How Democrats Can Regain the Upper Hand

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Posted on 11/20/2024 1:54:30 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum

There have been repeated clashes between the left and the center of the Democratic Party over the past 50-plus years, especially in the presidential nomination contests of 1968, 1972, 1984, 1992, 2016 and 2020. The post-election debate is now in full flower, with left-wing and centrist Democrats blaming each other for the loss.

The selection of Kamala Harris, a woman of Black and South Asian ancestry as the nominee, might have accentuated the perception of the Democratic Party as more progressive on race and gender and made some voters feel alienated or concerned about the direction of the party.

As my Times colleagues Erica L. Green and Maya King wrote on Nov. 7, in “For Black Women, America Has Revealed to Us Her True Self”:

The worst of what many Black women believed about their country: that it would rather choose a man who was convicted of 34 felonies, has spewed lies and falsehoods, disparaged women and people of color and pledged to use the powers of the federal government to punish his political opponents than send a woman of color to the White House.

The ascendance within the Democratic Party of well-educated white people holding very liberal views has, in fact, pushed the party to the left of the mainstream. This intraparty ideological shift raises another question for 2026 and 2028: Have the forces supporting unpopular progressive policies in the general electorate become strong enough to successfully push back against the calls coming from Democratic pragmatists for centrist retrenchment on such issues as immigration, policing and the promotion of diversity, equity and inclusion?

In a Nov. 15 article, “Trump Broke the Democrats’ Thermostat,” John Burn-Murdoch of The Financial Times wrote:

The data shows Democrats taking a sharp turn leftward on social issues over the past decade. This has...

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...

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