Democrats, Let’s Keep It Together
All this swiping and sniping at allies needs to end.
Democrats, can we go one day without sniping at each other? Like, seriously? This is unacceptable and the finger-pointing NEEDS to stop.
Like, why on God’s green earth is it so hard to just let the progressives do their own thing over in NYC and California and the moderate democrats and now even moderate republicans do their own thing elsewhere. The Democratic party is a big tent, baby. There’s plenty of room for everyone. Y’all don’t even need to look at each other much less talk to each other in this tent. I’d prefer that by a mile, rather than this constant sniping at allies.
Predictably though, within hours of the media officially calling the election for Joe Biden, progressives and moderates were at each other’s throats. I’m not going to say who started it. Both sides are to blame. “moderate democrats” leaked a caucus call to the press, railing against progressive policies as the reason for the Democrats losing house seats. At the same time, the dust hadn’t even settled yet, when progressives started shivving The Lincoln Project seemingly out of nowhere, despite them releasing hundreds of ads over the campaign cycle against Trump.
The truth of course is far more complicated than either side gives the other credit for and the simple fact is that hard, robust data on how the election went just simply isn’t available yet. So the even simpler fact is that both sides are full of hot air. there’s no way to measure the Lincoln Project’s real effect on the election yet. there’s no way to know right now exactly what sunk the more moderate Democratic house races. And while predictions can be risky, I would guess the answer to both those questions has nothing to do with the current arguments being raised today.
While the Lincoln Project probably had little effect in states like Arizona and Georgia, I would be shocked to find that they weren’t effective in states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. And as for the house races, the Republicans were going to call you socialist no matter what, why you lost probably has more to do with how you as the candidate responded to those attacks and how authentically you were driving your campaign rather than any specific progressive boogieman policy.
so please, both sides, for the good of the party and democracy itself, shut the hell up and stay focused. this kind of rhetoric is how we throw two totally gettable Senate seats in Georgia. For the love of God, we have to keep it together at least until Joe Biden’s sitting in office and Trump is out for good. Only then can we go back to lobbing bullets at people who mostly agree with you. Right now, all you’re accomplishing is living up to the “democrats in disarray” stereotype, and it is NOT a good look.
Originally published at https://robertpotter.co on November 9, 2020.
