Their recent electoral thumping has Democrats distraught. "That was a cataclysm," exclaimed Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.). "Electoral map wipeout. Senate D pra
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Their recent electoral thumping has Democrats distraught. “That was a cataclysm,”
exclaimed Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.). “Electoral map wipeout. Senate D practical ceiling is now 52 seats. R’s is 62.” As a result, prominent Democrats from former Democratic National Committee Chair Donna Brazile to Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) have
declared that “the Democratic Party needs to be rebuilt.”
As much as this sounds like unified messaging, Democrats are divided over how to rebuild the house. Politico
writes that “Centrist Democrats are revolting” from the party’s leftward sprint.
“The progressive wing of the party has to recognize — we all have to recognize — the country’s not progressive, and not to the far left or the far right. They’re in the middle,”
protested Joseph Paolino Jr., a DNC committeeman for Rhode Island. Pennsylvania DNC member Cindy Bass
echoed the sentiment, “I’m not interested in anyone who is moving further away from the center. The center is where we have to be.”
Readers may be surprised by the suggestion that there are centrists in the modern Democratic Party, which so often marches in lockstep. Indeed, as far as political records are concerned, these so-called centrists apparently went along with nearly every cockamamie scheme of the far Left. What apparently makes them “centrists” — at least in their own understanding — is that their heart was never in the agenda for radical social change.
Now, these fair-weather centrists have found their voice after radical leftism led Democrats to their worst electoral showing since at least 2004, if not 1988. At least for a moment, centrism appears politically savvy. “The one way to beat a right-wing populist is through the center,”
suggested Third Way executive vice president for public affairs Matt Bennett. “You must become the party that is more pragmatic, reasonable and more sane. That’s where we have to go.”
Centrist-leaning Democrats stress the party’s history as a coalition of working-class Americans. “I don’t think the party has fully embraced, and hasn’t for decades, really, working-class people,”
complained Laborers’ International Union of North America chief Brent Booker. “A lot of our [union] members own guns. A lot of our members hunt.” The top concerns Booker heard from union members this year were inflation, immigration, and the Keystone Pipeline, not culture-war issues like abortion.
A few Democratic elected officials have uttered specific criticisms of their party’s culturally radical policies. Rep. Greg Landsman (D-Ohio) recently
criticized “folks on the far left who alienate a ton of people,” particularly on transgenderism. Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.), who won reelection in a battleground Long Island district by two points, complained that Democrats have suffered by “pandering to the far Left.” For instance, he said, “I don’t want to discriminate against anybody, but I don’t think biological boys should be playing in girls’ sports.”
Can you imagine a Democratic member of Congress criticizing boys in girls’ sports as recently as October? How an election can shift the cultural winds!
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