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IIn the midst of these fiercely disputed and hyper-partisan mid-term elections, one of the most interesting side-tricks is how far Left Democrats inspired by Bernie Sanders will behave – and what that could mean for the future. of American politics.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's victory at the Congress in New York in June marks a culmination for the left. Backed by Sanders and US Social Democrats, Ocasio-Cortez crushed Democratic insider Joe Crowley in what some have touted as a socialist dawn.
But since then, some of the other Democratic candidates running on progressive platforms have weakened, falling to the benefit of more traditional centrists. Which raises the question: is the United States ready for a wave of democratic socialism?
The GOP is betting this is not the case. Republicans are trying to tie the Democratic Party as a whole to progressives such as Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez. They think voters can be intimidated by discussions of socialism – an initiative recently demonstrated Tuesday when the White House released a 72-page dossier warning against "the opportunity costs of socialism".
The paper links Sanders and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren to Karl Marx, Lenin and Mao Zedong. The publication shows at least how much leftist ideas have permeated the American discourse since the 2016 elections.
And despite Sanders' final failure to win the nomination, and the mixed fortunes of Socialist Democrats since then, the leftist organizers insist that they are at the beginning of something big – even if it takes time to materialize.
"Barry Goldwater lost in 1964," said Waleed Shahid, one of the directors of Justice Democrats, a progressive organization that works to elect candidates like Ocasio-Cortez. Goldwater, a Republican, won only six states in the 1964 presidential election, but his opposition to government intervention, including the 1964 Civil Rights Act, may have laid the groundwork of the future of the GOP.
Shahid said, "There was a whole generation of conservative activists, organizers, intellectuals who somehow emboldened to plant the seeds of a movement, and this movement finally led to 16-year-old Ronald Reagan. later.
"And I think that the loss of Bernie Sanders in 2016 is similar to the one where, in my opinion, a whole new generation of candidates, organizers, intellectuals feel emboldened now."
Shahid said that Ocasio-Cortez and candidates like Florida governor candidate Andrew Gillum and Maryland governor candidate Ben Jealous have been able to run in the national elections because of the presidential campaign. from Sanders.
The organizers hope for short-term success, but they also go beyond that. Activists are confident that they can have this long-term impact on Goldwateresque.
Maria Svart, National Director of the American Social Democrats, said: "We are building the socialist wing of a broader movement that really pushes the country and will certainly push Congress, but we are at the same time an organization wants build at the base for the long run.
"So we build the pipeline of people who will apply. On November 7, we are already going to ask who will be in office in 2019 and 2020 for a local office. "
Like Shahid, Svart sees hope in what the Conservatives could achieve with a similar approach.
She said: "I grew up in the 80s when the evangelical wing of the state built the basic army – and they now control the Supreme Court."
The year after Sanders became President and Trump, the DSA experienced a spike. By the end of 2017, the country had more than 32,000 contributors. Shahid thinks that many people have "abandoned electoral politics" until the arrival of Sanders, which is why movements like Occupy Wall Street have emerged outside the traditional political pathways.
Sanders showed people that a democratic socialist can break into the country, Shahid said. "And now, you need a new generation of leaders who want to actively engage in politics."
Progressive candidates have had mixed success in the Democratic primaries this summer. In June, NPR announced that only two of the six Sanders-backed candidates at the US House had won their primaries – and one was running. But there are signs that their policies are having an impact.
Since Sanders' presidential race, his ideas have come a long way, especially in strengthening the Democratic Party's support for single payer health care. The "Health Insurance for All" plan launched by Sanders in 2017 now benefits from the support of one-third of Democratic Senators, including 2020 leaders such as Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker.
In July of this year, at least 70 Democratic members of Congress formed the Medicare for All caucus in the House, while National Nurses United, a union representing more than 180,000 nurses, surveyed all Democratic candidates for election. House in 2018 and found that% of people in charge support a Sanders style plan.
A number of polls revealed that a majority of voters – including Republicans – supported a form of universal health. Tuesday, a poll conducted by Hill.TV and HarrisX revealed that 70% of Americans were in favor of providing "Medicare to all Americans", versus 52% of Republicans, figures almost identical to those of a Reuters poll / Ipsos of the month of August.
Shahid said: "Most of the candidates supposed to introduce themselves [for president] in 2020 are taking a close interest in the Sanders platform.
"[Sanders’ success] had a huge effect on the Democratic Party. Until 2016, the Democratic Party had the habit of thinking that to win the elections, it was necessary to appeal to moderate white commuters, usually of the upper middle class. For many Democrats, the whole political calculation has been replaced by: "How do we activate young people? How do we activate people of color? How do we activate people from all walks of life? "
Despite the excitement of the left, some believe that it is too early to fully embrace progressive ideas. Republicans have already adjusted their message during the mid-term election season to grab some of the messages from the left-most candidates, the White House's record being only the most recent example.
Bill Galston, senior researcher at the Brookings Institution, a political think-tank, said, "If Democrats became the party of 'Abolish Ice'," Medicare for All ". and "Impeach Kavanaugh and Trump", they would expose themselves to attacks when otherwise the focus would be on the mistakes and excesses of the President and Congressional Republicans. "
Booker, etc., are not likely to see themselves as socialists, but if at least they hold to some of the things that marked Sanders' presidential race, their actions speak louder than their declared political positions.
In any case for Shahid, the White House is not the most important goal. He thinks it's less important to have a Democratic-Socialist president than to have people well-placed further down the political spectrum, making a shift from the ground up.
"Electing people like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez could be more important for the left than for the left to be concerned about who is the best candidate for 2020".
Svart said the DSA was just as interested in promoting left-wing ideas outside of politics as in the Democratic Party.
She said: "Inclining the Democratic Party on the left is not really our goal. Some of our members think that, [but] some of our members do not really want to do much for the Democratic Party.
"We are excited by the fact that there is this wave of strike that we have not seen for years.
Teachers in Arizona, West Virginia and Oklahoma went on strike earlier this year to get a better salary. Teachers' unions also weigh in strikes in California, Colorado and Illinois. In June, UPS workers got a pay raise after threatening to strike. In August, detainees organized a prison labor strike at the national level. In September, thousands of workers in the service sector withdrew to seven states demanding the right to organize.
Whether it's mid-term or not in the Democratic Party, it's clear that for progressive activists working to change politics in the United States, even though – in the case of Barry Goldwater – that hope comes from a source unlikely.
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