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Since President Trump won the White House in 2016, a shocked Democratic Party had rallied behind the mission to defeat him. Four years later, with the election of Joseph R. Biden Jr., the long-simmering divisions among Democrats are now beginning to flare up openly, as the president-elect faces deep generational and ideological differences between the Democrats. congressional legislators, activists and the government. base of the party.
The fault lines began to emerge within hours of Biden’s victory. The moderates argued that their success, particularly in the industrial states of the Midwest that Trump snatched from the Democrats in 2016, was proof that a candidate who resisted progressive litmus tests was in the best position to win back voters. who had left the Democratic Party. Those tests included single-payer healthcare, aggressive measures to combat climate change, and expanding the Supreme Court.
“Progressives said we need a grassroots candidate,” said Rahm Emanuel, a former Chicago mayor and White House chief of staff under President Barack Obama, referring to a nominee appealing to the party’s left wing. “No, we didn’t. We needed someone to get undecided voters. If you campaign properly, you can turn that into a government transformation. “
The moderate Democrats said they were hopeful that the urgency of the problems facing the nation would delay the inevitable settling of scores the party faces between its ideological wings. Beyond that, they said a disappointing performance by Democrats in the Congressional elections – the party lost House seats and faces a fight for even tight control of the Senate – would give the Liberal Democrats one less platform to push. Biden to the left. .
After a forceful call among members of the House Democratic caucus, in which some argued that progressives who have considered ideas such as defunding the police or “Medicare for all” had cost the party Congress seats, some leaders Democrats moved further away from the left wing.
Rep. Conor Lamb, a Pennsylvania moderate who survived a tough Republican challenge, said the results should be a wake-up call to the left.
“What we heard from a lot of our constituents was that they don’t like the Democratic message when it comes to policing in western Pennsylvania, and when it comes to jobs and energy,” he said. “And that we have to work hard to fix that.”
But after four years of pent-up frustration and energy, that may prove unlikely. By all early indications, Biden’s election has emboldened progressive energy, regardless of setbacks in the races for Congress. There is a promising generation of Democratic elected officials who have been waiting behind the scenes, eager to take the lead in formulating a platform for the party.
After endorsing Biden as a means to defeat Trump, younger and more progressive Democrats who have gained a foothold in Congress and among party activists are skeptical of his future administration. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, setting out the terms of the policy in a statement after Mr. Biden was declared victorious, said: “A band-aid approach won’t do the job. We have a mandate for action on bold plans to address these economic and health crises. “
New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a prominent voice on the party’s left wing, said in a telephone interview that the next few weeks would set the tone for how the incoming administration will be greeted by liberal activists.
“I think that’s what people are watching for: Is this administration going to be actively hostile and try to schedule appointments that will only crush progressives and the organization?” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said. “I don’t envy Biden’s team. It is a very delicate balance. But I think it is very important to find a good one. Because it sends a very, very powerful message about the intention to govern ”.
The fault lines crystallize the task ahead of Biden, who has long viewed himself as a pragmatic consensus builder rather than a strict ideologue. In addition to fractures within his party, the Biden administration will also have to navigate a Republican Senate, unless Democrats win two seats in Georgia during the January runoff elections.
If the party does not win those seats, the already divided Washington is likely to endure.
Some moderate Democratic leaders urged the president-elect to avoid any internal conflict by adopting policies that both sides can agree on and reaching out to the left.
“The first thing I would do if I were Joe Biden is to propose a minimum wage of $ 15 an hour,” said Edward G. Rendell, a former governor of Pennsylvania and former chair of the Democratic National Committee. “That is something that both parties agree on. That would be the first action on behalf of President Biden to show that there are important parts of the progressive agenda that must be acted upon. “
Given the two rounds of the Senate taking place in Georgia, races that will determine whether Biden, like Obama, will begin his first term with a unified Washington, Biden may initially be reluctant to adopt positions that could make things easier for him. Republicans in Georgia to paint Democrats as radical socialists out of touch.
