Centrist Democrats along with some traditional leftists have been making the case that the party needs to pivot away from identity politics and focus on economic issues. But the Left has become as addicted to identity politics as a 1980s crackhead making this a difficult proposition. I would have said it was a nearly impossible proposition until Election Day showed that identity politics had failed the Dems.
But can the Dems kick their identity crack habit?
Or as one DNC member from Florida put it: “I don’t want to be the freak show party, like they have branded us. You know, when you’re a mom with three kids, and you live in middle America and you’re just not really into politics, and you see these ads that scare the bejesus out of you, you’re like, ‘I know Trump’s weird or whatever, but I would rather his weirdness that doesn’t affect my kids.’”
Amid that still-nascent overhaul, a wing of Democrats who believe the party shifted too far to the left is rising up inside the DNC.
“I do think there’s this whole sentiment that we just went too far out there on identity, and it allowed the Republicans to really attack us at every turn as a result, and that we just essentially did not focus on just the everyday issues of Americans,” said one DNC member from California, granted anonymity to speak freely.
Are the Dems about to get normal? The only DNC members seemingly willing to criticize identity politics to Politico are doing so anonymously. Everyone remembers the 2020 reign of terror when people were canceled for even the mildest forms of dissent. DNC members asking for anonymity to say that the party has gone too far isn’t signaling an imminent recovery, but a brief Prague spring before the tankies roll back in.
Can the Dems stop being a ‘freak show party’? To do that they would have to stop letting crazy people call the shots. And what are the odds of that actually happening?