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The carefully calibrated unity of the Democratic Party lasted for about six months. After a summer when moderates and progressives came together to elect President Joseph R. Biden Jr., his victory has now given the party permission to devote time and energy to the difficult task of sorting out its ideological core .
House Democrats, reeling from unexpected losses in competitive races, wasted no time. Moderates have blamed progressives for pushing policies such as “Medicare for all” and defunding the police, which are unpopular in swing neighborhoods.
But progressives, rallying to influence Mr. Biden over cabinet appointments and initial policy, have pushed back. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York pinned these losses in the House on a bad digital campaign, saying members have made themselves “sitting ducks” for Republicans.
Conor Lamb, the 36-year-old Democrat from Pennsylvania who pushed aside a Republican challenge in a district won by President Trump in 2016, is one of those moderates who believes the left is costing Democrats in key areas. In an interview with the New York Times, Mr Lamb said he expected the new administration to rule like it campaigned: with arm’s-length progressives.
This interview has been condensed and slightly edited for clarity.
Q. What do you expect from Joe Biden’s Democratic Party? How do you expect him to come across the moderate versus progressive divisions that we see in the House?
A. I think he means what he says when he says, “I have led a Democrat, but I will serve as US President.” And what that means, I believe, is that every day, and on every issue, he’s going to work to get as many people around the table and sing from the same sheet music as possible. And sometimes it will be everyone in the Democratic caucus. Sometimes it will be people from the Democratic caucus and Republicans. I think that will change by the question, but this is a person who truly believes that our real job in Washington, DC is to work with each other, to compromise to get the best deal possible, and then to to make things progress. And I believe it too.
What went wrong for House Democrats when they were supposed to take seats?
I’m giving you an honest account of what I hear from my own constituents that is, they are extremely frustrated with the message of cutting police funding and banning fracking hydraulic. And I, as a Democrat, am just as frustrated. Because these things are not only unpopular, they are completely unrealistic and they will not happen. And that amounts to false promises on the part of the people who claim them.
If a member of your family makes a living in one way or another by being connected to natural gas, either on the pipeline itself, or you know, even in a restaurant that serves gas workers natural, it is not something to be joked about or to be laid back about. Your language.
That’s what we’re trying to say: that the rhetoric, the policies, and everything – it’s gone way too far. It must be redialed. It has to be rooted in the right way, in reality, and yes, in politics. Because we need neighborhoods like mine to stay in the majority and do something for the people we care about most.
Take this problem. Joe Biden did not support the postponement of police funding. Almost every member of the Democratic Congress, even people like Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, have spoken out against it. What is the party supposed to do that it hasn’t done?
I think we can do it a lot more clearly and repeatedly and show it with our actions. We need to have a unified democratic message about good law enforcement and how to protect people, while tackling the systemic racism that I believe exists and the racial inequalities that absolutely exist. And when we passed the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act, that’s exactly what we did.
But the people I was on the phone with when we were going through this back then weren’t the freshmen criticizing us today. It was Karen Bass and Cedric Richmond and Colin Allred – and I was listening to them. And, you know, pretty much most of our moderate Conservative Democrats all voted for this bill. We listened, we made compromises and we did something. And that’s really what this job is.
Do moderate Democrats think the Progressives or the so-called Squad have taken too much space in the national conversation?
I wouldn’t put it that way. Because it really focuses on them as individuals and their personalities. And that’s not what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to have a discussion about politics, not personality. And I want to be very clear about that, because I respect each of these MPs and how hard they worked to get elected and how hard they worked to stay elected and represent their ridings. But the point is, they and others advocate unworkable and hugely unpopular policies.
So I would just say that our point of view is more that we want to have a clearer, sharper, and more unified message about the policy itself, no matter who deserves it or who is in the limelight.
In the Democratic primary, even though the progressive candidates lost, polls showed their issues remained popular among Democrats. Even things like single-payer health insurance or things like the Green New Deal. What’s your response to this?
At the end of the day, it’s the individual candidates who have to win races and then work with their colleagues to get bills through and change people’s lives. So you can tell me all the polls you want, but you have to win the election.
And I have now gone through three very difficult elections in a Republican-leaning district, with the president personally campaigning against me. And I can tell you that people are not asking for the two policies you just mentioned. So that’s what probably separates a winner from a loser in a neighborhood like mine.
On Saturday I interviewed Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez and she mentioned to you and how some House moderates ran their campaigns. I wanted to quickly get a fact-check: Did you all spend just $ 2,000 on Facebook the week before the election?
She has no idea how we ran our campaign, or what we spent, to be honest with you. So yes, his statement was false. But there is a deeper truth here, which is that our districts and our countryside are vastly different. You know, I stick with that.
She said the way the moderates ran their campaigns left them like “sitting ducks.” What was your reaction?
I have to be honest and say I was surprised by the whole interview the day Vice President and now President-elect Biden was called up for election for him. I just don’t think it was a day for people to shoot other members, especially in districts so different from theirs.
I respect her and how hard she works. And what she did in a Democratic primary with very low turnout. But the point is that in general elections in those districts – especially in ones where President Trump himself campaigns over and over and over and attacks members in their own Republican-leaning districts, like me and Rep. Slotkin and Spanberger Rep – it’s the message that counts. It’s not about knocking on the door or Facebook. It doesn’t matter which policies you stand for and which ones you don’t. And that’s all we’re trying to say.
The American people have just shown us in large numbers, in general, which side of these problems they are on. They sent us a Republican Senate and a Democratic President; we’re going to have to do things we can compromise on.
You mentioned snipers. Are progressives leading this or are moderates doing it too? I think of all the anonymous quotes attacking members of the left, which she mentioned.
This is honestly a difficult question to answer as I don’t know who the anonymous are. I think we should put your name behind those kinds of comments and that’s usually what I do.
But I have to say that since you’ve talked a lot about Rep Ocasio-Cortez, she can put her name behind stuff and it’s, I guess, brave, but when it’s a damaging idea or bad policy, like if she tweeted that fracking was bad. in the midst of a presidential debate as we try to win western Pennsylvania – it doesn’t sound like a team player. And it’s honestly giving people a bogus and ineffective promise that makes it very difficult to win the areas where President Trump is most popular in the countryside.
You and Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez are on a different side of the ideological spectrum, but on the same side of a generational divide between Democrats. Party leaders in the House have said they plan to run again. Should there be more young people among Democratic leaders?
The most important thing is that the leadership that we have has to listen to the newer and younger members and really give us feedback and help us achieve political achievement.
But what seems to happen sometimes is that when the going is good, the young members who come from these really tough districts and tough races don’t always think the leaders take our contribution as seriously as we would like. And I think that’s something they need to improve on, and I would bet Rep Ocasio-Cortez would feel the same – even if it was on different issues.
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