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Since President Trump won the White House in 2016, a shocked Democratic Party has united behind the mission to defeat him. Four years later, with the election of Joseph R. Biden Jr., the divisions that have long simmered among Democrats are now beginning to emerge, as the president-elect faces deep generational and ideological differences between the congressional lawmakers, activists and the party base.
The loopholes began to emerge hours after Mr. Biden’s victory. The moderates argued that his success, particularly in the industrialized Midwestern states that Mr. Trump seized from Democrats in 2016, was proof that a candidate who had stood up to progressive litmus tests was in the best position to win back voters. who had abandoned the Democratic Party. These tests included single-payer healthcare, aggressive action to tackle climate change and the expansion of the Supreme Court.
“Progressives said we need a grassroots candidate,” said Rahm Emanuel, former Chicago mayor and chief of staff to President Barack Obama, referring to a candidate who appeals to the left wing party. “No, we didn’t. We needed someone to get voters to swing. If you campaign in the right way, you can make a breakthrough transformation. “
Moderate Democrats have said they hope the urgency of the issues the nation faces will delay the inevitable toll the party faces between its ideological wings. Beyond that, they said a disappointing demonstration by Democrats in Congressional races – the party lost seats in the House and faced a fight for even tight Senate control – would give Liberal Democrats less. platform to push Mr. Biden to the left. .
After a fiery appeal among members of the House Democratic caucus, in which some argued that progressives who had entertained ideas such as cutting police funding or “Medicare for all” had cost seats in Congress from party, some Democratic leaders have moved away from the left wing.
Rep. Conor Lamb, a moderate from Pennsylvania who survived a tough Republican challenge, said the results should be a wake-up call to the left.
“What many of our constituents have told us is they don’t like the Democratic message when it comes to policing in western Pennsylvania, and when it comes to jobs and energy.” , did he declare. “And that we have to do a lot of work to fix this problem.”
But after four years of pent-up frustration and energy, that may prove unlikely. By any early indication, Mr. Biden’s election has emboldened progressive energy, regardless of the setbacks in the congressional races. There is a rising generation of elected Democrats waiting behind the scenes eager to take the lead in formulating a platform for the party.
After supporting Mr Biden as a way to defeat Mr Trump, younger and more progressive Democrats who have gained a foothold in Congress and among party activists are skeptical of his future administration. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, setting the terms of the policy in a statement after Mr Biden was declared victorious, said: “A band-aid approach won’t do the job. We have a mandate to act on bold plans to face this dual health and economic crisis. “
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez from New York, a leading voice on the party’s left wing, said in a telephone interview that the coming weeks will set the tone for the reception of the incoming administration by liberal activists.
“I think that’s what people are watching: is this administration going to be actively hostile and try to set up appointments that will only crush progressives and organizations?” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said. “I don’t envy the Biden team. It’s a very delicate balance. But I think it’s really important to find a good one. Because it sends a very, very powerful message about the intention to rule.
The fault lines crystallize the task ahead of Mr Biden, who has long viewed himself as a pragmatic consensus builder rather than a strict ideologue. In addition to rifts within his party, Mr. Biden’s administration will also have to lead a Republican Senate, unless Democrats win two seats in Georgia in the closely watched election in January.
If the party does not win these seats, an already divided Washington should endure.
Some moderate Democratic leaders have urged the president-elect to avoid internal conflict by adopting policies both sides can agree on and reaching out to the left.
“The first thing I would do if I were Joe Biden is come up with a minimum wage of $ 15 an hour,” said Edward G. Rendell, former governor of Pennsylvania and former chairman of the Democratic National Committee. “It’s something both sides agree on. It would be the first move on President Biden’s part to show that there are important parts of the progressive agenda to act on. “
Given Georgia’s two rounds of Senate voting – contests that will determine whether Mr. Biden, like Mr. Obama, will start his first term with a unified Washington – Mr. Biden may be initially reluctant to take positions that could make it easier for Georgia Republicans portray Democrats as disconnected radical socialists.
