The Democratic Divide.
By: Vihaan Arora
Tags: US Politics, Democratic Party

On June 26th, 2018 all eyes were on the New York 14th District. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez had launched a primary challenge against House Democratic caucus chair Joe Crowley. Up until that day, Ocasio-Cortez was considered a long shot. She lacked funds, had no major endorsements, and was new to politics. Almost nobody thought that she had a chance of winning.

Then later in the evening, all major news outlets had confirmed that Ocasio-Cortez had won by almost 15 points. Crowley, one of the most senior Democrats in the whole country lost to this progressive new voice calling for change.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (or AOC) giving a speech to a crowd in 2019.

Many people see the vast strength of the Left in the Democratic party but people don't consider it to be dominant over moderates or centrists, and they would be correct, partly. While the Moderate wing of the party beats the Left in Primaries for elections like Senate or House seats even up to the presidency, but the left has one Trump card, Money.

Evidence of this can be shown when you see the 2020 primary. While Joe Biden won, Bernie Sanders raised more money than him. In fact, the candidate with the second-largest amount of money raised in the primaries was another progressive, Elizabeth Warren.

Many people simply view this as a change that is going to take place that eventually because of the partisanship on both sides of the political spectrum the more extreme wings of the two major parties may take control, and while that might be the long term change that will take place in the democratic party, the short term is a disaster for them.

We can take an example in the Republican Party. While Trump-backed candidates might be able to primary anti-Trump incumbents, all that does is make the seat more competitive because it will become open, Or what if the incumbent launches a third-party campaign or a write-in campaign? What happens then? The most likely scenario is that through all the Republican infighting a Democrat will rise with a split vote around them.

A much tamer example of infighting in the democratic party would be the Ohio 11th Primaries where a moderate, Shontel Brown beat Nina Turner in the primaries by a close margin, becoming the expected winner of the district later this year. This showed that there was and still is competition between the two sides of the democratic party.

A much more serious example of this was when the House Democratic Caucus lost seats in the 2020 election. In the days after the results came out, Centrist Abigail Spanberger began to attack socialist policies claiming they were the reason the Dems lost seats. In response, progressives like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez began firing back at Spanberger and other moderates who supported her. Over time, however, the loss of house seats was sidelined with the Biden win and unity took control of the party, but it shows a running theme in the party.

In Conclusion: While we are witnessing the calm between the factions of the democratic party, I think it's only a matter of time before the Democratic Divide steps into the limelight once again, and this time, it will cost them politically, more than it has ever before.