Liberal groups expressed outrage Wednesday that a Democratic centrist group was invited to speak to the House Democrats’ retreat at a time when progressives want across-the-board opposition to President Trump.
“The Wall Street think tank advocates appeasement with Trump — the opposite of the backbone the public is demanding,” said Kaitlin Sweeney of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee in a statement. “Their invitation shows Democrats are learning the wrong lessons from the 2016 election.”
Jim Kessler, senior vice president for policy at Third Way, is the moderate Democrat whose invitation has the Left up in arms.
“Whatever lessons Democrats should learn after losing to Donald Trump, Third Way urges Democrats to go in the exact opposite direction,” said PCCC co-founder Adam Green. “They peddle Wall Street talking points and urge timidity at a time Democrats need to fight with backbone and not let Trump steal the mantle of economic populism.”
“Asking Third Way to show the way forward is like asking an ostrich to teach you to fly,” said Agenda Project’s Erica Payne. “Even if by some remote possibility they got their head out of the sand, those puny wings are useless.”
“Third Way has been wrong about everything,” concluded attorney and Democratic donor Guy Saperstein.
This public reaction comes as progressive groups are clamoring for congressional Democrats to do even more to thwart Trump’s nominees and agenda.
So far, all of Trump’s nominees have been confirmed from the Senate, even when facing unanimous Democratic opposition.
The backlash against the centrist “New Democrat” approach began even before Trump’s election, however. Bernie Sanders’ 2016 campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination against Hillary Clinton was largely a rebuke of former President Bill Clinton’s “triangulation.”
Many of the policies for which Sanders assailed Clinton were products of her husband’s administration: NAFTA, welfare reform, the 1994 crime bill, financial deregulation that substantially repealed Glass-Steagall.
A Morning Consult poll found that 56 percent of Democrats wanted their party in Congress to stick to their principles and resist Trump even “if that means blocking all legislation or nominees for government posts,” while 34 percent want them to find a way to work with the president.
Third Way and progressive groups have sparred in the past, most recently when the former criticized Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., in a Wall Street Journal op-ed co-authored by Kessler.
The flare-ups could create a Tea Party-like environment within the Democratic Party on the left if elected officials are not perceived as doing enough to obstruct the Trump administration.
