Democrats Built a Big Tent; Can They Keep It?
Yes, from the WSJ, but Jerry Seib is a well thinking individual who do not spout RW rhetoric and, based on recent threads here, he has a point.
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(snip)
Whats more striking, though, is the breadth of the coalition that drove Democrats. Crucially, the party avoided being torn between traditional Democratic moderates and a newly assertive progressive wing. Progressives provided a lot of energy, and some of the partys new stars, but moderates won a lot of races. Third Way, an organization that promotes centrist Democrats, says moderates were responsible for flipping 23 of the Democrats new House seats.
(snip)
All this has potentially giant implications for the 2020 presidential campaign. A broad Democratic coalition that remains strong in the partys current home turf on the coasts but also rebounds in its onetime strongholds in the industrial Midwest stands a pretty good chance of blocking President Trumps re-election. IF. If, that is, Democrats can avoid plunging into a civil war between their insurgent progressive wing on the left and those moderates in the center who performed well last week.
Democratic on the left thinkwith some justificationthat the real energy in the party, in 2016 and since, has been provided by the progressive supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders. Certainly progressive activists tend to provide the energy and money in the early stages of the presidential primaries. The danger is that by moving hard to the left in 2020, Democrats could lose their grip on those centrist and moderate voters who came their way this year. Democrats are renting those voters for now; as they learned in 2016, they dont own them.
That means some big debates lie just ahead for Democrats. Everybody agrees health care was the most powerful issue the party had this year. Moving toward 2020, does the party embrace a dramatic move to a Medicare-for-all, government-dominated health system, or go the more incremental route of improving Obamacare? Does freeing up money for education and infrastructure mean ditching all the Republican tax cuts or just trimming them? Do Democrats really want to abolish the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency?
https://www.wsj.com/articles/democrats-built-a-big-tent-can-they-keep-it-1542037487 (paid subscription)
Bfd
(1,406 posts)Yawn..
zipplewrath
(16,646 posts)This is all right wing wording. Just a simple rewrite undermines the whole point. (changes in italics)
msongs
(67,441 posts)lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)Do away with "tax cuts?" Please - it's a tax HIKE for nearly all voters. It's a cut for billionaires. Repeal and replace it with something decent.
marylandblue
(12,344 posts)Some Democrats won by running against Pelosi, which is odd, but since it worked , they aren't going to be so easy to control. I am assuming Pelosi will through them some bones to stay in power, but other getting Pelosi out, what do they actually want?
zipplewrath
(16,646 posts)That will drive everything they do. Pelosi knows that and will work with them.
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)The biggest priority between now and 2020 should be reining in Trump and trying to undo at least some of the damage he's caused...
question everything
(47,534 posts)but then, he also used to be pro-choice and a Democrat and, perhaps, sane..