Progressives: blame the moderates, not us

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Their emboldened stance in the wake of the Democrats’ devastating loss in Virginia, as well as setbacks in New Jersey, Minneapolis and Buffalo, NY, suggests progressives will not change course until the mid-terms of 2022 – even if the GOP promises to anchor a comeback around critical race theory.

Instead, the left is determined to win the battle over the 2021 narrative, the outcome of which could help shape the Democrats’ campaign next year. They argue that in order to both inspire the party base and win swing voters like suburban women, Democrats must adopt bold policies like paid parental leave, prescription drug reform, and drug expansion. Health Insurance. And they point out that neither Virginia Democrat Terry McAuliffe, nor President Joe Biden, is from their camp.

“It doesn’t matter if you are leading a progressive or not, it doesn’t matter if the progressives have had any influence on campaign strategy, it’s kind of the reaction of some in the party to find a progressive to blame when the going gets tough. are not well. Said Leah Greenberg, co-executive director of Indivisible, a leading liberal rights group, on Wednesday. “What we saw last night is that the presumed safe candidate is not necessarily a safe candidate, and at some point people have to seek out and take responsibility for their assumptions themselves.”

The progressives’ swift response to Tuesday’s results stems from a long-standing frustration at being a post-election punching bag. There are lingering grudges over attempts by moderates to give them disappointing races in 2020. And already, they can claim victory in the fight for the way forward: House Democrats have decided to reinstate four weeks of family leave and medical costs paid in their “Build back better” plan.

Republicans, for their part, say they are delighted that the left is not backing down before the midterm elections.

“It’s honestly scratching the head, like what planet are you on?” Said Zack Roday, a Virginia-based GOP consultant involved in the 2022 gubernatorial and Senate races across the country. “They are going to go too far – history shows us and their own statements in the present show us that. And if they go too far, I think it’s in direct contradiction to what voters demanded in 2020 with Biden and reaffirmed in 2021 with these off-year elections.

Several progressives have said they are ready to go on the offensive after Tuesday’s election because party moderates telegraphed that they would blame them for the loss of McAuliffe in Virginia even before the polls closed – de plus, they said, the centrists do this to them every electoral cycle.

More than one pointed to the remarks of Senator Mark Warner (D-Va.) A day before the cable TV election, in which he discussed the bipartisan infrastructure bill. Until they change course this week, Progressives had delayed this legislation in order to pass Biden’s social spending plan.

“As someone who wished we would go ahead and vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill in September, I think we could have given the president a big victory,” Warner said on MSNBC. “In Virginia, where we have a gubernatorial race tomorrow, it would have really helped Terry McAuliffe a lot if we could have taken that victory. ”

Adam Jentleson, who served as deputy chief of staff to former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, said it had become clear last week that moderates would try to blame progressives, and the fact that the draft Infrastructure law was not passed, in the event of a McAuliffe defeat. “And so we knew we had to have a strategy,” he said.

Immediately after ABC and NBC called Virginia Governor’s Run After Midnight, progressive groups Justice Democrats, Sunrise Movement, United We Dream Action, and Battle Born Collective released a statement that informed McAuliffe’s campaign, calling it “milquetoast” and blaming “the DC establishment” for lining up “behind their only rainmaker” and thus dismissing “two potentially historic black women who are running for the same position”, a reference to the main challengers that McAuliffe has defeated to claim the nomination in June.

The groups also criticized Democrats for failing to fight “GOP divisive-to-rule racism,” a blow to the McAuliffe team’s handling of “critical race theory” attacks. Jentleson is the Executive Director of Battle Born Collective.

Even before the gubernatorial race was called for Youngkin, the Campaign Committee for Progressive Change, a group aligned with Senator Elizabeth Warren, barely veiled firing on moderate Democratic senses Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema for having dragged its feet and diluted, Biden’s social spending bill.

“More Virginians would have voted Democrat if they had had child care and if Democrats had accomplished what we have promised for years: discounted prescriptions, paid family leave, long-term care for the elderly and eye and dental care paid for by taxing billionaires. The organization said in a statement. “Terry McAuliffe can unfortunately blame his loss on a few corporate-aligned obstructionist Democrats who blocked bold action in Congress, as well as his own reliance on past messages of Trump. “

Progressive candidates have also sought to quickly shape the narrative in the wake of the election. In a note to his surrogates and allies, obtained by POLITICO, Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman’s campaign for the Senate wrote that “if we learned anything last night, it is that Democrats cannot continue. to cede rural counties completely to Republicans “and argued that he is the candidate who can reduce Republicans’ margins of victory in those areas.

“Democrats can’t afford to run the same old playbook or the same old Washington candidate” in the Pennsylvania Senate race, it says.

Some progressive leaders, meanwhile, have sought to lower the temperature among Democrats.

“I’m not in the blame game here. I’m trying to get things done and we will pass these two bills in the House, ”Representative Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told POLITICO. “That’s what I learned from last night’s election, is that families across the country are suffering and they want us to help them, and that’s what we’re going to do with the program.” Build back better. “

But on Twitter, many on the left have taken a different approach. Responding to a report that moderates privately blamed progressives for the loss in Virginia, Nina Turner, Bernie Sanders’ former 2020 campaign co-chair, tweeted: “Maybe centrist Democrats should adopt policies which are popular with the American people “.

Representative Ilhan Omar retweeted a progressive commentator who chirped: “I can’t wait for the left to be blamed for a no-left Democrat who lost a D + 10 state.”

She added a facepalm emoji.

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