Overhaul system or tread centrist course?
Connecticut Democrats split on direction of their party
Audrey Blondin went to the Democratic National Convention in 2016 as an enthusiastic Bernie Sanders delegate.
But this time around, Blondin, the secretary of the state Democratic Party, is breaking with Sanders and his promise to radically overhaul government, redistribute wealth through tax policy and swap private health insurance with a government-run system. Instead, she is drawn to the youthful energy and the political pragmatism of South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg.
“There is a difference between talking the talk and walking the walk and actually getting things done,” said Blondin, an attorney from Litchfield who has long been active in Connecticut politics. “It comes down to who is better at getting it done … and who has a more realistic approach, and that’s Mayor Pete.”
Blondin’s shift is reflective of the great
debate raging within the Democratic Party as it gears up for the 2020 presidential election. The centrists running for president, including former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, former New York City Mayor and billionaire Michael Bloomberg and Buttigieg, argue that the party’s progressive wing is pushing policies the American public is not ready to accept.
Gov. Ned Lamont is squarely within the camp of moderates who caution against chasing unrealistic policies with little chance of passage.
“It’s easy to take a blank white piece of paper and come up with what you want,” said Lamont, a Democrat who has endorsed — and raised money for — Biden.
“But progress is only progress if you get things done. Occasionally, you have to compromise. You’ve got to have strong principles … but at the end of the day, you’ve got to move the ball down the field.”
Former President Barack Obama weighed in recently, urging the 2020 field to “pay some attention to where voters actually are.” The popular former president, who has not publicly made an endorsement in the race, counseled the candidates against promoting a far-left agenda that could alienate independent voters. He also warned against ideological “purity tests” that could divert attention away from efforts from the party’s ultimate goal: defeating President Donald Trump.
“It is very important for all the candidates who are running at every level to pay some attention to where voters actually are,” Obama told Democratic donors last week.
“This is still a country that is less revolutionary than it is interested in improvement. They like seeing things improved. But the average American doesn’t think that we have to completely tear down the system and remake it.
And I think it’s important for us not to lose sight of that.”
Those in the Elizabeth WarrenBernie Sanders wing emphatically reject such calculations.
“People need a reason to get out and vote, and that reason has to be about more than opposition to Donald Trump,” said state Rep. Edwin Vargas of Hartford, who backed Sanders in 2016 but has endorsed Warren this time.
The big ideas put forward by the Massachusetts senator about overhauling health care, addressing income inequality and instituting reparations for descendants of enslaved people will energize the electorate and boost turnout, he said.
“If we want to get young people excited, if we want people who have not traditionally voted to participate, we have to show that there’s some promise for the future,” Vargas said. “Elizabeth Warren has come up with strong positions. She’s also a woman, and I think it’s time to break that glass ceiling.”
And Warren’s ideas aren’t as radical as often portrayed, he said.
“She knows how to be pragmatic,” Vargas said, noting that her government-run health care plan would be phased in over time. “She supports a capitalist system. She may have progressive ideas, but she’s not a socialist.”
The notion of electability is something of a false construct, said Maya Gomberg, a sophomore at Wesleyan University and a campus organizer for Warren.
“I think that electability is a strategy employed, whether purposefully or not, in order to reinforce the norms of who can be elected from a generation ago,” she said. “People who are considered ‘electable’ are almost solely moderate, cis, white men, and clearly other people, despite all obstacles, are being elected.”
Obama himself, with his community organizing background, African American heritage and Muslim middle name, faced those same electability questions “and even with his winning the presidency, the bar only continues to shift farther toward mediocrity,” Gomberg said.
Obama’s comments might not have much resonance in the 2020 race, said Gary Winfield, a state senator from New Haven.
“President Obama is thinking very conventionally about how you win an election,” said Winfield, who hasn’t made an endorsement but says he’s been impressed by Sanders, Sen. Kamala Harris of California and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro, among others.
Obama “wasn’t a conventional candidate,” Winfield added. “What allowed him to win wasn’t just that he was a centrist but that people felt an affinity for him. … He was lightning in a bottle.”
State Rep. Josh Elliott of Hamden said a lack of bold, transformational policies contributed to the Democrats’ defeat in the presidential election in 2016.
“I’m disappointed with the line of thinking that says we can’t have big ideas,” said Elliott, who is supporting Warren. “That’s essentially members of the party telling us not to try. Having a wide range of choices is part of the process, and the idea that someone with a larger and grander vision is somehow unelectable is disingenuous and inaccurate.”
But Blondin said proposals such as mandatory governmentrun health care and the elimination of all private health insurance will turn many voters away.
“We live in America, and we love the concept of freedom of choice,” she said. “So to stand there and say we are scrapping the entire existing health care system, well, that’s never going to happen.”
Some Democrats say the divide between the pragmatists and the progressives isn’t as deep as it appears. “I do not personally believe that these two ideologies are completely irreconcilable,” said Michael Cerulli, a freshman at UConn who is active in the College Democrats of Connecticut.
“We can reach out to moderate swing voters at the same time as we energize our progressive base,” added Cerulli, who has volunteered for the Biden campaign. “I, for one, am proud to be in the same party as both Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez [a liberal congresswoman from New York] and [moderate Louisiana] Gov. John Bel Edwards.”
Denise Merrill, who serves as Connecticut’s secretary of the state, said the ideological line between Sanders and Hillary Clinton in 2016 was much sharper than the rifts that divide the party today.
“As Democrats, we have some core values,” she said. “There is wide variation on how we get there, but in the end, I think the candidates are articulating the same issues.”