Biden has made clear that he intends for his administration’s cabinet to be diverse in race, gender and sexual orientation, but a left wing that has become disenchanted with the inherent idea of representation as progress will seek concessions of power.
Grassroots political groups on the left had a double message for the president-elect: Congratulations, and here is a list of demands. Several said they expected Biden to give in to some demands from progressives, not only selecting people from that branch of the party for key cabinet positions, but also excluding people with Wall Street backgrounds or lobbyists from the administration’s hiring process. . However, Biden’s flexibility to make the cabinet appointments sought by the left will be limited if the Senate remains in Republican hands.
Jamaal Bowman, a progressive New York Democrat who will be sworn in in the next Congress, opined that Biden’s victory was not an assertion of a moderate ideology, but rather a testimony from a diverse Democratic Party that had embraced the shared goal of defeating a unpopular president. He cited work during the general election of progressive groups and candidates who opposed Biden during the Democratic primaries, including young climate organizers like the Sunrise Movement, and said they should be rewarded.
“We have to put the moderate versus liberal talks behind us and start talking and moving together as a strong party,” Bowman said. “We have organizations like the Sunrise Movement and candidates like Jamaal Bowman who have worked to get Joe Biden elected.”
Ocasio-Cortez said she expected a long-term fight, particularly given the Democrats’ setbacks in congressional races. He also cited the cabinet appointments as a way to gauge Biden’s ideological core.
He said that some people, including Mr. Emanuel, should not play a role in the future of the party. The former mayor has been proposed by some in Biden’s inner circle to run a department like housing or transportation.
“Someone like Rahm Emanuel would be a pretty divisive choice,” he said, citing his record as mayor on racial justice and his opposition to teacher unions. “And it would be a sign, I think, of a hostile approach towards the rank and file and the progressive wing of the party.”
It’s unclear what kind of audience progressives will find with Biden and his administration. Throughout the year, his campaign sought to project unity through measures such as a joint task force with supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders, who spearheaded a campaign to adopt some of the left’s political proposals, including plans on college debt. . But Biden didn’t get to the bigger ideas, like eliminating the Electoral College or adopting statehood for Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico.
Some moderate Democratic Party leaders said they supported many of the left’s ideological goals but, reflecting what has long been a split between the two wings, urged caution, particularly given Democratic losses in other races.
“We all have to take a deep breath, ”said Rep. Debbie Dingell, a Democrat from Michigan, a state that Trump snatched from Democrats in 2016 but Biden took back this year. “I know there will be people who will push for change. I’m one of those people who want Medicare for all. “
She argued that Democrats should be careful not to turn down voters Trump won in 2016, or otherwise risk another similar candidate.
“I also know that we cannot afford to have Donald Trump as president,” he said.
But Stanley Greenberg, a Democratic pollster who advised President Bill Clinton when he successfully brought the party to the center in the 1990s, said Biden could delay divisional struggles between parties because of the enormity of the crises he faces.
“The nature of the pandemic and the economic and health crisis is so profound that it will inherit an emergency mandate,” he said. “Unity within the party and unity within the country.”
But for some on the left, the pandemic and the resulting economic crisis were reasons to put more pressure on the administration, not to back down. They cited mistakes made when Obama began his administration in 2009, when many believed the party’s progressive wing was too deferential to the new president at a time of economic crisis.
“I don’t think there’s a grace period for Biden, because the country doesn’t have time for a grace period,” said Heather McGhee, former president of Demos, a progressive policy and research organization. “One million more people in poverty do not have time for a grace period. A racial epidemic and the coronavirus pandemic are not taking a grace period. By being declared the winner, he needs to start a team that can really change Washington. “
Nina Turner, co-chair of Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign, said she expected progressives to put pressure on the transition team and the Biden administration early on. When asked how open he thought Mr. Biden would be on the left, he said: “If the rhetoric being used in the election campaign is any indication, not very open.”
Still, he said, “things have an amazing way to change once you’re in the office and you have that pressure.”
