What's More Important To You-- Being A Progressive Or Being A Democratic Party Person?

NOT a Democrat

I don't know much about Bill de Blasio, New York's new mayor, but most everyone tells me he's a progressive. In her excellent piece in yesterday's Atlantic, Molly Ball compared him to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, an ambitious, centrist corporate Democrat. Both are good on iconic social issues that define the parameters of what's a Democrat in New York, of course, but Ball reminds us that Cuomo thinks his career will be best served by cutting taxes and de Blasio understands why the rich have to pay their fair share. "You could hardly get a better illustration of the current tribal divide in the Democratic Party," she opines. "Call it what you want-- liberals versus centrists, populists versus the corporate wing-- but these days, there's no doubt there are two different breeds of Democrats, both in elected office and in the activist grassroots. Along with Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, de Blasio has been hyped as the avatar of a new, more boldly progressive Democratic Party that discards the timid moderation advocated by the party's old guard in favor of a frank, take-no-prisoners crusade for higher taxes and bigger government."

She also makes the point-- her main point-- that progressives are anything but in control of the Democratic Party. Coincidentally, this morning I was talking with Marianne Williamson, a lifelong progressive Democrat who was raising money for President Obama as recently as a year ago but who has switched her registration to independent or, as we call it in California, "decline to state." She's running for Congress as an independent and has been sounding incredibly like Bernie Sanders, another independent who caucus with-- but doesn't kowtow to-- the Democrats. I didn't write it down and I hope I get this right, but one thing Marianne told me that stuck with me today was that progressive Democrats will increasingly have to ask themselves "which is most important to me, the Democrat part or the progressive part?" Certainly in her race (CA-33) the serious progressive is someone not towing the line with the Democratic Party and she's up against two fairly garden variety Democrats, a decent liberal state Senator and, Wendy Greuel, a conservative former-Republican careerist who stands for nothing whatsoever beyond her own lust for power. Progressives in Los Angeles rejected her sleazy bid for the mayoralty last year. This year they may have to consider electing an independent progressive to beat her-- the way Vermont Democrats voted against Democratic candidates to elect and reelect independent progressive Bernie Sanders to Congress.

Ball reminds us that "the Democrats' liberal faction has been greatly overestimated by pundits who mistake noisiness for clout or assume that the left functions like the right. In fact, liberals hold nowhere near the power in the Democratic Party that conservatives hold in the Republican Party. And while they may well be gaining, they're still far from being in charge." The Republican wing of the Democratic Party-- Wendy Greuel's wing-- is the wing with immense access to special interest cash. Republican strategists who understand there are some blue areas they can never win with actual Republicans, are busy financing conservative shills from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party-- something happening right now in a huge way in the corporatists' mania to replace progressive icon Mike Honda (CA-17) with shady conservaDem Ro Khanna. And there's a similar dynamic in the PA-13 primary, where progressives have lined up behind state Senator Daylin Leach and conservatives are backing Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky, who, like Khanna, has pledged to cut Social Security if elected-- just what Republicans are most eager to hear.

The misimpression that the liberals have taken the reins of the party has become widespread. To take just one representative example: "The mainstream of the party has now veered back toward its more populist and pacifist instincts," Yahoo News' Matt Bai wrote Thursday, characterized by "outright contempt for the wealthy and for conservatives generally." Like others who embrace this analysis, Bai draws the conclusion that this will be an obstacle to the presidential prospects of Hillary Clinton, who is perceived as hawkish, establishmentarian, and friendly to corporate interests.

Many Democratic insiders minimize the party's divide. They note that there's broad ideological agreement on social and cultural issues, from abortion and gay marriage to gun control and immigration. National-security and foreign-policy questions have the power to divide but are no longer litmus tests. Even on economic issues, the party generally speaks with one voice: in favor of universal healthcare, against reducing safety-net programs, for progressive taxation and government-driven economic stimulus. Neera Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress, told me in an email that the Democratic Party just doesn't get hung up on internecine battles these days. "I believe that it's a big-tent party that can and should accommodate centrists and liberals," Tanden said. "That ideological purity has not been a winning strategy for the other side."

She's right, but the Democratic Party is in the shitter as well. Fewer people identify with the party than in decades and the best thing most people can say about Democrats is that they're usually better than Republicans. The current crop of professional Democrats are a disgrace and they have dragged the party's brand into the dirt for the sake of their own sleazy careers. For every Alan Grayson or Keith Ellison or Barbara Lee, you get ten Steve Israels, Steny Hoyers, Joe Crowleys, Debbie Wasserman Schultzes... Just about the party's entire House leadership team under Pelosi is so bad and so corrupt that no one in their right (progressive) mind would want to see them ascend to power. Blue America, I'm happy to say, finds independent-minded progressives and we do our Best to help get them elected to Congress. Check out this cycle's batch here.