The Democrats of the FutureOn the other side we have the Democratic party. Many anti-anti-Trump Republicans seem to believe that Bernie Sanders and AOC and CHOP are the Democrats’ future.
And maybe they are. Certainly the party’s far left will do everything it can to take over.
But what evidence is there that the far left will be successful?
Over the last six months we saw:
Joe Biden beat back a well-funded Bernie Sanders who arrived in the race with all of the institutional advantages.To do this, Biden held center-left the line against the three biggest policies of the far left: Medicare for All, open borders, and the Green New Deal.When the George Floyd protests erupted, Biden held the center-left line again, coming out quickly and forcibly against the idea of “defunding” police.Tick back to 2018 and the Democrats who surged to victory in the House tended to be moderates, not AOC-style socialists.
And as for the lawlessness of CHOP—a very liberal Democratic mayor just broke it up.
So while it’s possible that Biden is the last gasp of the center left, the actual evidence we have suggests that, for now, the center-left is in control of the party, both at the grassroots and the elected levels.
Or to put it another way: In order to believe that we are on the cusp of a progressive takeover of the party, you have to assume a number of things that haven’t happened.
Yet if you were looking for evidence that the center-left will remain in control of the Democratic party, say, six years from now, what more could you expect to see right now?
Not a lot.
thebulwark |
