Pressure from right, left fracturing Dems

Events shake party leaders

WASHINGTON —

The pitched battle looming over the Supreme Court, along with a jolt to the Democratic leadership at the ballot box Tuesday, is threatening to shatter the already fragile architecture of the Democratic Party, as an activist rebellion on the left and a lurch to the right in Washington propels the party toward a moment of extraordinary conflict and forced reinvention.

For Democrats, the transformation could prove as consequential as President Donald Trump’s consolidation of power in his own party and the conservative movement’s tightening grip on the federal government.

“The Trump presidency has changed the dynamics in our party,” said Dick Durbin of Illinois, the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate, acknowledging that he could not recall a similar grass-roots uprising since he was elected to Congress in 1982.

The party’s traditional leaders absorbed one blow after another in the past week. Rep. Joseph Crowley, D-N.Y., a 20year incumbent and potential future House speaker, was unseated by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a 28-year-old Latina political newcomer; Congress made clear it cannot pass even a limited immigration measure for the children of immi- grants in the country illegally; and the Supreme Court handed down rulings that undermined the labor unions that are a backbone of the Democratic Party, while also limiting abortion rights advocacy and upholding Trump’s travel ban.

Then Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement, effectively handing Trump the opportunity to cement a conservative majority on the bench.

Trump’s divisive and often demagogic presidency has ignited much of the liberal upheaval, driving many left-ofcenter voters on to a kind of ideological war footing. That has translated into a surge in outsider candidates in the midterms who are pressuring Democratic leaders to support an ambitious liberal platform that includes single-payer health care, free college tuition and the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

But this insurgency, which is both encouraging and alarming Demo- cratic officials, is not merely aimed at pushing the party further left ideologically. There is a deeper divide over how far to go in confronting Trump and attempting to thwart his agenda.

At a strategy session last week, Senate Democrats settled on a strategy for the coming Supreme Court confirmation battle. They would drop their demands that Republicans not appoint a replacement for Kennedy until after the midterm elections, senators decided, and would highlight the threat to abortion rights and health care to try to mobilize opposition to Trump’s appointment.

But a few hours later, on the ground floor of the Hart Senate Office Building, nearly 600 women clad in suffragist white were arrested in a demonstration against the separation of migrant children from their parents — and they said they wanted their senators to do nothing less than lie down on the tracks to stop Trump’s nomination.

Gabriella Demzcuk / New York Times Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said the Trump presidency has altered Democratic politics, which makes stopping Trump’s pick for the high court unlikely.