Moderates and progressives need each other
By: Teresa Albano
Tags: Politics, Biden, Progressive, Trump, Social Change

Moderates and progressives need each other

Thoughts on coalition politics and the post-Trump world

President-elect Joe Biden campaigns in Iowa during the Democratic primary in 2019. Gage Skidmore/CC

As a lifelong political activist, a student of socialism and social change, I’m concerned that a significant number of left and progressive thinkers, leaders and activists are reading the post-election moment like every other post-election moment. And it is not.

The last four years of the Trump presidency, its trampling of democratic norms, incompetent and criminal behavior, along with the multiple crises we face have made for unprecedented challenges. We are closing in on 300,000 dead from Covid-19 pandemic, which has also intensified systemic racial inequities and economic inequality. Millions are unemployed, hungry with food bank lines extending for miles, in danger of being evicted and having utilities shut off. Plus the ongoing immigration and refugee crisis sharpened by climate catastrophe and inhumane policies leading to migrant children being ripped from their families and put in cages.

Alongside the cascading crises is a growing, potentially transformative movement that elected Joe Biden and Kamala Harris with a mandate to find ways to bring the country together and solve these existential problems.

The left and progressive activists and voters within or independent of the Democratic Party can play a critical role in getting the transformative remedies needed to save lives and make good on the promises of liberty and justice for all. But we cannot do it alone, and we can’t even say progressives will be in the driver’s seat. The Biden administration will be.

It might behoove progressive to recognize the savviness with which President-elect Biden and barrier-breaking Vice President-elect Harris campaigned, and the almost pitch perfect messaging they employed. “Battle for the Soul of America,” “Build Back Better,” and bringing the country together must have deeply resonated for Biden/Harris to win. Biden was a bridge builder to progressives and Republicans. It was a broad-based coalition whose foundation and issues reflected the Democratic base, especially Black and other voters of color, women and union members.

More listening, less bickering

As battleground states were still counting and certifying votes, left-wing and progressive influencers, eager to claim credit for the victory and shy away from pre-election predictions that a moderate could not win in 2020, declared that it was time to push back on Biden. They were quick to point out the corporate ties of Biden’s foreign policy team.(Shocking! Who’d a thunk U.S. foreign policy experts would have corporate ties?) They were going all out to ban Rahm Emanuel from any Cabinet position. (Is he even in the running?) And in some instances, they declared the entire Democratic Party was a bunch of neoliberal bungling losers, forever reliant on left-wing superpowers to win anything.

Lots of virtual ink has been spilled on the post-election House Democratic Caucus call and the unfortunate moderate finger-pointing and progressive counter finger-pointing. I won’t spill more ink on it, except to quote E.J. Dionne in his excellent Washington Post piece, “Why they fight: The Democrats are a big-tent party. The GOP isn’t. That explains everything.”

He describes the broad coalition with multiple constituencies that operate under the umbrella of the Democratic Party as “big-tent politics,” which, unlike the ideologically, racially and religiously homogenous Republican Party, “requires a lot of work and leads to inevitable bickering.”

But in order to succeed and win elections, Dionne writes, both the moderates and the left have to “acknowledge the truth of what their internal rivals say.” He then points out what seems obvious, but is hard to admit to unless you have big-hearted and big-picture politics in the big tent, which sometimes seems in short supply.

“The left is right that it provides a lot of energy, especially among young voters and in the urban areas that turned out big for Biden. But the moderates are right that, to win power, the party needs middle-of-the-road voters, particularly from swing districts. This may produce more cautious officeholders, but they are essential to building a congressional majority.

“Progressives are right that the quest for racial justice should not be compromised — and is, in fact, an electoral asset. (After all, 85 percent of Biden voters told the exit pollsters that the criminal justice system treats Blacks unfairly.) But moderates are right that slogans like ‘Defund the police’ can bring down moderate lawmakers, such as Staten Island’s defeated Rep. Max Rose.”

