Dear Democrats, Let’s Not Give Into the Dems in Disarray Narrative
By: Dr. Thomas J. West Iii
Tags: Elections, Democratic Party, Politics, Democrats, Election 2020

Dear Democrats, Let’s Not Give Into the Dems in Disarray Narrative

If you spend even a little bit of time perusing the news and politics websites (as I regularly do), you’ll see one headline after another proclaiming that the Democratic Party is in disarray, that its leaders are unable to control their caucus, that there’s a revolt within the ranks — either from the middle or from the left — that’s going to cause the whole thing to fracture and fall apart. This isn’t new, and it’s one of the favorite subjects for almost every mainstream journalistic outlet. In the past two weeks alone the press has been in a feeding frenzy: “Democrats jockey for leadership posts after election drubbing” noted Politico; “House Democrats’ losses crystallize a disappointing down-ballot election so far for the party” said The Washington Post; “The Democratic Party truce is over” cried The Atlantic.

Now, there is obviously some truth to this narrative, at least at the present moment. After all, no sooner had the election ended than there were some recriminations from various quarters. In a leaked piece of audio, Abigail Spangerger, who made news for winning a Republican seat in the suburbs of Washington, DC reprimanded those on the left for giving her opponent plenty of ammunition for attack ads against her. Echoing these comments, Congressman Jim Clyburn has also gone on the record to caution the progressive wing of the caucus not to get too far ahead of themselves when it comes to reprimanding those who sit in the center on the coalition.

On the other side of the equation, the left has been pointing out with increasing regularity the shortcomings of their fellow Democrats. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was featured in a cover story for Vanity Fair, and her Twitter feed has been lit up with her condemnations of moderate politicians. Rashida Tlaib, another member of the Squad, expressed similar sentiments in a major story in Politico.

Both sides of the Democratic party, clearly, see themselves attacked by the other, and each is determined to lob attacks at the other, both in the press and, increasingly on Twitter. Seeing all of this, one might be forgiven for concluding that Democrats had lost the election at all levels and that there were more differences between moderates and progressives than there are between both of those groups and the rising fascists on the left.

The dust is starting to settle, and as it does a clearer picture is beginning to emerge of just what this election meant for Democrats. It isn’t quite as bad as some would like to think it is. Yes, the Democrats lost several seats that they were trying to defend, and yes, they now have the slimmest of majorities in the House of Representatives. And yes, it is true that we didn’t manage to flip several important state houses. However, it’s important to acknowledge that there’s still quite a lot that we can accomplish with that majority, even if it’s smaller than we might like. If we manage to seize control of the Senate by winning the two seats up for grabs in the special election in January in Georgia, we’re poised to do even more.

However, it’s worth pointing out two important factors that need to be taken into account in any conversations of what the Democrats should do going forward.

First, there’s the issue that many of these are purple/reddish districts, and this is always a disadvantage for Democrats. The sad reality is that many people — particularly Republicans and Independents — are susceptible to the scare tactics that the national GOP loves to use to paint the Democrats as a bunch of frothing at the mouth communists who want to impose sharia law. Conservatism is by its very nature a centripetal force, and so it’s always easier for the GOP to sway people into its column than it is for progressives to do the same (despite the fact that many progressive policies are at least moderately popular with the general American public).

Second, there’s the question of gerrymandering. There is absolutely no question that Republicans have been better at this than Democrats, and this has made the electoral map a challenge at both the local and national levels. Much of this is still an aftereffect of the brutal 2010 elections, which gave Republican state houses the power to redistrict themselves into power and to make that power immutable for decades. As the results of this election make clear, it’s going to be quite an uphill battle to undo this damage, particularly since we already know that the GOP is going to use the exact same tactics going forward. They know that their ideas are increasingly unpopular, and so their very survival rests on making sure that they retain power no matter the cost (and no matter how much they have to trample on the idea of representative democracy to achieve it).

In order to effectively combat the GOP’s continued entrenchment of minority rule, we have to do more and expect more, both of ourselves as Democratic voters and of the party leadership. I personally think that the DNC is in need of some fresh faces, and I think that the Stacey Abrams would make a great chair. As many have noted, we need to pay more attention to the grassroots and, likewise, we need to get more involved in the grassroots. Only by bringing change from both the bottom and the top can we hope to fight back against the GOP’s assaults against democracy, which only grow more brazen with each passing day.

All of this is not to say that there aren’t some very constructive debates to be had from within the party. There are real and substantive differences between the left and moderate centers, and those need to be addressed. However, it does none of us any good if we continue our practice of airing our dirty laundry where everyone can see it. While it might be very cathartic and validating to see the number of likes and retweets that one gets on Twitter and to be feted by major media outlets, it is far better, and ultimately more politically effective, to build strong relationships with others in the Democratic Party, even though they might disagree with you on some issues. As E.J. Dionne eloquently argued in his book Code Red: How Progressives and Moderates Can Unite to save our country, we have much more in common with one another than we do with the GOP.

It’s past time that we recognized that.