By Mark Pukalo
The Democratic Party is in trouble.
It's not because of Trump, the Republicans' gerrymandering project, messaging or our terrible, milquetoast leadership group of Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries.
The problem is the internal struggle between those democrats who call themselves progressives. The practical progressives like me thought we were the real left wing for many years. Now we are characterized as moderates when we oppose a candidate we don't think can win or isn't to the standards Dems should strive for.
The "Bernie Bros or Pod Bros" - basically a group which is to the left of Bernie Sanders - will argue most of them voted for Kamala Harris. We will never know the statistics on that. Regardless, they hurt her in several ways with often unfair or at least mistimed criticism.
Many Bros or their podcast followers didn't vote or went third party. Most blamed the Biden-Harris administration for failing to stop Netanyahu's genocide in Gaza. Congress, including both Republicans and Democrats, would not allow conditions on weapons support for Israel. Biden probably could have done a little more no doubt, but his hands were often tied.
Harris could not come out against her President on the issue, but you got the impression she would have adjusted the policy by changing some members of the cabinet. The Bros didn't get that, or they didn't care. They just wanted to complain.
And, anyways .... Like Trump was gonna be better?
Because the election was so close, I blame this "farther" left group on the margins in the swing states. I am sick of their self-righteous attitudes. It's easy to blame Dem leadership. I do. But if you distort what the party stands for like the Bros often do, it hurts the brand and feeds right into Republican narratives.
In a lot of ways, the Bros are just like MAGA. They have been knocking AOC lately for being too practical. They have hammered a good Senate candidate named Mallory McMorrow in Michigan. There are several others they will damage.
I want Netanyahu to be arrested and thrown in the Hague. I want everyone in the Israeli army who physically abused or killed innocent civilians to spend the rest of their lives in prison. It is currently a fascist regime.
But, yet, we have always supported the Israeli people. It seems anyone who dares to go against the Bros and tries to straddle the line on the issue is cancelled.
I have spent way too much time on twitter (I won't call it the other name) fighting the Bros on Abdul El-Sayed and Graham Platner among others lately.
El-Sayed is a good candidate - for the House. I don't really have a problem with a lot of his views and he's a smart guy, but I don't think he can win statewide with his background. If so, you are giving up a Dem Senate seat just to win a primary.
Platner is totally different. We should have known there was a bigger problem with him from the start, much like John "Trojan Horse" Fetterman. You can discount the NYT story all you want. But what about his Nazi tattoo, his quotes on women taking some blame for rape, the Kik account (whatever that is), his constant lies and his opposition to an assault weapons ban? That's just some of them.
He's a bad candidate, but yet the Bros tell progressives like me we are Republican-Lite for having that take.
We should not lower ourselves to nominate candidates like Republicans do! While Platner is not Ken Paxton, he is bringing the party down. What other shoe will drop to help Susan "I have concerns" Collins win again?
I always thought progressives were simply fighting for affordable health care, taxing the rich/economic equality, protecting civil rights, environmental protection, peaceful foreign policy, getting corporate money out of government and social welfare - looking ahead, not looking behind, evolving with the times.
Hey MAGA? That's not communism or socialism. That's Christian. Those are Jesus' teachings.
The party's failure to use this fact more in ads and campaigns drives me nuts. Hopefully, James Talarico can change that in Texas. He has talked about bringing the Democratic Party back to its roots, which is fighting for the little guy and the marginalized. I think the party still does that to an extent, but its agenda has gotten too bloated.
Meanwhile, the Bros prefer dismantling government institutions and controlling instead of reforming them - much like MAGA - while being anti-capitalism, using purity tests and pushing for issues that are impractical in a democracy. The Bros can be racist and misogynistic at times as well.
It does not seem like a big difference in some ways. But the whole issue is the Bros are never wrong in their own minds. You can find a lot of them on twitter defending Platner. People like Hasan Piker, David Sirota and others have no conscience.
It does not mean that every Democratic candidate must be perfect. I honestly thought we were too rough on Al Franken. The things that forced him to resign pale in comparison to Platner.
I felt I had a clear objective with this blog. But, ultimately, this is a difficult issue to explain. I am all over the place. But everything is a fight ever since the orange-haired fool came down the escalator in 2016 and your head spins every day in the news cycle.
It would be nice to just sit back and enjoy life. But, it is what it is. The election 10 years ago changed everything. If Biden had been the candidate instead of Hillary in 2016, we may have avoided this.
The Republicans used to have a lot of factions. They really don't anymore. It's MAGA and a few reasonable conservatives on the other side hanging on for the ride.
With Dems, now we have three and perhaps four if you split the moderates. You have the establishment, the real progressives like me and the Bros.
Because it is hard to imagine how we could lose to Trump twice, everyone has an opinion. The Bros think we are not going far enough left and the public secretly wants that (they don't). The moderates have no clue what to do as they try to please everyone. My group in the middle would like to reclaim the "progressive" name and convince more of the public our views are not radical, and more Christian than the GOP's.
A good result in November could ease some of the pain, but there is a lot of work to be done.
I just want good, solid candidates that I can support. It seems impossible to find the safe spot in a Democratic primary these days. McMorrow has that problem and is making mistakes. Conor Lamb probably lost a primary to Fetterman because of that issue.
I just want there to be a distinction between what a progressive is and isn't. The Bros are not progressives. I don't want to be lumped in with them.
I don't want to be told I am in favor of genocide when I criticize Platner or Piker. I don't want to be told I am antisemitic by AIPAC Democrats when I criticize Israel's government either.
Our country is a mess. It is up to the Democratic Party to save it. We have to get it together.
