The Left has started it’s rise and the old school Dems are rolling up their sleeves for the war for the heart of the Democratic Party.
My opinion is it is about damn time….we have suffered long and hard at the hands of the centrist and their greed and corruption.
The party is in the middle of committing political suicide.
A recent New York Times article, “Moderate Democrats Prepare for ‘War’ Against an Ascendant Left,” describes a disturbing perspective among mainstream, moderate, centrist Democrats. It is disturbing for many reasons.
First, there is the practical impact. If indeed mainstream Democrats attack socialist Democrats in a sustained, organized manner, there is only one possible result: the defeat of the Party in 2026 and the renewed vigor of Trump and his MAGA allies. Especially when combined with the all-out effort that AIPAC will mostly take to support Republican candidates running against Democratic candidates who are socialists. (See my article, “The Unscrupulousness of AIPAC.”)
If Party leaders, such as Obama, Clinton, and others, do not speak out forcefully against this misguided effort, the result could be catastrophic for the Party.
But beyond the practical impact, there is the existential impact. Democrats have for years been struggling without success to define what the Party stands for. As I have frequently quoted, after John Kerry lost the 2004 election, former Vice-President Mondale said, “We really need to work on the question of what we are for. Unless we have a vision and the arguments to match, I don’t think we’re going to truly connect with the American people“ And this was after a presidential election—the quadrennial defining moment for the Party!
The Democratic Party lost to Trump in 2016 and 2020, not because of the rabidness of Trump’s MAGA followers or his magnetism, but because the Party had redirected its attention. In modern times, the Party had always been the party of the people, of the workers. And they returned the favor; those were the Americans that provided the multi-ethnic and multi-color coalition that made the Party the powerhouse of American political life for most of the 20th century.
But after Ronald Reagan’s 1980 election, two unrelated things happened that caused the Party’s traditional voting coalition to split. First, in the aftermath of the election, there was much confusion regarding how the Party should regain its footing. At the same time, Democrats started using PACs to direct corporate funding to centrist candidates not tied to New Deal populism and principles and more focused on working with industry. This desire for corporate $, which only increased with time as campaigns became more expensive, had an inevitable policy impact. You can’t seek major contributions from corporations without providing them with access and policy influence.
I agree that the party lost it’s appeal to the working class with the election of Reagan and then it further betrayal in the 90s with Clinton and his embrace of the corporate thugs….and as they say the rest is history.
This, hopefully, will be a good internal conflict….but sadly the centrists and their billionaire backers will most likely win this battle and sadly the people will find little relief from the crush of the oligarchs.
This is so pathetic….the nation deserves something more than a rehash of old policies….
Even a couple of prominent Dems, centrists Dems like McAuliffe and Buttigieg are seeing he writing on the wall…..
First McAuliffe….
Democrats gathered in Texas last week were supposed to be mapping out their 2028 primary calendar; instead, they spent much of the time wrestling with their own growing pains. With the Democratic Party split between energized progressives and more cautious centrists, former DNC Chair Terry McAuliffe delivered a blunt message: Stop “hand-wringing,” quit “lemon-sucking,” and capitalize on what he called the best political terrain Democrats have had in a decade as November’s midterm elections near. DNC Chair Ken Martin, under fire over finances, leadership style, and a leaked “autopsy” of the 2024 cycle, also insisted the focus should be on the elections “in 80 days,” not internal drama, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Tensions still surfaced at the Austin meeting: Black Caucus members pressed Martin for more get-out-the-vote funding—”the money must match the message”—even as party officials touted record investments in Black and Latino outreach and recent fundraising gains. The party remains in the red, with more than $18 million in debt and trailing Republicans’ cash reserves. “Voters don’t care about internal squabbles,” said Reyna Walters-Morgan, a vice chair of the DNC. “What they care about is how are we going to get rid of this administration?”
Then Buttigieg says that getting rid of Donny will not repair the nation….
Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg warned Democrats on Sunday that defeating President Donald Trump would not be enough to repair the country, while Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey cast her reelection campaign as a defense against the administration’s attacks on immigrants, healthcare and LGBTQ+ rights.
Speaking at a fundraiser for Healey at the Gifford House in Provincetown, Buttigieg argued that Democrats must offer voters something more ambitious than a return to the political and economic order that existed before Trump. Healey, one of the country’s first out lesbian governors, told supporters that Massachusetts must serve as a bulwark against the president, and warned that Trump would attempt to undermine the midterm elections.
https://www.advocate.com/politics/national/pete-buttigieg-maura-healey-provincetown
While these two make good points I still do not see the DNC coming up with a viable plan for change.
Do you?
We need to embrace change….we need relief from the out of control capitalism….we need progressive thought and action.
Thoughts?
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”