Outbursts of major protests in opposition to President Trump’s agenda have energized Democrats in recent weeks, generating renewed perceptions of party unity.
Late last month, an article in The Week declared, “It’s less than two weeks since the inauguration, and President Trump is already healing the divisions within liberalism.”
The Associated Press reported the Democratic Party, “hopes to ride the energy of airport protests, women’s marches and dozens of other actions across the country to electoral victories in governor races this year and next year’s congressional midterms.”
“Trump has electrified the Democratic progressive base like nothing that has happened in the last 25 years,” strategist Ace Smith told the Los Angeles Times. “As depressing as what he’s doing is, he’s building an army that’s going to fight him.”Not so fast.
Longtime fractures in the Democratic Party, exacerbated and exposed by the contentious primary contest between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, are not going anywhere.
In fact, Democrats like California Congressman Adam Schiff believe recent protests are actually deepening divisions, arguing last month, “The radical nature of this government is radicalizing Democrats, and that’s going to pose a real challenge to the Democratic Party.”
But the Left is facing both ideological and operational divisions.
Thursday morning Politico reported on “a painful Democratic rift over Barack Obama’s political legacy” that is “finally bursting into the open.”
Per Politico’s report, dissatisfaction with Organizing for Action is finally spilling out after simmering for years beneath the surface, rippling into the race for chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee.
“Lingering frustration with Obama’s political operation has a material effect on the race for party chairman,” the article explains, outlining challenges faced by perceived “Obama-wing candidate” Tom Perez.
The article reports that “concerns over OFA’s role as a parallel organization to the DNC are just as ripe when it comes to Our Revolution, the heir to Bernie Sanders’ campaign.” Our Revolution, according to Politico, has not handed over its email list to the DNC. The group also endorsed Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison over Perez.
Even The Week article cited above for trumpeting growing party unity built to the chilling conclusion that the split exposed in the 2016 presidential primary “isn’t going away.”
“The two sides’ horror at Trump is rooted in very different attitudes about the nature of American society and the U.S. economy,” the author noted. “For the Democrats to succeed in dethroning Trump, one side in their internal split will have to lose.”
While the Left spent the Obama years smugly noting Republican rifts between Tea Party proponents and the GOP establishment, Democrats neglected to notice brewing extremism in their progressive wing.
The mainstreaming of concepts like “intersectionality” will continue to feed party divisions as moderates in swing states necessarily resist them and activists in urban areas with high potential for voter turnout necessarily demand their adoption.
Democrats, of course, are fully united in their fundamental opposition to Donald Trump.
But the task of rebuilding from the ground up after losing more than 1,000 state and federal seats over the course of the Obama years is gargantuan.
Facing that challenge handicapped by these persistent divisions will not be easy.
Emily Jashinsky is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
