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The Democratic establishment has never looked more vulnerable to progressive upheaval; Biden’s supposed leadership bridge to a new generation leads nowhere. “Moderate” darling transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg has seen his slim national prospects dwindle with every near-miss in the air and toxic train derailment on the ground. Vice President Kamala Harris has been about as visible as Biden was on the 2020 campaign trail — and a geriatric Capitol Hill leadership class appears on its last legs. The scene is set for the party’s progressives to strike. And yet there is little relief in sight for the party’s left wing as its own geriatric champion rides off into the sunset.
Bernie Sanders is the closest the hip, young left comes to a rockstar, though the octogenarian’s not one to rip off his fans with a faux farewell Ticketmaster rip-off tour, even if his acolytes do dole out $100 apiece to attend live readings of his new book, It’s OK to Be Angry About Capitalism. Bernie may hate corporate profits, but he is not above a good cash grab, for nothing is more capitalistic than a maverick politician getting a six-figure advance while leaving crumbs for the ghostwriter who must hurriedly throw together a pile of words with zero literary, historic or educational merit. Sanders’s new book is not a manifesto so much as a self-exculpating lamentation about how “Our ideas… [once] dismissed as too extreme to be politically viable, had become part of the mainstream Democratic Party agenda.”
One gets the sense that Bernie himself is not hopeful for the future, for while the Democratic Party platform may include homages to the Vermont socialist, they are absent from US legal code. His once aspirational book titles — Outsider in the White House, Our Revolution: A Future to Believe In — have given way to a self-help desperation that would make Tony Robbins blush. Alas, the new, nurturing title did not hit shelves in time to save Bernie acolyte John Fetterman, who marked his arrival in the US Senate by checking himself into a hospital for depression. Fans may be clamoring for Bernie to throw his hat back into the presidential ring to succeed Joe Biden, but the book tour has the look and feel of a long, rueful goodbye. Fetterman’s falling star only emphasizes the dearth of successors capable of overcoming the Democratic establishment when the next primary rolls around. There is no one left to succeed Bernie Sanders as the harmless great-uncle of socialism. The obvious names — like Squad members AOC, Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar — may seem the natural heiresses apparent, but they will fail to hold up the mantle. Bernie arose in public life as a hopeless romantic tilting at oil wells rather than (beloved) windmills. He embraced a hate-the-sin-love-the-sinner mindset that is absent from the Squad.
The key to Bernie’s success has been that he is a universalist who thinks everyone can be redeemed if they are exposed to the right ideas. But his heirs seem to think that such naiveté has given the rich a sense of security and allowed Bernie to be taken advantage of by the establishment. They don’t realize how powerful redemption is as a moral and political concept. Bernie had national appeal because he thought Trump voters could be redeemed, pointing out in his book that “many of these so-called racist Americans voted for Barack Obama, our first black president, and for ‘hope’ and ‘change’ and ‘Yes We Can.’ And they voted to reelect him, but their lives did not get better.” Hell, he even has an entire section named, “Don’t Hate Elon Musk, Hate the System that Made Musk Possible.” Bernie has always made it clear he only hates 1 percent of the American population (and Elizabeth Warren for betraying him in 2020).
The Squad, on the other hand, hates at least 48 percent of the population. Their increasingly intersectional and identity-obsessed insurgent left has made it clear it is not here to save all souls. This is not a missionary approach; it is one of Calvinism and preemption with the enlightened elect. The Squad’s partisan purity may elevate them within insurgent left circles, but it will sabotage any hope of achieving a national movement the way Sanders did. Perhaps this is why the uber-rich of the Democratic establishment are so eager to co-opt them. The Squad is fêted at Netflix headquarters and the Met Gala for the simple reason that they can be sated by the trappings of designer dresses with radical slogans on them. When Bernie says in his book that “the Democratic Party has abandoned [the working class] for wealthy campaign contributors and the ‘beautiful people,’” he is sending a warning shot not just toward the establishment, but to the Squad.
If party elites truly thought the Squad was married to Sanders’s ideals, it would be the Pelosi-led machine, not Republicans, clamoring for ethics investigations into their campaign funds. Democrats are hopeful the Hollywood treatment will work, that sufficient “Yas Queen” deference will allow them to maintain control. Sure, they will allow Squad members to set up outer-borough fiefdoms, but only because they know Manhattan will be protected.
