#third way

The political opponents that have the centrist Democrats newly energized and willing to fight like hell are the democratic socialists who have become a powerful organizing force within their party and some of its most popular national figures.  That’s according to the New York Times, which reported yesterday that the centrist organization Third Way, in concert with unnamed “moderates,” plan to launch a “discrediting campaign” lasting from now until 2028 that takes aim at the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), the group whose members include Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and is a key part of the coalition behind the party’s Senate candidate in Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed. That campaign will see Third Way not just do opposition research into DSA and target its elected officials but also go after politicians like El-Sayed, who don’t identify as socialists but make common cause with the group. “We are preparing for the next war that is coming,” Third Way’s president, Jonathan Cowan, told the Times about the campaign. This is a month after Cowan and Third Way’s executive vice president, Matt Bennett, warned in the Washington Post that DSA was “not a faction to be appeased,” urging the party to “fight” the group by pledging “money, organization, and spine.” It’s a well-worn joke at this point that Democratic centrists fight the Left harder than they fight the far right. But here, Third Way and whatever “moderates” are part of this effort are actually giving us an honest-to-God, real-life example of it: centrist Democrats’ big play to push back against Trump’s wrecking ball of a presidency was to literally do nothing. Third Way itself has been largely invisible, other than to make a list of words Democrats shouldn’t use, lead a public campaign against leftist streamer Hasan Piker, and tell Dems to be more hawkish. But now that the Left is winning elections, they are jumping into action, pledging to “fight” a “war” and calling on Democrats to show “spine.” You can’t make this stuff up.

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This is the crux of it: centrist Democrats are clearly willing to tear apart their own party and hand power to the forces behind Trump, as long as it means stopping the Left from having any power. 

Think of the worst thing you’re dealing with right now. Whatever is just beating you up.

If you’re like me, you’ve got two basic approaches for dealing with that stuff. Ignore it. Try to act like it’s not there. Or stare at it. And think about it. Way too much.

Neither approach works.

Ignoring it just gives it time to get worse. Until you literally can’t ignore it.

Staring at it just makes it worse. Right. Now.

There is another option. It’s in today’s Gospel. Where Jesus says, “take up your cross, and follow me.”

Which can sound to our ears like the Church’s version of “suck it up, buttercup.”

But that’s not what Jesus is saying. Not at all.

Jesus is giving us a third way. Between doing nothing, so it can get worse on its own. Or obsessing, actively helping it to get worse.

What Jesus is saying to you and me is this,

    “Don’t ignore it. Don’t stare at it. Deal with it.

    But keep your eyes on Me.

    Follow My lead. We’ll do it together. One step at a time.

    Don’t worry about the what-ifs. I’ve got you.”

It’s the road – to calm in the middle of the storm.

It’s the recipe – for dealing with problems without getting beat up by them.

It’s the reason – why “the best way out is through.”

Third way never ever seems to go away after each time Democrats lose an election. Exact how many elections loses does it really take for them to disappear into extinction?

Perry Bacon Jr. at The New Republic:

The center-left group Third Way held a conference last week where moderate Democratic strategists and politicians blasted progressive ideas and the party’s left wing. Third Way and other centrist Democratic groups espouse positions such as opposing Medicare for All and wealth taxes. In Washington, the idea that these groups speak for moderates across the country is never questioned. But now, some evidence is emerging that suggests Democratic voters who describe themselves as moderate are in a different place. They want Democrats to push harder to increase taxes on the wealthy and corporations and don’t think the party is overly liberal on issues such as abortion and transgender rights. This distinction between moderate Democratic voters and the party’s moderate elites is critical to understand. Moderate Democratic voters are not centrists clamoring for a return to the Clinton era or rebukes of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Bernie Sanders. So progressive groups and politicians can probably push rank-and-file Democratic voters to the left on a wide range of issues. And more center-left Democratic politicians must (and increasingly do) adopt more progressive positions to remain viable in a party where even the people who call themselves moderate have fairly liberal views.

I’m basing this analysis in part on a recent poll of some 2,400 prime Democratic voters (those who vote regularly in primaries) conducted in January on behalf of The New Republic by Embold Research. Respondents were given five choices to describe their ideology: conservative, moderate, moderate-to-liberal, liberal, and progressive. Only 12 percent said they identify as moderate, while another 21 percent called themselves moderate-to-liberal. And the interesting thing is that even among those two groups, their beliefs are pretty liberal.

Around 70 percent of moderates (combining the moderate and moderate-to-liberal respondents) said Democrats are “too timid” in taxing the rich, taxing corporations, and cracking down on companies that break the law. A clear majority of moderates said the party is too timid in regulating Big Tech companies. Fewer than 5 percent of moderates said Democrats are “too aggressive” in their dealings with the rich, corporations, and Big Tech.

On other issues, from government spending to fighting climate change to LGBTQ rights, the overwhelming majority of moderate respondents said that Democrats’ positions are “about right.” Overall, about 70 percent of moderate Democrats think the party’s economic policy positions are about right, compared to around 15 percent who think those stances are too liberal and another 15 percent who think they are too conservative. On social issues, about 65 percent of moderate Democrats are aligned with the party’s stances, while about 25 percent think the party’s positions are too liberal and 10 percent think they are too conservative.

[...] To be sure, there are differences within the party. Liberals and progressives are (of course) even more left-wing on all of these issues. In the TNR survey, a whopping 63 percent of progressives think Democrats are too conservative on economic issues. (Only about 15 percent of moderates think that.) Ninety-three percent of progressives think Democrats are too timid about taking on the rich. There are also demographic differences. The party’s moderate bloc has more African Americans, people without college degrees, people age 50–65, and people with family incomes below $50,000 than the party overall. The progressives are younger, whiter, richer, and more educated than the broader party.

And none of these surveys asked respondents about defunding police departments, abolishing the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, canceling education debt, and other firmly left-wing positions that might have shown a bigger gap between progressives and moderates and more outright opposition from moderates. But the overall picture is one where even the most moderate Democrats aren’t clamoring for a more aggressively centrist or conservative Democratic Party.

This data has important implications. Politicians associated with the party’s center-left wing, such as new governors Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey and Abigail Spanberger of Virginia, often take populist and progressive actions. That’s probably because that’s where their voters are. Sherrill and Spanberger are cracking down on ICE’s conduct in their states because that’s what even moderate Democrats want. Arizona Senator Ruben Gallego, who has also positioned himself as a moderate and is considering a 2028 presidential run, is warning corporations currently collaborating with the Trump administration that Democrats will break them up if they get back into power. Texas Senate candidate James Talarico is also courting moderates by attacking the wealthy.

The party’s growing liberalism doesn’t mean that Ocasio-Cortez will cruise to the 2028 nomination. What it means is that taking some progressive stands, particularly on economic issues, is probably a necessity for even 2028 candidates, such as Governors Andy Beshear and Josh Shapiro, who are trying to appeal to moderate voters. And more progressive hopefuls, such as Ocasio-Cortez and Representative Ro Khanna, have a real chance to win the nomination if they can convince moderate voters that they could win a general election.