As the Democratic Party prepares to launch its week of virtual festivities with the Democratic National Convention, the party has decided to stuff its progressive wing into a broom closet until the week is over.
The shortened virtual convention cuts 16 hours from past events, and it’s the left-most progressives getting the short end of the stick. The big news for the opening day of the convention is former Republican John Kasich being joined by some less notable former Republicans in supporting Joe Biden. Former Secretaries of State and failed presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and John Kerry also return to the stage as the figures of the establishment past.
Meanwhile, the party has relegated Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to one minute of speaking time. Bernie Sanders will get his prime-time speaking slot, if only to keep the progressives in the party from a full-on revolt. Activists are already upset at the collection of former Republicans taking up time, particularly Kasich and Michael Bloomberg, the latter of whom caught a lot of heat from progressive activists during his brief train wreck of a presidential run.
It’s clear that Democrats want to present themselves as centrists, trying to portray themselves more as an anti-Trump force than as the uber-progressive party their 2020 platform shows them to be. The media has taken to their part, branding Kamala Harris as a “pragmatic moderate.”
Biden’s lack of media appearances may be to limit his campaign gaffes, but it also helps him avoid going any deeper into his platform beyond its anti-Trump wrapper. The Ocasio-Cortez progressives, in their zeal to alter the country radically, are a liability to Democrats’ chances of victory in 2020. While Ocasio-Cortez plays ball with the party, fellow “Squad” member Rashida Tlaib signaled her disapproval by voting to nominate Sanders.
The majority of Biden voters back him simply because he’s not Donald Trump. So the Democratic Party’s socialist starlet, the party’s proclaimed future, must take a backseat to a grifter such as Kasich, who plays the anti-Trump convert and will keep the convention on message. Because, even with his formerly credible conservative credentials, it’s Kasich who puts on the best face for the Democratic Party in November.
