Stanley Greenberg is always worth reading and here is required reading. He gets what I have been saying, which is that we are in a populist moment and maybe era, and the Democratic Party, if it wants to win elections in States it should win but are not, and win back Governor seats and State legislatures, must embrace the moment.
My one disagreement with Greenberg is that I see no reason to compromise in most instances and in most places on the cultural issues. The way Bernie Sanders spoke about some of those issues at Liberty University in 2015 was correct and ultimately powerful. It showed his strength of good character and courage, reenforcing his decency and authenticity, the latter most important, and he properly phrased the pro-choice position as a morally based one. When Sanders was in Baltimore meeting with African-American leaders, he spoke movingly of the high cost of being poor and the psychic and economic challenges African-Americans in cities and elsewhere face.
The argument from certain elements of the DNC and the corporate Democrats is that abortion rights must be a litmus test. I think it should be, too, but that does not mean in a particular right-wing district, we can't have some flexibility on a candidate who may win a primary and may be in favor of some pro-choice and contraception positions, but not others--at least at the moment. I would say oppose that person in the primary but make sure the candidate we are supporting in that primary can speak of abortion in the manner Bernie Sanders does--and not the language of an elitist technocrat (And let me be clear: An elite technocrat is not incapable by biology of speaking morally, meaning with empathy and passion). Let us see how we push that person who is less pro-choice than we would like in the general election and on issues that come up in legislative sessions when in office. The key is to flip the advantage from Republican to Democrat--but let's also this time makes sure it means something positive for most of Americans, starting with those living Americans who are most vulnerable.
I find that the sudden abortion litmus test when too many corporate Democrats themselves have run from it for years, starting with the Bill Clinton campaign in 1991-1992, is cynically based. To often they deride people who talk of economic populism as "purists" in that now classic sneering way. But what is their opinion on abortion again? Hmmmm...Greenberg is saying that where people like Hillary Clinton went wrong is the talk of "ponies" when talking about social democratic policies in place to our neighbor to the north and most civilized places around the world. And it does not help when Tammy Duckworth, an otherwise admirable Democratic Party U.S. Senator, speaks of marching backwards and tut-tutting against Bernie Sanders' "Medicare for All" proposal. What this does is tell us such people are more about not confronting economic privilege at a time when that privilege needs to be challenged to win elections and enact policies that will truly begin to heal divisions and economic and psychic pain in the United States.
Hats off to Greenberg for making the case against the latest self-pity party of the DNC and the Clintons in a manner that demands we move forward.
