For Democrats, Progressive Is The New Moderate
Huff PostAbigail Spanberger won a marquee House race against Republican Dave Brat in Virginia while calling for a Medicare public option and patent reforms to reduce drug company monopoly pricing power. Kimberley Strassel, cherry-picking a few high-profile losses in Friday’s WSJ, declared: “Biggest Loser: Elizabeth Warren.” On Saturday, in the same space, political scientist Allen Guelzo invidiously compared Tuesday’s Democratic House pickup of “only” between 35 and 40 House seats to the election of 1932, when the Democrats did a bit better and flipped 46. “If the Democrats can win in Trump country by running progressives, why on earth should they run Wall Street-friendly centrists, even if centrists can also sometimes win?” Donnelly ran attack ads distancing himself from the “radical left.” McCaskill ran a radio ad attacking “crazy Democrats”; she went on Fox News to criticize Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. There were some Democrats who took Republican seats running as Third Way-type centrists, such as Max Rose in New York’s Staten Island.
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Divisions between progressives and moderates threaten to complicate Democrats’ new House majority
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