The Jig Is Up

There will always be political opportunists.

Each generation has them. Individuals who see a way to take advantage of the current political situation to make a name for themselves and, more importantly, their brand. They are the ones openly seeking the limelight. They never turn down free publicity. In a world where the most efficient legislators bury themselves in drafting and crafting legislation, these opportunities seek a way to share their unfiltered, uncensored thoughts on the latest political topic. They remind us all of the know-it-alls in school but unlike our school chums, these political opportunists actually don't know much at all. But that never stops them from loving the sound of their own voice and projecting that voice onto the American public as often as possible.

The year 2016 brought this to new levels. It was an election that pitted one of our country's most uniquely qualified candidates against the most vile and reprehensible man to ever run for the presidency of the United States. At a time when good Democrats knew who to vote for, there emerged a growing faction on the left centered on White male grievance. This movement, led by lifelong political backbencher Bernie Sanders, would denigrate and degrade Hillary Clinton as a way to try and boost Sanders' own longshot campaign. Despite what our media said then, the 2016 Democratic primary was never even remotely competitive. But that didn't stop Sanders and his followers from dragging out their attacks up through the Democratic convention. With core staff like Briahna Joy Gray and Nina Turner going so far as to refuse to vote for Hillary Clinton, there emerged a small but vocal group of Sanders' most diehard supporters who believed they knew what it took to win elections. Starting shortly after the convention, they would have their chance to prove their theories. 

The Justice Democrats and Our Revolution emerged over the next six months as political action committees founded by former Bernie Sanders staff members and Democratic Party critics such as Cenk Uygur and Kyle Kulinski of The Young Turks. Their mission, as stated by a series of tweets by the Justice Democrats, was to destroy the Democratic Party from the inside by bringing in their own firebrand slate of candidates to elected positions with the hope that they would eventually be able to shift the party so far to the left that it would be hardly recognizable from the one that ran Hillary Clinton as its standard bearer. In 2017, the Justice Democrats convinced three existing Democratic congresspeople to publicly align themselves with the organization. In 2018, they aimed to do this by taking down longstanding Democratic congressmen who were seemingly out of touch with the changing demographics of their congressional district. The Justice Democrats, in particular, prioritized funding to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez whom they saw as a poster child for their efforts. Overall, the organization ran 79 candidates earning 26 wins including 4 additional members of Congress, with Ocasio-Cortez leading the way. Each congressional district won was a heavily blue district with no serious general election competition. 

While this newly elected group of 7 nicknamed themselves "the Squad" and became media darlings, the truth is that they accomplished next to nothing while serving in Congress. Less than 6 years into their first election, the Squad has become synonymous with their extreme views and foolhardy rhetoric. This largely stems from the fact that while there have been a handful of additional Justice Democrats and Our Revolution candidates elected to Congress, not a single one of them has won a competitive general election. This is because their Far Left views and policy positions are simply too extreme for more moderate districts and their rhetoric can be offputting for Democratic voters who understand what it takes to actually win. While it may have felt good for candidates to talk about "defunding the police" the truth was that this was a losing message that played right into Republican hands. The major reason why this Far Left movement hasn't grown is that as we saw in 2020, the Democratic base actually likes moderate Democrats who have sound policy positions that align with their own. When you stress pragmatic solutions rather than shooting for the moon, you can actually keep voters engaged rather than having them disillusioned when your overly ambitious policy proposals do not come to fruition. 

We've also seen the Squad simply show themselves to not understand how government works. In November of 2021, six members of the Squad voted against the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill because they falsely believed that they would have to choose whether to support this bill or the Build Back Better Act, which would later become the Inflation Reduction Act. Because of their naivety, Speaker Nancy Pelosi had to recruit 13 House Republicans to vote yes on the bill at a time when every single Democratic vote was needed to pass the bill. Having the Squad believe that they knew more about the legislative process than Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and Joe Biden was quite eye-opening for your average Democrat who may have thought that the Squad members were team players. This ended up being a significant event for the Squad as for the first time their intentions were being publicly questioned. Combined with the fact that Squad members like Ocasio-Cortez and Jamaal Bowman are now taking credit for the funding provided by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill and you can see how badly they screwed up their November 2021 vote.

