In String of Wins, ‘Biden Democrats’ See a Reality Check for the Left

[pppolitics]

Nina Turner, the hard-punching Bernie Sanders ally who lost a special election for Congress in Ohio this week, had unique political flaws from the start. A far-left former state legislator, Ms. Turner declined to endorse Hillary Clinton over Donald J. Trump in 2016. Last year, she described voting for President Biden as a grossly unpalatable option.

[...]

Yet Ms. Turner’s unexpectedly wide defeat on Tuesday marked more than the demise of a social-media flamethrower who had hurled one belittling insult too many. Instead, it was an exclamation mark in a season of electoral setbacks for the left and victories for traditional Democratic Party leaders.

In the most important elections of 2021, the center-left Democratic establishment has enjoyed an unbroken string of triumphs, besting the party’s activist wing from New York to New Orleans and from the Virginia coastline to the banks of the Cuyahoga River in Ohio. It is a winning streak that has shown the institutional Democratic Party to be more united than at any other point since the end of the Obama administration — and bonded tightly with the bulk of its electoral base.

These more moderate Democrats have mobilized an increasingly confident alliance of senior Black and Hispanic politicians, moderate older voters, white centrists and labor unions, in many ways mirroring the coalition Mr. Biden assembled in 2020.

[...]

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/04/us/politics/biden-democrats.html

[GeneralMacArthur]

The Turner-Brown primary wasn't really a center-vs-left fight.  The issue with Turner wasn't that she was a leftist, it was that she was an utterly despicable person who had been at war with the party for five years and counting.

If you want to take super-lefty policy positions, we don't care that much.  People like Marie Newman and Cori Bush got elected without much, if any, establishment opposition.  It's when you flirt with third parties, spread conspiracy theories, and try to kneecap the party, that the establishment is gonna show out in force to stop you from acquiring more power and a bigger platform.

[pppolitics]

The Turner-Brown primary wasn't really a center-vs-left fight.  The issue with Turner wasn't that she was a leftist, it was that she was an utterly despicable person who had been at war with the party for five years and counting.

If you want to take super-lefty policy positions, we don't care that much.  People like Marie Newman and Cori Bush got elected without much, if any, establishment opposition.  It's when you flirt with third parties, spread conspiracy theories, and try to kneecap the party, that the establishment is gonna show out in force to stop you from acquiring more power and a bigger platform.

You should read the rest of the article.

The article wasn't talking about ideological differences.

[darklordoftech]

Turner vs. Brown was a personality fight, not an ideological fight.

[pppolitics]

Turner vs. Brown was a personality fight, not an ideological fight.

Has anyone actually read the article?

"The left" versus "moderates" is not defined as an ideology difference, but rather, the willingness to go along with Biden and the party versus attacking "the establishment".

[Born to Slay. Forced to Work.]

Turner vs. Brown was a personality fight, not an ideological fight.

Has anyone actually read the article?

"The left" versus "moderates" is not defined as an ideology difference, but rather, the willingness to go along with Biden and the party.

That’s a silly way to frame a primary loss, that’s literally like saying “winners vs. losers”, of course those with institutional support are gonna win.

Also as a person who agrees more on policy with Turner, I’d have voted for Brown.

[pppolitics]

Turner vs. Brown was a personality fight, not an ideological fight.

Has anyone actually read the article?

"The left" versus "moderates" is not defined as an ideology difference, but rather, the willingness to go along with Biden and the party.

That’s a silly way to frame a primary loss, that’s literally like saying “winners vs. losers”, of course those with institutional support are gonna win.

Also as a person who agrees more on policy with Turner, I’d have voted for Brown.

This is not true at all.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

The reality check is that establishment purity trolls make trying to change things within the Democratic party a lost cause.

[PSOL]

The reality check is that establishment purity trolls make trying to change things within the Democratic party a lost cause.

I agree, that’s why I think the Bern needs to pass on man. Let go of it.

[Stand With Israel. Crush Hamas]

I'm really glad to see Biden Democrats and other groups directly threatened by the ascent of the far-left have taken the gloves off and are fighting back in kind.

[Born to Slay. Forced to Work.]

Turner vs. Brown was a personality fight, not an ideological fight.

Has anyone actually read the article?

"The left" versus "moderates" is not defined as an ideology difference, but rather, the willingness to go along with Biden and the party.

That’s a silly way to frame a primary loss, that’s literally like saying “winners vs. losers”, of course those with institutional support are gonna win.

Also as a person who agrees more on policy with Turner, I’d have voted for Brown.

This is not true at all.

It’s true most of the time, out of the hundreds of primary challenges a year, about 3-4 actually have succeeded recently

[pppolitics]

Turner vs. Brown was a personality fight, not an ideological fight.

Has anyone actually read the article?

"The left" versus "moderates" is not defined as an ideology difference, but rather, the willingness to go along with Biden and the party.

That’s a silly way to frame a primary loss, that’s literally like saying “winners vs. losers”, of course those with institutional support are gonna win.

Also as a person who agrees more on policy with Turner, I’d have voted for Brown.

This is not true at all.

It’s true most of the time, out of the hundreds of primary challenges a year, about 3-4 actually have succeeded recently

Look at the other party.

It literally got taken over.

[Progressive Pessimist]

I still don't think it's all that simple. Every election is unique. For instance let's not forget that even though Adams won the biggest race in New York, progressives swept most of the other citywide positions. It's not so cut-and-dry and trying to find the balance between the many disparate factions in our party is necessary for it to succeed in elections and in its agenda. It's sort of a testament to the party though that we even have multiple factions unlike the ideologically bankrupt GOP. Whichever part of the Democratic Party you are part of, I think we should all agree that it's the nation's only good faith political party.

[Hope For A New Era]

I have to say, for as fragile as it looks, the Biden coalition has shown remarkable resilience so far. It seems like the party is finally (knock on wood) beginning to find its footing again after flailing around ineffectively for most of the 2010s. We now have a big tent that stretches from revolutionary communists to John Kasich...and somehow, it's actually working. That's pretty impressive, considering most people (myself included) expected it to almost immediately collapse after getting Trump out. Fingers crossed for the future.

I'm really glad to see Biden Democrats and other groups directly threatened by the ascent of the far-left have taken the gloves off and are fighting back in kind.

On the contrary, I see a substantial decrease in fighting altogether. Remember 2016? Bernie-mania gripped the nation. It was everywhere. There was a huge amount of energy in these insurgent campaigns in all parts of politics, and internationally, it seemed like the whole world was being swept by an enormous, nearly-unstoppable wave of populism and extremism. There was a time - 2016, 2017, 2018 - when the Turner campaign would have been all over the media and widely discussed by all types of people in all parts of life, but in 2021, it sparked no real excitement anywhere other than Twitter. An electorate that just a few short years ago would have responded with passionate support and opposition, instead gave a resounding "whatever." The establishment is taking things more seriously too, of course, but it really seems like the most consequential change is that the electorate is simply no longer interested in these internal battles, at the very least not while the party is in power in Washington. If you think about it, it really is no surprise - it's easy to forget just how much it all has changed during the last five years. The party establishment was still essentially Clintonist (Bill, not Hillary) in 2016. Democrats in non-Safe D electorates ran on how "fiscal conservative/social liberal" they were, and the deficit/national debt was discussed incessantly. "Liberal" and "Progressive" were risky words, and "Socialist" was a certain campaign-killer anywhere outside of Portland before Bernie 2016 came along. The entire political landscape is so dramatically different now, and it shouldn't be shocking that progressives in the party are far more satisfied with (and therefore much less energizable against) the Democratic establishment of 2021 than the one of 2016.