Sorry, But Primary Challenges Need To Be On The Table Next Election
Democrats need to know that rolling over on us will have consequences.
One of the big points of contention between progressive Democrats and the more mainstream Democrats over the last few years has been the practice of issuing primary challenges, often to Democrats who lean to the right of their constituencies. Well, unless the one issuing the primary challenge is a Kennedy and the person they’re challenging is a progressive, because that’s obviously entirely different.
As someone who hates the idea of legislators getting too comfortable, I’m not all that mad at the idea of primary challenges, even though they don’t always work out the way I’d like them to. I don’t think we should be so scared of debate and dissension within the ranks, and I also believe it can actually help the eventual winner get their message out to the people more effectively. But that’s neither here nor there.
The fact is, right now, we are being let the fuck down by a fairly large majority of our legislators. You know, the ones who spent the last year or so screaming that Donald Trump would mean the end of democracy? Was that meant to include an asterisk that “*It will be the end of democracy because we’re just gonna go ahead and roll over and give him whatever he wants, even though that’s the exact opposite of what everyone who voted for us wants us to do”?
They know damn well that’s not what the people who voted for them want them to do, and yet … just look at this list of who voted to confirm Trump’s pick John Ratcliffe as head of the CIA this week. Only 25 Democrats voted against him.
As Director of National Intelligence from 2019 to 2020, Ratcliffe declassified unverified Russian intelligence in order to give Trump an edge in the 2020 election and also hindered the release of information about the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. When he was first nominated to the position, all Democrats could talk about was how unqualified he was due to his lack of experience and his blind loyalty to Trump. But apparently all he had to say for himself in his confirmation hearing was that (this time!) he’d be totally unbiased, and 21 Democrats lined up to vote for him. Gross!
Just look at that list, which I am going to need to point out includes Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Sheldon Whitehouse who should know better, and Peter Welch who sure as hell does know better. Even freaking Michael Steele knows better.
“They think we’re playing the 1980s, Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill-kinda kumbaya moment. ‘Yeah, we skirmish here and there, but in the end we’re gonna have a little toast with some bourbon or some good whiskey and call it even.’ No, that’s not what this is,” Steele said recently.
“I very much respect Hakeem Jeffries, very much excited about his leadership, but you do not hand over the gavel and say we’re putting down our swords and picking up our bipartisan plowshares! They’re gonna shove those plowshares up your behind!”
See? The (ex-) Republican gets it! This is not just me being a kooky progressive who thinks everyone has to have the politics of Bernie Sanders and AOC. In fact, I feel pretty certain that “Not doing what Trump wants” is the lowest possible bar for anyone who doesn’t have an R next to their name.
Oh! And let’s not even start with whatever Fettermanchinema is doing, what with his visits to Mar-a-Lago and “If you're rooting against the president, you are rooting against the nation” nonsense. He may have abstained from this vote, but he and Ruben Gallego (D-Arizona) co-sponsored the Senate version of the grotesque Laken Riley Act, while Mark Kelly (Arizona), Jon Ossoff (Georgia), Gary Peters (Michigan), Jacky Rosen (Nevada), Catherine Cortez Masto (Nevada), Jeanne Shaheen (New Hampshire), Maggie Hassan (New Hampshire), Mark Warner (Virginia), and Elissa Slotkin (Michigan) voted for it.
I understand that a lot of people find primarying incumbents to be beyond the pale or at least distasteful. There are those who don’t like it for logistical reasons as well, in terms of seniority on committees. That’s a fair enough point, but you’re all gonna have to get the hell over it. If these people aren’t actually helping us and feel no pressure to do so, how helpful can it possibly be for them to even be on these committees? Wouldn’t it be better to start getting some people who were actually willing to fight on them anyway?
We need to be able to have something to say when we call our legislators and tell them how we want them to vote, because “Hey, please vote this way but don’t worry if you don’t because I’ll definitely vote for you anyway!” is just not that convincing of an argument. We have to at least be open to considering other candidates if these people don’t have our backs, because we deserve to have legislators that do. We need some kind of leverage, and frankly, this is the only play we’ve got.
Now, sure — we all know it can’t be every district or every state. There are, unfortunately, some pretty purple areas where the devil we know is preferable. But there are a whole lot of other areas where we do have run of the place and there is no reason on earth for any legislator from those areas to be sailing on the good ship Bipartisanpop right now. Republicans sure as hell wouldn’t be doing it if they were in our place. Remember when Obama won and Mitch McConnell vowed to undermine him at every turn? That’s the energy we need here. This idea that constantly resisting Trump in his first term was a failure is a lie. We won back the House during midterms and we won the next election. Trump has the House and the Senate on his side right now, he does not need any help from those who are supposed to be working for us.
We have reason to be nervous, because of what Trump is already starting to do to this country, so it’s only fair that our elected officials feel a little nervous as well. Maybe if they’re nervous, if they think that if they don’t do their job we’ll replace them with someone who will, they might just step their game up a little more.
Republicans actually showed the way to do it. There is no middle of the road anymore. You either want popular ideas like universal health care, pre-k and community college along with sensible gun control and abortion rights or you don’t.
Democrats need to stand for this agenda with everything they have and stop trying to get the mushy middle.
People want real changes. Republicans offered it. They’re horrible changes but in voters minds that was enough.
I’ve written to my NH senators, as I hope every one of you from AZ, GA, MI, NV, and VA have. I put it in no uncertain terms that if they enabled this maladministration I would actively work to get them voted out of office. If they don’t know we’re pissed they’ll just keep on with business as usual. They know that every actual letter/email they get represents probably 100 people who feel the same but didn’t write. So WRITE.