DNC chairman aims for diversity with delegate nominations

[Jim Lane]

165. The right wing that holds power in the federal government

I wrote, "What matters is that, among people who broadly agree with opposing the right wing, there are genuine areas of disagreement." Judging from your link, you apparently misinterpreted me as saying that some of the various Democrats you named are "the right wing". What I meant was that all those people you named ("E. Warren, N. Pelosi, B. Sanders, C. Schumer, and HRC" ) broadly agree with opposing the Trump-McConnell-Ryan crowd (i.e., the right wing).

I then added that, among those people, there are, nevertheless, genuine areas of disagreement. For example, Warren and Sanders want to reinstate some version of Glass-Steagall. During the campaign, Clinton opposed that. I don't happen to know where Pelosi and Schumer stand.

It's not as if there's a football game with one side wearing light jerseys and one side dark jerseys. For example, Cory Booker is usually considered to be farther to the right than Senators like Warren, while still being to the left of Senators like Joe Manchin. Nevertheless, there was Booker standing alongside Warren and Sanders in support of Bernie's Medicare-for-All bill. (See "Bernie Sanders unveils 'Medicare for all' plan with 16 co-sponsors".) There were the Democratic leaders in the Senate, Schumer and Durbin, not standing there and not cosponsoring. In the House, the Conyers bill for single payer has cosponsorship from a majority of the Democratic caucus but definitely not all. And, of course, Clinton famously said that Bernie's plan would "never, ever" come to pass.

So Glass-Steagall and single payer are just two examples of issues where there are disagreements among people who broadly agree with opposing the right wing.

How should the Democratic Party respond to such disagreements? There seems to be a tenor in some DU posts along the lines of: Opposing Trump is very important (I agree); the opposition to Trump will be more effective if we are united (again, I agree); the way to achieve unity is for everyone to the left of Hillary Clinton to STFU, to stop fighting for their beliefs, and to stop putting up any kind of opposition in intra-party matters (I could not disagree more).

Finally, my reference to a Sanders-Ellison third-party ticket was a bit of hyperbole. I don't expect Ellison to do that, and Bernie himself, in 2015, decided to run for the Democratic nomination; in 2016, rejected the Green Party's overtures and instead campaigned for the Democratic ticket; and, in 2017, disappointed the DraftBernie people by not even showing up to receive their petitions urging him to start a third party. What the hyperbole represents is that there will be at least one left-wing minor party in 2020. Unfortunately, it will attract some progressives. There are people who are "swing voters" in the sense that, as of right now, they aren't totally committed to the Democratic Party but also haven't completely given up on it. What the party leadership does, in internal party matters, will help determine whether those people feel welcome in the Democratic Party.