Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
The biggest fight between AOC and party leaders isn't about what you think
The biggest schism is the Democratic Party isn’t “left” vs “moderate”, it’s “aggressive fighting” vs “keep your head down”.
This is a great article by Brian Beutler.
https://crooked.com/articles/fighting-democratic-party/
The question of which theory of politics Democrats embrace—whether they choose to fight or accommodate—carries enormous stakes, both for the immediate task of defeating Trump in 2020 and for what kind of party Democrats will be if and when they return to power.
In the crudest but most profound sense, Democratic fortunes in both the race for the House and presidency will turn on whether Trump enters the contest closer to the nadir or zenith of his popularity. If Democrats can use their powers to make Trump less popular, they will do themselves a huge favor, and on this score, the non-confrontation approach has been a dismal failure. Democrats let over a quarter of the 116th Congress pass without holding a single public hearing with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s witnesses; without filing suit to enforce any of their subpoenas of current or former Trump administration officials; without pursuing any avenues of investigation that might leave them no choice but to begin impeachment proceedings. They let months lapse before finally suing to enforce their much-delayed subpoena of Trump’s tax returns, contented themselves with passing messaging bills that the media and the Senate have both ignored, and the result is that Trump’s approval ratings are about a point higher now than they were on election night last year.
Like any serious phobia, the Democrats’ conflict aversion has left them unwilling to explore a number of critical vistas. When Trump stood behind his first Labor Secretary Alex Acosta in the face of evidence that he’d helped Trump’s old party pal Jeffery Epstein coverup a child-sex trafficking ring, Pelosi said Acosta’s fate was in Trump’s hands. Democrats limited their official response to circulating a petition calling on Acosta to resign.
Democrats have ignored Trump’s habit of pardoning corrupt cronies, and when Trump and his surrogates interfered in the war-crimes case of a Navy SEAL who fatally stabbed a teenage suspected-ISIS fighter, the House was silent. Limiting ourselves only to the supposedly safe realm of health care, Democrats have taken no major legislative or investigative steps to stop or even draw attention to the fact that Trump forced the Justice Department to ask courts to throw out the entire Affordable Care Act.
At a meeting with insurance executives in 2017, Trump’s federal health programs administrator Seema Verma “stunned insurance industry officials by suggesting a bargain: The administration would fund [contested insurance subsidies] if insurers supported the House Republican bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act.” It’s unclear whether this dangling of public funds was illegal or merely corrupt, but moderate House members have shown no awareness of or interest in the allegation that Verma tried to bribe insurance companies with tax dollars to enlist in Trump’s war on pre-existing conditions. In any case, there hasn’t been a hearing on it.
None of this is to say that the protect-the-moderates strategy will doom Democrats to defeat in 2020. The future is murky. All we know for sure is that Trump’s unpopularity—and the intensity of opposition to him—have been defining constants of his presidency.
But an accommodationist approach will have ramifications beyond 2020, stemming both from traps the party has laid for itself today, and from the lessons its leaders will draw from winning while avoiding conflict.
Democrats just agreed to extend the debt limit through July 2021, all but guaranteeing that if a Democrat wins in 2020, his or her presidency will be consumed in its early months fending off Republican sabotage.
In the crudest but most profound sense, Democratic fortunes in both the race for the House and presidency will turn on whether Trump enters the contest closer to the nadir or zenith of his popularity. If Democrats can use their powers to make Trump less popular, they will do themselves a huge favor, and on this score, the non-confrontation approach has been a dismal failure. Democrats let over a quarter of the 116th Congress pass without holding a single public hearing with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s witnesses; without filing suit to enforce any of their subpoenas of current or former Trump administration officials; without pursuing any avenues of investigation that might leave them no choice but to begin impeachment proceedings. They let months lapse before finally suing to enforce their much-delayed subpoena of Trump’s tax returns, contented themselves with passing messaging bills that the media and the Senate have both ignored, and the result is that Trump’s approval ratings are about a point higher now than they were on election night last year.
Like any serious phobia, the Democrats’ conflict aversion has left them unwilling to explore a number of critical vistas. When Trump stood behind his first Labor Secretary Alex Acosta in the face of evidence that he’d helped Trump’s old party pal Jeffery Epstein coverup a child-sex trafficking ring, Pelosi said Acosta’s fate was in Trump’s hands. Democrats limited their official response to circulating a petition calling on Acosta to resign.
Democrats have ignored Trump’s habit of pardoning corrupt cronies, and when Trump and his surrogates interfered in the war-crimes case of a Navy SEAL who fatally stabbed a teenage suspected-ISIS fighter, the House was silent. Limiting ourselves only to the supposedly safe realm of health care, Democrats have taken no major legislative or investigative steps to stop or even draw attention to the fact that Trump forced the Justice Department to ask courts to throw out the entire Affordable Care Act.
At a meeting with insurance executives in 2017, Trump’s federal health programs administrator Seema Verma “stunned insurance industry officials by suggesting a bargain: The administration would fund [contested insurance subsidies] if insurers supported the House Republican bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act.” It’s unclear whether this dangling of public funds was illegal or merely corrupt, but moderate House members have shown no awareness of or interest in the allegation that Verma tried to bribe insurance companies with tax dollars to enlist in Trump’s war on pre-existing conditions. In any case, there hasn’t been a hearing on it.
None of this is to say that the protect-the-moderates strategy will doom Democrats to defeat in 2020. The future is murky. All we know for sure is that Trump’s unpopularity—and the intensity of opposition to him—have been defining constants of his presidency.
But an accommodationist approach will have ramifications beyond 2020, stemming both from traps the party has laid for itself today, and from the lessons its leaders will draw from winning while avoiding conflict.
Democrats just agreed to extend the debt limit through July 2021, all but guaranteeing that if a Democrat wins in 2020, his or her presidency will be consumed in its early months fending off Republican sabotage.