Democrats in Array

Robert Waldmann | August 3, 2017 10:56 am

Politics

The hardy perennial “Democrat’s circular firing squad is in disarray” story line is looking a bit withered. During the whole dramatic absurd Trumpcare drama (so far Trumpcare is a zombie which can’t be killed) ALL 48 Democratic senators remained united. In 2016 the new Clinton adopted a neo-neo-liberal platform which was actually liberal.

However, some people refuse to let it go. I am one of those people.

update Charlie Pierce is another one, and he can write. Click this link for the post I wish I had written
end update

I want to whine about this informative and well written article by Ryan Cooper
“Why leftists don’t trust Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, and Deval Patrick”. Cooper wrote in the third person discussing leftists without presenting himself as one. He left me tempted to title this post “”Leftist Democratism” as an infantile disorder”. His key point is that leftists value style over substance “Second, and perhaps more importantly, they need to make a symbolic rhetorical break with the despised donor class. ” Cooper’s point is that the (un-named and unquoted leftists who clearly include someone named Cooper) care more about style than policy proposals.

I find this frustrating, but admit that it makes political sense. The 2016 election was, among other things, a triumph of style over substance. Trump won some votes of people who wanted to move left from Obama. His proposal to slash the taxes on the rich was less important to them than his fake populist tone. I find myself on the left wing of the Democratic party and agree that anti-banker rhetoric is a key part of Democrats’ best strategy.

On the other hand, factional purism and focusing on small differences within the party is not. Cooper explains suspicion of Harris because she did not prosecute OneWest (treasury secretary Mnuchin’s firm with a business plan based on maximizing foreclosures and subsidies from the FDIC). Here the point is that one should only prosecute if one has a reasonable chance of winning and being a jerk is not a crime. Corry Booker is suspected for having said (years ago) that Obama’s criticism of Wall Street was too harsh (yes outrageously extreme moderation — but just a youthful discretion).

I suspect that a lot of “the left” is suspicious of anyone who is not named Bernard Sanders. I also think that they are focused on uniting against the common enemy the Judean People’s Front the party establishment.

There is, certainly, a good bit of mutual pointless hostility. I hope there is not much to the effort to keep the circular firing squad tradition alive.

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