The Fault Line in Democratic Politics

[Passages]

For the moment, it is not ideological; it’s about whether you’re willing to take a risk.

by David Dayen March 15, 2025


After Kamala Harris’s loss last year, professional Democrats with moderate politics prepared for their favorite quadrennial sport: recrimination. They wanted to “take back” the party from the self-imagined villains they oppose. They wrote manifestos and donor memos and positioned themselves against “the groups.” Just a couple weeks ago, they organized a retreat where they condemned “ideological purity tests” as their path to a brighter future.

I’m struck by how irrelevant that all sounds, less than two months into Donald Trump’s second term. It feels like these people are arguing about proper salad fork etiquette while their house is on fire. There’s a much more elemental question animating Democratic politics at the moment, if you bother to listen to people who still call themselves Democrats (or even independents): is the party in opposition to Donald Trump going to oppose anything?

We saw this week what in retrospect was a predictable answer to that question. House Democrats, who face voters every two years, who must pay attention to the public mood, saw the government funding deadline as an early and important moment of defiance against the ransacking of America. They didn’t come to it on the basis of being progressive or moderate, in a safe seat or a swing district. They listened to their voters, who were looking for some sign of life among Democrats, or a plan to staunch the bleeding of an economic and moral collapse.

https://prospect.org/politics/2025-03-15-fault-line-democratic-politics-schumer-AOC-fight/

[Think. Again.]

1. These "moderates" have been damaging our Party for years...

...from what I hear from Progressives, they are the reason every other liberal who isn't a "centrist" has a negative opinion of the Democratic Party, they are way too divisive and intolerant.