Mr Biden has made it clear that he intends his administration’s cabinet to be diverse in terms of race, gender and sexual orientation – but a left wing who has become disenchanted with the inherent idea of representation as the progress will seek concessions of power.
The grassroots left-wing political groups had a double message for the president-elect: Congratulations – and here is a list of demands. Several have indicated that they expected Mr Biden to defer to certain demands from the progressives, not only by selecting people from that wing of the party for key cabinet positions, but also by excluding those from that wing of the party. people with Wall Street experience or lobbying the administration recruiting process. However, Mr. Biden’s flexibility to make cabinet appointments sought by the left will be limited if the Senate remains in Republicans’ hands.
Jamaal Bowman, a progressive Democrat from New York who will be sworn in at the next Congress, felt Mr. Biden’s victory was not a statement of moderate ideology, but a testament to a diverse Democratic Party that had embraced the common goal of defeating an unpopular president. He cited the general election work of progressive groups and candidates who stood against Mr Biden in the Democratic primary, including young climate organizers like the Sunrise movement – and said they should be rewarded .
“We need to move beyond moderate versus liberal conversations and start talking and moving together as a strong party,” Bowman said. “We have organizations like the Sunrise Movement and candidates like Jamaal Bowman who went out of their way to get Joe Biden elected.”
Ms Ocasio-Cortez said she expected a long-term fight, especially given Democrats’ setbacks in congressional contests. She also cited cabinet appointments as a way to gauge Mr. Biden’s ideological core.
She said some people, including Mr Emanuel, should not play a role in the future of the party. The former mayor was hired by some in Mr Biden’s inner circle to head a department like housing or transport.
“Someone like Rahm Emanuel would be a pretty divisive choice,” she said, citing her record as mayor on racial justice and her opposition to teachers’ unions. “And that would mean, I think, a hostile approach to the grassroots and the progressive wing of the party.
It’s unclear what kind of audience the progressives will find with Mr Biden and his administration. Throughout the year, his campaign sought to project unity through measures such as a joint task force with supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders, who led a campaign to adopt some of the political proposals of the left, including college debt plans. But Mr. Biden stopped in front of the bigger ideas, like the elimination of the electoral college or the adoption of the statute of state for Washington, DC and Puerto Rico.
Some leading moderates in the Democratic Party have said they support many of the left’s ideological goals, but, reflecting what has long been a wedge between the two wings, called for caution, especially given the Democratic losses in other races.
“We all need to take a deep breath, ”said Representative Debbie Dingell, a Democrat from Michigan, a state Mr. Trump wrested from Democrats in 2016 but Biden reclaimed this year. “I know there will be people who will push for change. I am one of those people who wants universal health insurance. “
She argued that Democrats need to be careful not to push back voters won by Mr. Trump in 2016, if not risk another similar candidate.
“I also know that we cannot afford to have Donald Trump as president,” she said.
But Stanley Greenberg, a Democratic pollster who advised President Bill Clinton when he succeeded in pushing the party to the center in the 1990s, said Mr Biden would be able to delay division fights because of the enormity of the crises it faces.
“The nature of the pandemic and the economic and health crisis is so deep that it will inherit an emergency mandate,” he said. “Unity within the party and unity within the country.”
But for some on the left, the pandemic and the resulting economic crisis were reasons to push the administration further – not to back down. They cited mistakes made when Mr. Obama began his administration in 2009, when many believed the progressive wing of the party was too deferential to the new president at a time of economic crisis.
“I don’t think there will be a grace period for Biden, because the country doesn’t have time for a grace period,” said Heather McGhee, a former president of Demos, a research organization and progressive politics. “A million more people in poverty do not have time for a grace period. A racial epidemic and the coronavirus pandemic do not take a grace period. As he is declared the winner, he must put together a team that can truly change Washington.
Nina Turner, co-chair of Mr Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign, said she expected progressives to put pressure on the transition team and Mr Biden’s administration from the start. When asked how much she thought Mr. Biden would be on the left, she replied: “If the rhetoric used during the election campaign is any indication, not very open.
Yet, she says, “things have an incredible way to change once you’re in the office and under this pressure.”
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