But while a bad vote may have been forgivable, what has truly been the nail in the coffin of the Squad has been the raging antisemitism of several of its members. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib has been under fire for her antisemitic remarks since 2019 and has been a vocal critic of what she is referring to as Israel's "genocide" in its ongoing war in Palestine. Summer Lee, a 2022 addition to the Squad, came under fire for her anti-Israel rhetoric in March when a group of over 40 rabbis and cantors wrote an open letter denouncing her public statements. Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has a history of making antisemitic remarks, culminating in an April remark where she accused Jewish students who support Israel of being "pro-genocide." In New York, Congressman Jamaal Bowman has been under fire since March when it was revealed that he believed the October reports of Israeli rapes to have been "propaganda." Bowman refused to apologize until last week which has led to him fighting for his political life in this evening's Democratic primary. With both Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez injecting themselves into the race, we might very well be seeing the first Squad member booted from Congress. At a time when you would expect the Squad to be growing, it appears to be shrinking. 

That is no accident. Tonight's NY-16 race is in many ways a culmination of their movement. The Justice Democrats and Our Revolution were founded with the belief that the Democratic Party needed to be pushed to the left to succeed. But we've seen the exact opposite over the past seven years. What we've seen is that moderate, pragmatic policy can be, in a word, revolutionary. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have enacted transformation legislation that will positively impact the country for generations to come. They have acted on gun violence prevention, on climate, on infrastructure, on student loan debt forgiveness, on improved healthcare, and on immigration reform among others. Moderate legislators like Lauren Underwood from Illinois have drafted multiple bills into law. Meanwhile, the Squad has failed to move the needle on any issue that they allegedly cared about. Cori Bush, elected as a result of her activism around the Black Lives Matter movement, has used her time in Congress to perform theatrics rather than produce policy and as a result seems likely to join Bowman is losing her seat this primary season. Potentially being two members down and still having no viable Senate candidates shows once again just how limited this "movement" has become. When you reach your peak at 13 members of Congress you cannot in good faith say that you've actually made any sort of substantial difference in somehow "destroying" the Democratic Party when the 117th Congress under a Democratic trifecta was one of the most productive in history. 

Perhaps the greatest irony of all is that a movement that was created to spite Hillary Clinton may essentially end tonight due, in part, to her involvement. Because who better than to be on the winning side of a race against Bernie Sanders and Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez than Hillary Clinton herself? Knowing of Jamaal Bowman's antisemitic remarks, Hillary Clinton chose to wade into the primary and endorse Bowman's opponent, George Lattimer, on June 10. Here we stand, over 7 years later and the Far Left still thinks it knows better than traditional Democrats. They still think that people in Westchester, New York actually care about Bernie Sanders. They still think that they can scapegoat AIPAC as some nefarious shadow organization like they tried to do with Nina Turner's loss. They still think that having large GOTV rallies is more important than last-minute phone calls and door-knocking. Watching Bowman's campaign implode is why Justice Democrats lose time and time again: they simply don't understand how to win a competitive primary in a moderate district. 

Democrats dodged a bullet these past 7 years by not allowing the Squad to become our version of the Tea Party. Credit is due to Nancy Pelosi for neutering those within her caucus. Credit is due to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris for not engaging the Squad on social media or in the press. And credit is due to the Democratic Party voters, particularly the base of Black voters who have seen this movement as being White-centered and not representative of the party as a whole. Black voters saw early on how it was Hillary Clinton and later Joe Biden who spoke for them rather than Bernie Sanders. By only allowing the movement to pick up a handful of congressional seats, Black voters have made it clear that they don't want pie-in-the-sky policy proposals; they simply want sound, pragmatic legislation that can improve their lives in meaningful ways. This was a message that the Justice Democrats and Our Revolution failed to hear because doing so would have required tedious, actual base-building work which is something they simply couldn't be bothered to do. 

So sit back and relax this evening. Jamaal Bowman will become the first member of the Squad to lose his seat. Bernie Sanders and AOC will once again have a failed endorsement. Hillary Clinton will be casually enjoying a glass of wine at her Westchester residence. And real, honest-to-goodness Democrats everywhere will rejoice knowing that the Far Left is continuing to lose when it matters. The sooner we eject the Squad and its failed ideology from Congress the better. Because as we saw with the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, the Squad will knowingly torpedo legislation when they think that doing so helps raise their own profile. We have enough of that from Republicans, we don't need that from our own party. Democrats get things done because they put their egos aside and enact legislation that does the most amount of good for the most amount of people. 

A lesson that the Squad refuses to learn.

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