirit of the Democratic Party platform. Tempering candidates’ progressive views is not only hypocritical, it also reveals that there is no intent to live up to the party’s stated tenets. When one reads the following in the Washington Post, it’s not difficult to understand why many get upset at those who believe they are ordained to determine the choice of candidates for Democrats. And how did the Post characterize Tuesday's good news? They titled their piece, «The far left is winning the Democratic civil war.» Worse, they subtitled it «Tuesday was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day for Democratic moderates.» And then the preamble to the article: The success of very liberal candidates in primaries across four states is causing a new bout of heartburn among party strategists in Washington, who worry about unelectable activists thwarting their drive for the House majority. But it also reflects a broader leftward lurch among Democrats across the country since President Trump took office. Let's be clear: progressives are definitely not far left. Bill Clinton's Democratic Leadership Council, the DLC, moved the Democratic Party to the right. The fallacy has always been that said rightward move gave us the Bill Clinton presidency. The reality is that President Bill Clinton, the rightward Democrat, never got 50 percent of the vote in either one of his elections. Many will attribute that reality to a fairly strong third-party candidate, and that is hogwash. Americans know that either a Republican or Democrat will win, and make statements with their vote. For example: President Barack Obama, the leftward black candidate in a still-racist society, got more than 50 percent of the vote in both of his elections. During the Obama campaign, smack in the middle of white, working-class America, a canvasser asked a white family who they were voting for in the election. The wife asked her husband (strange, I know) and he shouted, “We’re voting for the n*gger!” This is telling. These people were at the point where they were voting based strictly on their personal economies. It superseded their racism, just like fear breeds camaraderie in a foxhole. Read more