However, the Democratic establishment is completely opposed to cutting the profits of their corporate funders in the health insurance industry. According to a Fox exit poll, 72% of all voters, not just Democratic voters, want single payer healthcare. This comment sums up the abusive relationship that exists between the Democratic establishment and much of the Democratic base. AOC was clear about the price that is paid for any opposition to the Democratic establishment’s policies in an interview in the New York Times (): “Externally, there’s been a ton of support, but internally, it’s been extremely hostile to anything that even smells progressive.” Standing up to the House leadership will not be easy.
#With friends like these who needs enemies full#
They should have used the debate in the House around nominations to leverage their increased numbers, and it doesn’t seem that they’ve done that in any real way - though it remains to be seen if they will vote for her when the vote goes to the full House. However, with a nine seat majority going forward, the progressives should have every opportunity to force the establishment to negotiate with them.Īnd unfortunately, they’ve already missed one opportunity to launch a struggle against the establishment by refraining from standing one of their own against Nancy Pelosi for Speaker of the House. Without any serious effort to win mass support for their initiatives, the progressive forces disintegrated and the bill passed easily without their additions.
#With friends like these who needs enemies free#
Even in this largely symbolic bill, the House leadership refused to add progressive priorities like a paycheck guarantee to avoid pushing workers onto unemployment, and free healthcare for the duration of the pandemic. An instructive example was the Heroes Act, the second stimulus package that was passed in the House in May, but was doomed in the Republican-dominated senate. This won’t be an easy fight, and the progressives will need to organize in a determined way to see their priorities reflected in legislation. With such a slim majority, it should be far easier for House progressives to organize together and insist that their priorities get into legislation. Notably, Cori Bush, a longtime community activist, was a leader in the protests against the police murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014.Īs of this writing, it appears the Democrats’ majority will be in the vicinity of nine seats. They will be joined in Washington next year by Justice Democrats candidates Jamaal Bowman of New York, Cori Bush of Missouri, and Marie Newman of Illinois, all of whom prevailed in the primaries against longtime incumbents who were solidly in the mainstream of the Democratic establishment. All of the members of “The Squad,” AOC, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Presley, and Ilhan Omar were reelected. With a smaller House majority for the Democrats and more new progressive House members, the debate between progressives and establishment Democrats is set to intensify.
In every swing district where a Democrat who supported Medicare For All was running, that candidate won at least seven right-leaning Democrats in swing districts lost. Unlike Spanberger, AOC brought receipts: an analysis from Justice Democrats and Sunrise showed that progressive candidates got more vote share than conservative Democrats. In the battle that has continued on Twitter and in the pages of the New York Times, AOC and other progressives have argued that it was actually right-leaning Democratic candidates in swing districts who were a liability in the voting booths. electorate is too conservative for the pro-worker program that Bernie Sanders popularized in his presidential campaigns. Progressive congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is leading the left wing of the Democrats in fighting back against the idea that the U.S. This was a thinly veiled attack on the progressives in the House who support Medicare For All, the Green New Deal, and other policies that are broadly popular with working people and youth. On a post-mortem conference call the Thursday after election day, conservative Democrat Abigail Spanberger unleashed a profanity-laced attack on the deadweight dragging down the party: “socialism” within the Democratic party which she alleges turned mainstream voters off from Democratic candidates. With Democratic Party hopes for a bigger majority in the House dashed by a combination of anti-Trump voters who went with Republicans down ticket and 71 million Trump voters, it didn’t take long for the fireworks in the Democratic House caucus to start going off.
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