Stick to Your Knitting, Democrats

Like Ruy Teixeira (“Eyes Wide Shut,” April 18), I’m a liberal who has warned Democrats about veering too far left. But Teixeira’s counsel risks overcorrection.

Teixeira argues that the “American Left” has saddled Democrats with a reputation for “militant identity politics, which lends the impression that the party is distracted by, or even focused on, issues of little relevance to most voters’ lives.” Therefore, Democrats should aggressively “rebrand” on issues such as race, crime, and immigration.

That’s like asking Democrats to pass out the ammunition before forming a circular firing squad.

The best way for a governing party to retain broad appeal is a good economy, which blunts any charges of ignoring the middle. Unfortunately for Democrats, today’s economic positives (job growth, low unemployment, higher wages) are offset by the big negative (inflation).

The original sin of the Biden presidency was not militant identity politics but the partisan, $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan. There was an opening for a smaller, bipartisan bill that would have contributed less to inflation and polarization while also dividing the GOP. Democrats did that with infrastructure, but inflation (upsetting “normies”) and the “Build Back Better” debacle (upsetting progressives) dampened the political benefit.

Where inflation goes from here will be determined mainly by the Fed, Vladimir Putin, and Covid-19; that’s out of Democrats’ hands. In the meantime, they’d be better off emphasizing issues with unifying potential, not issues guaranteed to provoke intraparty civil war. Maintaining a majority coalition requires uniting your team and dividing your opponents, not the other way around.

Bill Scher Political Writer Washington Monthly