A Big Tent Party by Barry Rosenbaum

There has been a great deal of consternation expressed this week about the results in the three congressional primaries in New York City that occurred on Tuesday. Mamdani-backed candidates won all three races. Charlie Sykes, who I read almost daily, entitled his Wednesday piece “New York’s Gift to Donald Trump.”  He took this view notwithstanding his recognition that each of these races occurred in NYC, not exactly a bastion of conservatism, and none of these seats were even close to being majority-making swing districts. He also did not mention that much more moderate Democratic candidates won in NY-17, in South Carolina’s 1st District, and in Utah’s 1st District. Charlie was, of course, not alone in this reaction. 

Yet, the more insightful story would be about the Democratic Party’s present success in attracting candidates that are actually reflective of the district in which they are running. It is true that Mamdani would not come close to winning in plenty of places in this country. So what? He is not running in those places. But the Democrats have fielded candidates who most assuredly can.  This is the nature of a big-tent party. This is the nature of democracy. If you want to be part of the Democratic party, but have a narrow focus of political correctness, you might want to reconsider your position. 

This misguided focus also plays directly into the Republicans’ playbook.  “Socialism” is the bogeyman that the Republican Party has trotted out over generations every time governmental programs are proposed that truly attempt to address the needs of all Americans—be it Social Security, Medicare, or Obamacare.  As President Harry Truman stated in 1952 while on the campaign trail, socialism is “a scare word they have hurled at every advance the people have made in the last 20 years.”  That is exactly right, but now instead of merely the last 20 years, this is a scare tactic used over the course of the last 100 years. Damn, we are slow to learn. Why in the world would we want to continue to play into that? We should not fear discourse on a broad range of issues and ideas. Indeed, if ever there was a time to be bold and expansive in our thinking, now is the moment.

The American people are clamoring for an economic program designed to meet the needs of all —affordable health care, education, childcare, and housing; a living wage; control over personal life choices; and a tax system that the wealthy and corporations will not be able to avoid. This is not socialism. It is what a humane society does for its people. It is what the United States has failed to do for decades. We must begin to rectify our country’s misdirection immediately.

The American people are also clamoring for candidates who have the strength and moral integrity to counter MAGA’s lust for power and riches. The Democratic candidates selected by the voters during this primary season have those characteristics in spades. In contrast, the current Republican Party is the darling of white supremacists, immoral tech tycoons, and fascists. They have long since forfeited any right to set the future course of this country. Let us raise our voices now and vote in overwhelming numbers in November, rejecting White Supremacy and Christian Nationalism in all of its despicable permutations.

Now is not the time to get mired in the dirty work of this disgraceful Republican Party and to respond to their warped worldview as if it is any longer worthy of debate. Given our current stakes, we cannot afford to succumb to their trickery and deceit but must focus our energies on building a country that strives to include everyone because we know that We The People means all the people. There is no more meaningful way to celebrate our 250th anniversary than that.