Democratic Civil War, Part 3: The Identity Crisis

March 27, 2018

In case you missed it, Democrats are amidst a brutal civil war dividing and crippling its many factions on a daily basis:

While deep-rooted issues have long bubbled under the surface, the ‘Shot Heard Around the Party’ was the one fired by the DCCC at TX-23 Democratic candidate Laura Moser—an entirely unprecedented move.
This comes on top of the heaps of criticism thrown at Nancy Pelosi… by members of her own party.
Democrats now face a genuine identity crisis. By labeling PA-18 candidate Conor Lamb the gold standard by which all Democratic candidates should compare themselves this year, and by assigning the issue of single-payer healthcare a litmus test for party endorsement, Democrats have essentially written their death sentence.

“There is no question that in today’s Democratic Party, where Dianne Feinstein is too conservative to be endorsed by the California Democratic Party, Lamb is about as close to being a Republican as a Democrat can get. We’re talking about a candidate who is a Catholic former Marine who supports fracking, opposes Nancy Pelosi and literally launched his campaign with an ad showing him firing an AR-15. Democrats have to decide if this is the kind of face and policy approach they want going forward, or if they prefer candidates more like Hillary Clinton,” Mr. Marcus observes.

Democrats are quickly realizing that their lack of unity comes with negative repercussions. Enthusiasm in the party lies in its’ far-left base, which demands ideological purity. Washington Democrats—realizing those policy stances are unfeasible to win general elections—continue to meddle in elections in an attempt to pull the party toward the middle.

But much of the energy in the party is on the left, where an active base is calling for everything from single-payer health care and a $15-an-hour minimum wage to bans on certain weapons and ammunition. Finding the balance between the base’s demands and winning general elections is Democrats’ new dilemma as they look to toward to the November midterms.

As election season continues, Democrats will find themselves in an increasingly difficult situation as candidates walk an impossible tight rope and likely fail to align with voters.