With a 52.2 percent favorability rating, Sen. Bernie Sanders is one of the most popular politicians in America. In contrast, the Democratic Party’s favorability is at an abysmal 38.9 percent. Hillary Clinton’s candidacy contributed to the demise of the Democratic Party into the ground, and an obvious solution to revive the party, which Democrats aren’t taking, is to adopt the bold, progressive policies that have won Sanders the support of millions of Americans. However, instead of viewing Sanders and his populist progressivism as a solution, Clinton loyalists are doubling down on the strategies that failed them during the 2016 election.
A Huffington Post article published on March 10 entitled “Memo to the Resistance: Label Trump” went viral. It alleged that debasing President Donald Trump’s character with a slogan like Trump did with “Crooked Hillary” will be the undoing of the Trump administration. In truth, Clinton’s campaign was predominantly run on character attacks; a recent study by Wesleyan University found that Clinton avoided policies in favor of personal attacks to levels unseen in the past four presidential elections. Clinton’s most hyperbolic supporter in the media, Blue Nation Review’s Peter Daou, went on a recent Twitter rant about how the resistance against Trump only benefits him. “It’s risky to assume the righteous uproar from the opposition (#TheResistance), forceful as it may be, has necessarily weakened Trump,” Daou tweeted. “Bannon has explicitly said that the fury of the opposition is perceived as validation of success. FRICTION GIVES THEM TRACTION.” Daou’s signature use of the caps lock button often serves as a forewarning that he is about to spiral into hysteria, which he does in this case, fear mongering about how American democracy is under attack by the Trump administration. Of course, he ignores the subversion of democracy committed by the Clinton campaign through its use of campaign finance loopholes and superdelegates to cinch the Democratic nomination. Daou has repeatedly blamed Sanders and other critics of his beloved Hillary Clinton for Trump’s presidency.
A Politico article published on March 11 further propagated the erroneous claim that Sanders and progressives are a hindrance to the Democratic Party’s recovery rather than its solution. In regards to the 2018 elections, establishment Democrats are already complaining about “purity” tests from progressives; they argue that moderate candidates will perform better in states that lean Republican. However, this strategy has repeatedly failed the Democratic Party, which runs Republican-lite candidates and then wonders why they can’t win elections. “When there is no difference between the candidates, Democrats don’t vote, and Democrats lose,” wrote former Rep. Alan Grayson for Huffington Post in 2015, citing the Florida Governor race between Republican Rick Scott and Charlie Crist, a former Republican turned Democrat. Scott won the election, in part due to poor voter turnout. “When we put up a pseudo-Democrat or a neo-Democrat or a quasi-Democrat or a semi-Democrat for Team Blue, our voters are not amused. They are not fooled. And we only hurt ourselves.”
Georgia State Senator Vincent Fort, an Our Revolution backed candidate for Atlanta Mayor, echoed a similar sentiment in an interview with Politico. “What people have been talking about… is 2017 and 2018 are part of a whole, that we need a progressive mayor elected in Atlanta in 2017 as a prelude to electing a Democratic governor in 2018,” Fort said. “We need a progressive Democrat running in 2018, somebody who understands that trying to be Republican-lite is not a way to get elected. … I anticipate this playing out in the primary, I know progressives are going to say, ‘Which of the candidates is a real progressive? Which candidate can we depend on to remain progressive?'”
In 1952, Harry S. Truman explained the dynamic that Democrats lose when they shift to the center: “When the Democratic candidate allows himself to be put on the defensive and starts apologizing for the New Deal and the fair Deal, and says he really doesn’t believe in them, he is sure to lose. 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; that is, they will take a Republican before they will a phony Democrat, and I don’t want any phony Democratic candidates.”
The Democratic Party cannot afford to continue to favor moderate, politically palatable candidates over candidates who sincerely stand for policies that champion working, middle class and low income voters. The rift within the Democratic Party isn’t a tribalistic one along the lines of Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton supporters; progressives are vying against establishment Democrats to move the party in a direction more in line with the needs of American voters. The elitist status quo has yielded nothing but empty campaign promises, unbridled corruption and political dysfunction.
