DEMOCRATS AREN'T DOMINATED BY THE LEFT WING

HOW ABOUT THE GOP AND CHRISTIAN NATIONALISTS

The Democrats have a popular midterm agenda: restoring Medicaid cuts, raising the minimum wage, higher taxes on the rich and anti-corruption measures.
The predictable right wing demagoguery that they want to let transgender people play in women’s sports or that they’re communists are easily brushed aside.
More potentially worrisome, however, is the charge, phony, that the party has been taken over by leftwing Democratic Socialists, who will set a radical agenda, abolishing the immigration and enforcement agency, cutting ties with Israel, and demanding a government run health care program.
The Republican campaign committees already are making this charge against Democrats in competitive districts.
A warning shot was fired by Karl Rove, the longtime Republican strategist, calling on Democrats to disavow the platform of the Democratic Socialists.
Actually the left wing is only a small fraction of congressional Democrats and candidates, smaller than, for instance, the Christian nationalists in the Republican ranks.
These radical left wingers win in deeply blue, mainly urban districts, running against out of touch incumbents with the support of elite white liberals.
On our podcast we have interviewed over a dozen challengers, ranging from House candidates Bobby Pudilo in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley to Cait Conley in the New York suburbs; Senate aspirants Josh Turek in Iowa and Texas’ James Talirico, and gubernatorial candidates, Amy Acton in Ohio and Iowa’s Rob Sand.
Not a one has embraced any of charges that right wingers are leveling. They are combat veterans, paraolympians, divinity students, not a commie in the bunch .
They range from moderates to (Nancy) Pelosi progressives; a number won primaries defeating opponents on the left.
Still, most mainstream Democratic candidates should heed the advice of the late Barney Frank, a certifiable liberal. In an interview this spring and in a book to be published posthumously this fall, the Massachusetts lawmaker said most Democrats have to ‘explicitly repudiate” radical policies. “Failure to do so,” he cautioned, “led to the party’s brand being identified with these positions.”
A good example is after the 2020 police violence there were cries to defund the police. Very few Democratic candidates embraced this but more were tarred with the position.
Abolish ICE is the 2026 version. This is a disgracefully run agency with too many poorly trained agents some of whom have murdered innocent people.
But to eliminate the immigration and enforcement agency suggests a return to the unpopular Biden policies or even open borders with a surge of illegal migrants pouring into the country.
The more palatable political and policy alternative: overhaul, reform ICE get rid of their irresponsible leaders who tolerated violent thugs, set strict standards, accountability and more rigorous training for agents.
Much of the left is vehemently anti-Israel and want that to be a litmus test.
Many Democratic candidates are harshly critical of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the brutality of the Gaza operation and favor a Palestinian state while supporting the state of Israel.
That ‘s a sensible and defensible position.
Th core tenet of the socialists -- state ownership over private enterprise -- curiously doesn’t seem to cut as much as some more fringe issues. Frank worried that their move to restructure America culturally and socially might be a bigger problem.
The left’s microphone and media coverage, much larger than their numbers, will get a big boost if a Democratic Socialist wins a Michigan primary next week and a week later a Wisconsin gubernatorial primary.
Even then the left wing Democrats would be a smaller part of the party than Republicans associated with Christian nationalists. These include a number of members of Congress and the Trump Administration, such as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Christian nationalists basically believe Christians should dominate every sphere of public and civic life, that women generally should be subservient to men, that America was founded as a Christian nation and separation of church and state is a myth.
Maybe Karl Rove should ask Republican candidates to disavow these Christian nationalist policies.