Even though Joe Biden won with some 81 million votes, there are some 74 million people who supported a narcissistic, sociopathic, billionaire-authoritarian who is deeply racist, misogynistic and elitist, promotes conspiracy theories and lies while denying science and reality. Out of 249 Republicans in the Senate and House, only 27 have recognized the Biden/Harris victory, one month after the election, according to a Washington Post survey. We still have a lot of political struggle ahead to force Congress to enact the economic, racial equity, climate and health care packages needed to relieve suffering and pain.

It takes a coalition

Moderates and progressives need each other, and hopefully, progressives will not attempt to pivot away from the coalition that elected Biden and make the incoming administration their primary political target. Such a pivot seems premature and unwise.

There have been reports that progressives, although unhappy with Biden’s choice for Office of Management and Budget, Neera Tanden, won’t fight her nomination. But that hasn’t stopped the unproductive griping and attacks on Twitter and elsewhere, reminiscent of the divisive “Bernie Bros.” of 2016. This is where right meets left because Republicans are opposing her nomination. Their criticism is about her pugnacious style on Twitter. The leftwing says Tanden is too close to corporate America and hostile to Sen. Bernie Sanders. Apparently as president of Center for American Progress, a liberal-progressive group, Tanden raised money from technology and other corporations, which puts her and CAP “deeply in the pocket of capitalists.”

It is hard to imagine opposing a nominee who is qualified and on the progressive spectrum but that is part of the “our way or the highway” attitude that envelops a portion of leftwing progressive politics.

Embedded in the push to make the Biden/Harris administration a target is an exaggerated notion of the left-progressive influence in the country. Facts are cherry-picked to puff up progressive pressure.

For example, the claim made by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and others that every House Democrat in swing seats who co-sponsored Medicare For All won their races. PolitiFact rated it mostly true but pointed out “it leaves a misleading impression.” Because on their list of reelected cosponsors only two were in tough reelection districts out of the 23 rated as “toss up” or “lean Democratic” by a nonpartisan group. Plus Democrats who did not endorse Medicare For All who were in more conservative districts also won their races. Reps. Sharice Davids of Kansas and Lauren Underwood of Illinois come to mind.

I understand the impulse to respond to what must feel like incoming attacks from your own side with an exaggerated claim. But in the long run it erodes public confidence in what left and progressives offer. Plus, instead of listening to “friendly fire” critiques, the knee-jerk reaction is to fire back.

It’s only natural for organizers and progressives to want input in the incoming administration. But how to push the administration on key issues of importance seems just as critical as what to push for when working in coalition with others who have different ideas and may disagree on tactics.

Effective progressives

The Twitter feed of Rep. Pramila Jayapal from Washington’s 7th Congressional District reads like a master class in coalition building. She recognizes the good choices Biden has been making through the transition process. She called Alejandro Mayorkas “a very strong, smart choice” to lead the Department of Homeland Security. She amplified Biden’s holistic aid plan for child care, elder care and pre-school as “Good for seniors, families, and workers!” She pointed to important progressive features of the plan, which she and others worked on, including the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights and creation of 600,000 jobs.

At the same time, she puts out progressive demands, from student loan debt cancellation to repealing Trump’s ban on transgender troops, in straightforward ways, as you would to a colleague, and she offers to be part of the solutions. Talk about exercising progressive power and influence! An approach that accentuates the positive, focuses on the substance of policy and issues and is jargon-free wins allies, expands the progressive reach and encourages people to listen.

Recently former President Barack Obama talked about engaging people where they are at in their worldview and outlook. He used “defund the police” as his example. He suggested the slogan alienates some people, which shouldn’t be the goal if you want to save lives, win justice and have police accountability.

“If you believe, as I do, that we should be able to reform the criminal justice system so that it’s not biased and treats everybody fairly, I guess you can use a snappy slogan, like Defund the Police, but, you know, you lost a big audience the minute you say it,” he said.

“If you instead say, ‘Hey, you know what Let’s reform the police department so that everybody’s being treated fairly,’ suddenly a whole bunch of folks who might not otherwise listen to you are listening to you.”

