Over the weekend, the Democratic Civil War spilled out into the open, consuming social media and setting a blaze on Twitter that could be seen rising to the sky all the way from barren wasteland of MySpace.
Nancy Pelosi and the moderate wing (and, by “moderate,” I mean they are trying not to go too far left to scare off voters) are now engaged in open war with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the Justice Democrats. What started as a demand in the backrooms of Congress to keep grievances off social media became a public bloodletting when Ocasio-Cortez and her team began attacking the idea on Facebook.
The House Democrats’ official account went live with an attack on a member of AOC’s staff, and all hell broke loose.
There was a strange silence in the traditional media over the hullabaloo, though many journalists also took to Twitter to express their opinions (a large percentage appeared to be on the side of the Justice Democrats). Conservative media, of course, had a lot to say, but many of those opinions you’ve undoubtedly already read – or had yourself.
If you embrace chaos among the enemy, then you probably want the Justice Democrats to win this fight. In fact, I see them winning the battle, though I also believe they are setting themselves up to lose the war.
If you embrace stability in the political world, though, you want Pelosi and the Democratic establishment to win this one.
The Justice Democrats would do well to learn to play nice with Pelosi and her allies, who far outnumber them in the House – and throughout the country. After all, they hold a handful of seats in the House. Pelosi’s people hold the majority of the majority in the House, have plenty of allies in the Senate, and Pelosi has made a lot of friends in the donor community. The reason she’s been so useful to the Democrats, in fact, is because of her fundraising ability.
Do I think Pelosi is a moderate? Absolutely not. I think she is a political animal, who has been trying to navigate a growing conservative trend in the United States with whatever tactics she’s had available. With Barack Obama as President and, later, the GOP’s ramped up attacks on illegal immigration, she allowed her party to launch wave after wave of attacks against the GOP, shouting “racism!” at every turn.
And thus became her downfall.
Nancy Pelosi and her allies are now reaping what they’ve sown. The fact that the Justice Democrats are actually accusing Pelosi of discriminating against a woman of color says it all. They have allowed this need to shout about racism to spin out of control, and it’s on Pelosi.
We have 10 years now of Democrats, led by Pelosi, accusing everyone who disagrees with them a racist, bigot, homophobe, Islamaphobe, and everything else under the sun. Ten years of letting her party get away with attacking Republicans with hateful, vitriolic statements that personal and without proof. Ten years of the political dialogue deteriorating with no reason to stop her fellow Democrats from tearing it down – she even participated.
Two years ago, she tried to moderate herself. She shied away from the calls for impeachment, tried to establish an agenda, tried to rally her party around ideas. But, the damage was done. The avalanche has started, and all the ad hominem attacks that will come for her and her allies are the direct result of her actions.
I can’t feel sorry for her. I feel sorry for the real moderate Democrats, who don’t like Trump but who don’t find themselves in favor of the things AOC and the Justice Democrats are pushing. I feel sorry for the Americans without a political home, who are socially conservative but economically liberal (against abortion but in favor of government bigger safety nets, for example). But, I don’t feel sorry for the position that Pelosi finds herself in. I didn’t feel sorry for the position John Boehner found himself in when his party began rebelling against him, either.
This is on them. Let them reap what they’ve sown.
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