The Democratic Party’s national convention will be scripted as a show of unity. But the divisions between the party’s jostling and impatient factions remain quite real.
The Democratic Party’s all-virtual national convention that begins Monday will be scripted as a show of unity. But the divisions between the party’s jostling and impatient factions remain quite real.
But it also became clear over the conversation that the snarling during the Democratic presidential primary was not a misunderstanding, nor a figment of social media imagination. The competing sides understand each other quite well. If Biden wins the presidency, he’s going to be under formidable cross-pressures. And if he loses, the recriminations about why will be toxic.
“Yes, there’s a constituency coalition-building that needs to occur to win elections. But more importantly, it’s driving you to say, ‘I have a specific solution that you can find credible.’”The collision course with reality is that basically you have Trump come into office and you have farcical elements of inequality. It has brought what I believe was a silent pain and suffering, a suggestion or hints of that corruption, and literally hit you right in the head with it.
“When we talk about the divide between the more conservative or moderates and the progressives, it might be rooted in how the party engages with corporate interests and big money in politics overall.”So, yes, I personally support Medicare for All and the Green New Deal and housing as a human right and fully funding our public schools and a federal jobs guarantee and really pushing the party to work for working-class people and the working poor more than we’ve worked for corporations.
“Some would argue we weren’t bold enough last time we had control of all three branches of government.”Faiz, could you tackle that question of leverage? Conservatives in the Republican Party gained leverage because they were not afraid of directly challenging leaders, whether it’s legislative leadership or the president.A 78-year-old president coming in with a lifetime of public service gets the capstone of his career to define what he wants to do in a really huge moment.
So, I kind of reject this incrementalism because I think this is a false choice. I think the party is not engaged in incremental solutions, for the most part. And I think that there will be a creative tension about whether [Biden’s agenda is] bold enough for some folks or it seems too bold to many other folks. That is what he is going to have to decide. I actually think most people who run for president use their platform as a candidate as what they do when they get into office.
At the Bernie Sanders campaign, we had to deal with that conditioning challenge a lot, despite the fact that you look at every head-to-head poll of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump or Joe Biden and Donald Trump, and we’re performing literally level with him, maybe a point right behind, but right in the thick of it.
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