The Democratic Party doesn’t need unifying: Factions are just fine

It is an assumption about the nature of political parties that they must have a direction, and that direction must speak for most candidates and politicians within the party family. But why? Why can’t there be factions, as there most assuredly are in the Democratic Party?

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is going to run in November as a democratic socialist regardless of what direction, if any, the Democratic Party takes in the months ahead. Likewise, there are an increasing number of millennials who are excited about running as democratic socialists, probably more so than Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and a broad swath of the Democratic Party are certainly not going to embrace democratic socialism as the direction of the Democratic Party in the months ahead.

And party centrists (admittedly not a big crowd these days), like Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan, are even more opposed to democratic socialism than Ms. Pelosi and her followers. So the centrists, like the establishment liberals and the socialists, are not going to sign onto some new party platform.

It would be best if Democratic strategists stopped trying to figure out a way to unify the party between now and Election Day 2020 when these factions are inevitable.

Will Rogers had his hands on a deep point when he said he is not a member of an “organized” political party. He’s a member of the Democratic Party. It’s time for Democrats to unify around the idea that they have no one unified message — and then fight each battle, each race, each issue, one at a time.