He was met with an instant negative reaction by some young elected officials and activists. Not surprising. Sometimes people dig in their heels instead of considering another opinion, especially if they come from more diverse and metropolitan areas, which tend to be more liberal. And not just any opinion, but the wise counsel from a Black man who was elected president — twice — and who engages in politics that reaches millions and millions of people. A leader who is generally progressive and represents Big Tent politics.

In that same interview, Obama also urged the Democratic Party to give Ocasio-Cortez a bigger role. “She speaks to a broad section of young people who are interested in what she has to say, even if they don’t agree with everything she says. You give her a platform,” he said.

There’s nothing wrong with what Obama said but many were quick to rebuff his counsel, which is not surprising coming from the left. And I haven’t noticed any of these folks applauding his call to elevate Ocasio-Cortez.

Similarly, Stacey Abrams chose to engage on the “defund the police” issue by focusing on the content of the demand and what is needed to end racial profiling and killing of Black, Indigenous, Latino and other people of color. She refused to be baited into saying whether she is “for” it or “against” it, calling it a “false choice,” during an interview with George Stephanopoulos. Instead she deftly chose to focus on the issues that gave rise to the demand by acknowledging that the country needs two things: “reformation of how police officers do their job” and “transformation on how we view the world of law enforcement, how we view the construct of public safety.”

She said funding is a critical piece. “How we invest in not only the work we need [law enforcement] to do to protect us, but the work we need to invest in to build and protect our communities. That’s the conversation we’re having. We use different language to describe it but fundamentally we need reformation and transformation.”

She speaks from a position of experience as a Black woman, lawyer, activist and politician. As a Georgia legislator, she pushed for police accountability and criminal justice reform. As a progressive thinker and leader, she also looks at the problems in the underlying racial, class and social systems that are in dire need of transformation. And she does it in a way that is accessible to millions who may or may not consider themselves progressive, while not allowing the media to pigeon hole her on a simplistic yes or no. She has been a key leader in turning Georgia for Biden, and if not for the voter suppression, would have won the governor’s race in 2018.

Abrams’ and Obama’s answers are similar in policy content even though the former president explains why he sees the phrase as only speaking to the already convinced. I think they also are similar in how they state a viewpoint that goes contrary to many and yet they do it in an agreeable manner.

Generational divide?

I don’t want to make this a big deal but there seems to be a generational divide among progressives, where younger people tend to gravitate toward more radical and radical-sounding demands.

Obama is a year older than I, and Ocasio Cortez is two years older than my son. I get in debates and disagreements with him often. He supported Sanders in 2016. I supported Hillary Clinton. I say things like, “Politics is about coalition building.” To which he’ll reply, “OK, Boomer.” I can get agitated in our debates, which sets off a cycle of fury from him. We definitely agree on issues 99 percent of the time. It’s usually how to get there where we disagree.

But I’m trying to have an open heart and mind when it comes to younger generations and how they see and engage with politics. I’m sure my son tries too with older generations. But it’s a struggle and a practice.

There are many young people who share my more pragmatic style of always looking to reach out beyond the choir, to build progressive movements and where possible get things done where there is agreement.

There are many others who seem to consider working with those you disagree with in general, even if there is one thing in particular you do agree on, as taboo. And that’s the kind of purity politics I think progressives and the left, in particular, have to change.

Love more, build community, find courage

That’s where loving more, building bonds of community stronger, and digging deep to have the courage to do the right thing, come in. That’s been my mantra since 2016 when my other adult child called on Election Night in tears. I tried to console them. “We have to love more; build the bonds of community stronger; and dig deep to find the courage to do the right thing,” I said. For the last four years, I did my best to live by them, and plan to continue into the future.

Politics requires coalition building, and like it or not, moderates need progressives and more importantly, progressives need moderates, in order to truly reverse Trumpism and, perhaps more importantly, expand democracy, end the pandemic, eradicate racism, inequalities and poverty, and build an economy based on democratic rights, environmental and social justice, quality education and health care for all.

It’s in the spirit of solidarity I offer these thoughts. As the Harry Potter character Albus Dumbledore said “There are all kinds of courage. It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.”