Watching elements of the Democratic Party establishment respond to insurgencies is a recurring spectacle. After Senator Bernie Sanders won several early contests in the 2020 presidential nominating process, the establishment panicked. In 2016, Sanders had almost beaten their favorite, Hillary Clinton, before they intervened with questionable cash infusions and mobilized hundreds of superdelegates to give Clinton an apparent lead. Despite beating back Sanders in 2016, he returned in 2020, winning against their preferred candidate, former Vice President Joseph Biden. Following Sanders' early wins, an anti-Sanders television advertising campaign was launched, arguing that Sanders was too old, his socialist views too radical, and that he would cost Democrats down-ballot races.
Anti-Sanders Campaign and Talking Points
These ads represented the party's talking points. On television talk shows and in newspaper commentaries, themes of Sanders being too old, too radical, and a liability for Democrats were repeated. Ironically, despite the establishment's hysteria, polls continued to show Sanders beating Biden in the primary and performing better against Donald Trump in the general election. This recent history is worth recalling as a similar scenario unfolds in the Democratic establishment's reaction to this year's mid-term elections. With their favored candidates losing several big-city mayoral contests, a few Senate primaries, and over a dozen congressional races, the establishment is panicking and making hysterical claims to scare voters.
Harsh Attacks on Insurgents
Because many victorious insurgents are members of the Democratic Socialists of America or endorsed by Senator Sanders, the attack language from establishment Democrats has been extraordinarily harsh. Insurgents are routinely called extremists, far left, or bomb throwers who hate America, and are charged with holding the party hostage to their socialist views. Their election, it is claimed, would wreak havoc in Congress. One member of Congress actually called the insurgents a growing cancer that needed to be rooted out.
Lessons from 1988 and 2020
Several observations can be made. After a similar insurgent-establishment standoff in the 1988 Democratic presidential primary, Jesse Jackson famously noted: It takes two wings to fly. He cautioned liberals and moderates to find ways to work together because both were needed to win. The Clinton campaign did not do this in 2016, but in 2020 the Biden campaign smartly formed teams with Sanders' people to write a joint party platform that helped heal the divide between the party's two wings.
The Role of Israel in Attacks
Secondly, both the 2020 advertising attacks on Sanders and the current assault on mid-term insurgents are about Israel without ever mentioning Israel. In 2020, dramatic TV ads excoriated Sanders for being too old or too radical and then, strangely, had the tagline Paid for by the Democratic Majority for Israel. Similarly, the almost $50 million spent to defeat this year's insurgents came from groups backed by the pro-Israel lobby, AIPAC. Again, the ads do not attack the insurgents for their position on Palestinian rights or opposition to continuing military aid to Israel in the wake of the genocide in Gaza. But despite not mentioning it, Israel is the obvious reason AIPAC or DMFI are so heavily invested in defeating these insurgents.
Why Insurgents Are Winning
The establishment fails to seriously consider why these insurgents are winning. They give facile answers like urban angst and youthful naivety or the less serious hatred of Israel. But they ignore the real problem—voters, especially Democratic voters, do not see the status quo working for them. Being against Trump is not enough, nor is simply observing that things cost too much. They want these problems addressed with programs that work. It rings hollow simply to mimic New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's affordability mantra without also embracing his detailed program to make life more affordable. If that means taxing billionaires, rent control, raising the minimum wage, universal day care, and healthcare as a right, not a privilege—and if the establishment wants to term this socialism, so be it.
Cautionary Note
Finally, a caution: This effort to besmirch the insurgent victors only drives a deeper wedge between the party's ideological wings and hands Republicans weapons to use against Democrats in the general election. Dr. James J. Zogby, President of the Arab American Institute, wrote this analysis.
