Dems’ Centrists scold Progressives

 

Bill Knight column for 11-16, 17 or 18, 2020

 If a pastor announced that annual fundraising would depend exclusively on memorials from late members of the congregation and after contributions fell short he blasted the lack of weekly donations from current churchgoers, the minister would be a laughing stock.

But that essentially happened hours after the election, when Democratic centrists picked a fight with progressives who’d dutifully helped the moderate Joe Biden’s presidential run. The fight is an illogical, unnecessary spat accusing colleagues of complicity in GOP “socialism” attacks and failing to be moderate enough to win more. Such antics about being safe centrists and falling victim to dishonest attack ads spark memories of President Harry S Truman’s defense of the heart of Democratic Party principles.

Truman – an anti-Communist liberal who defeated fellow ex-FDR Vice President and progressive Henry A. Wallace for the White House in 1948 – in May 1952 said, “The people don't want a phony Democrat. If it's a choice between a genuine Republican, and a Republican in Democratic clothing, the people will choose the genuine article, every time.”

Five months later, Truman said, “Socialism is a scare word they have hurled at every advance the people have made in the last 20 years. Socialism is what they called public power. Socialism is what they called Social Security. Socialism is what they called farm price supports. Socialism is what they called bank deposit insurance. Socialism is what they called the growth of free and independent labor organizations. Socialism is their name for almost anything that helps all the people.”

However, in a three-hour post-election tantrum, moderates including Congresswomen Cheri Bustos of Illinois (chair of the Democratic Congress Campaign Committee) and Abigail Spanberger of Virginia blasted progressives, blamed polling, and generally avoided responsibility for not winning more House seats.

Bustos – who as DCCC chair in 2018 blacklisted consultants who worked for progressive candidates – this month barely beat relatively inexperienced Republican Esther Joy King, indicating her claim that she knew how to win in areas that voted for Trump was exaggerated. Bustos said she won’t seek the DCCC chair again.

Hindsight is 20/20, but it’s good more for learning than blaming. And these vocal House centrists apparently are avoiding key lessons, like progressive ideas are pretty popular. Polls show 49% of swing-district voters back a Green New Deal, 53% support Medicare For All and 57% support Black Lives Matter – all with little enthusiasm from more conservative Democratic leaders.

Progressive U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, re-elected in New York, said, “Not a single member of Congress that I’m aware of campaigned on socialism or defunding police,” instead uniting behind Biden. Plus, the House held almost three-fourths of Trump-carried districts they took in 2018, assembling a coalition of young, black, women and working-class people in Arizona, Detroit, Georgia, Philadelphia, etc.

Ocasio-Cortez suggested inferior online strategies and face-to-face organizing were factors, plus Democratic National Committee-picked candidates lacking such savvy or needed skills.

“All five of the vulnerable or swing-district people that I helped secured victory or are on a path to secure victory,” she told the New York Times. “Every single one that rejected my help is losing. And now they’re blaming us for their loss.”

Progressive Democrats including Jamaal Bowman, Cori Bush and Ayanna Pressley had defeated DCCC candidates, AOC reminded.

“If you are the DCCC, and you’re hemorrhaging incumbent candidates to progressive insurgents, you would think that you may want to use some of those [progressive consultant] firms,” she said. “Instead, [they] banned them.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders scoffed at the criticism, too. He said that about 100 candidates ran on a platform calling for Medicare For All and none lost, and he responded to Spanberger and others that “maybe the problem is that the working class of this country did not perceive that you were prepared to stand up and fight for them.”

            In an open letter, six Illinois officials involved with United Working Families said, “We voted for Joe Biden for president in the general election because we choose survival. We defeated neofascism at the ballot box so that we could survive to fight neoliberalism.”

And Chicago consultant Peter Cunningham, who served in the Obama administration, warned whiners and defended Democrats’ Big Tent of ideas, writing, “Progressive leaders such as Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren didn’t translate beyond their base, but they softened the ground for big, bold policies.

“Calm down, Democrats,” he added. “Lighten up on the finger-pointing and policy debates between the moderate and progressive wings of the party.”