If party elites truly thought the Squad was married to Sanders’s ideals, it would be the Pelosi-led machine, not Republicans, clamoring for ethics investigations into their campaign funds
This playbook worked swimmingly when Democratic machines divided up borough controls by race or ethnicity a century ago, but Pelosi and co. also appear to have drawn inspiration from across the aisle. Party leaders have used the progressives for their own ends, as a Tea Party-esque ploy to turn out the indifferent base behind their rudderless boat. So far, the establishment’s cynical gamble has paid off, and perhaps this is why they are optimistic about the lack of an heir apparent. But that should be the scariest proposition of all. The Tea Party was mocked up and down by the GOP establishment during the 2010, 2012, and 2014 election cycles without making any significant legislative gains for the base. GOP leaders entered 2016 confident in Jeb Bush’s ability to triumph over the junior rising stars they had so successfully swallowed. Trump emerged in 2016 because he was able to translate the base’s sense of betrayal in Washington: political realignment gives members of a base assurance they do not have to settle anymore, allowing new entrants to bypass party firewalls.
While the Tea Party yielded several rising stars in the GOP, particularly at the gubernatorial and Senate levels, the insurgent left has thus far failed to achieve statewide successes beyond Fetterman’s defeat of a TV doctor. The biggest gains progressives have made in recent years are in local district attorney races with key assists from billionaire financier George Soros. Those experiments have been wildly successful from a campaign investment perspective, but total failures politically as violent crime has surged. The record number of recall petitions and impeachment attempts — from San Francisco and LA to Philadelphia — do not bode well for their future prospects. Perhaps this is why Bernie is hesitant to crown a successor. He gives a few shoutouts to his fellow travelers and newly elected candidates, but he introduces them with the warmness of a grocery list, not going much beyond a wooden recitation of their states of origin and titles.
The Democratic establishment only pretends to be scared of the Squad to satisfy their egos as would-be revolutionaries
Finding Bernie’s successor will involve identifying those who do not pay mere lip service to progressivism, but have actively sacrificed for the cause while instilling fear in the hearts of the establishment. But one gets the sense the Democratic establishment only pretends to be scared of the Squad to satisfy their egos as would-be revolutionaries. It pulled out all the stops to squash Bernie in 2020 but rolls out the red carpet for AOC — the same way the GOP establishment once affected the tricorn hats of Tea Party crazies even as it knifed Ron Paul. The disaffected Tea Partiers — not to mention some Bernie Bros — turned to Trump for their revenge in 2016, spurning the rising stars of their movement. The more the Democratic establishment has compromised the Squad, the more likely angry voters will be to embrace some progressive monster that no one sees coming — and Pelosi, AOC, et al., will be powerless to stop them.
My money is on Keith Ellison. Of all the politicians Bernie cites in his book, the Minnesota attorney general gets the warmest treatment as both “friend and longtime supporter.” He has street credibility from taking on the Democratic establishment after his failed bid to lead the DNC. The quixotic attempt led him to return to Minnesota seemingly with his tail between his legs, but the murder of George Floyd pushed him back into the national spotlight. His successful prosecution of disgraced cop Derek Chauvin helped solidify support both within establishment and radical circles. He has true progressive bona fides and radical views sufficient for DSA types, while checking the correct identity boxes that will prevent a repeat South Carolina sandbagging. His biggest obstacle may be the accusations of antisemitism and his association with the Nation of Islam. It will also be interesting to see if he can overcome the violence and anarchy that have plagued Minneapolis in the wake of its crackdown on the police department. Democrats have been willing to let the local left machine take the blame for the chaos so far, but such protection may vanish if he makes a bid for the White House.
Establishment Democrats may try to rest easy at the dearth of potential Bernie Bro professors and return to trying to pass off Buttigieg as competent and Kamala as likable, but they cannot afford to repeat the tactics that successfully smothered Bernie in 2016 and 2020. They may think a few platform tweaks can satisfy the progressive base, but it is only a matter of time before the base bites back. Just ask Jeb! Bush.
This article was originally published in The Spectator’s May 2023 World edition.
