On Day 4 of the Democratic National Convention, Republican Adam Kinzinger, a former Representative from Illinois, gave a speech in support of Kamala Harris for President.
During his speech, he made multiple references to his disillusionment with the Republican Party, that they no longer have the values he grew up with, that they are no longer the party of Conservatives. The quiet part was left unsaid: The Democratic Party is the party of Conservatives.
Let me be sure to take a step away from the hyperbole of unserious, chronically online, reactionary Leftists whose idea of activism begins and ends with virtue signaling on social media. The Democratic Party would not be Far Right in any other democratic country — if you believe this, you clearly have never seen the nostalgia for fascism among the over-60 demographic in Spain or the very acceptable and comfortably loud xenophobia throughout the EU. The Democratic Party still has a core of personal freedom, basic rights, and general altruism. Divorced from the War Machine that is the United States regardless of political affiliation, the Democratic Party is still comfortably Left.
That said, the quiet part still needs to be addressed. As much as I enjoyed the speeches from Maxwell Frost and Michelle Obama, the DNC had me sitting through the Thoughts and Concerns of far too many Conservative White Men for a party that should be at odds with how they legislate. Foundationally, this is why the Big Tent doesn’t work. Republican Mitt Romney has much more in common with Democrat Chuck Schumer than they have in common with a Black trans woman facing job discrimination during the week and protesting for decolonization on the weekend. So why is she forced into the same tent with Schumer?
Back in 2009, the Republican Party had to contend with the rise of the Tea Partiers.
On paper, they formed as a response to Liberal economic policies ushered in by Obama. In reality, they formed as a response to America electing its first Black President.
The Tea Party combined the worst of Conservatism and kicked it up a notch: the misinformation of Newt Gingrich with the evangelicalism of Pat Robertson and the mean streak of every schoolyard bully who doesn’t care what the fight is about as long as they’re the ones who win it. Moderate Republicans were turned off, and more than a handful of them made their way over to the Democratic Party. Back then, I hoped this was the beginning of the end of the Republican Party as a whole, because I wanted them to split. I wanted the Democrats to split as well, but I wanted the GOP to do it first, because if we split first, then Republicans would have a clear path to power for at least a generation. In a three party system, we could make space for moderates in the middle so that I could better align myself with Leftwing politicians, the Tea Partiers could have their extremism in their corner of the machine, and the middle would grab those Democrats and Republicans in the center who had more in common with each other than either the Left or the Right. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. The GOP adjusted itself further Right and the Democrats continued to inch that way as well, a side-effect of opening the tent wider to accommodate disaffected Republicans who weren’t that extreme.
We’re at another inflection point. So many Republicans are disgusted with what their party has become under the Cult of Trump, and they’re lining up outside the tent. The Republican Party has already proven its ability to adjust, and that’s what they’re doing. They’re standing strong behind Trump, and his hateful rhetoric and complete disregard for facts and reality have become foundational to how the GOP ecosystem works, from interviews to campaign strategy to the Fox News cycle. They will not be splitting into the GOP and MAGA Loyalists. Instead, those members of the GOP brave enough to take a stand are being welcomed by Kamala & Co with open arms. Republicans for Kamala has been widely promoted by the campaign and each Republican speaker at the DNC made note of how welcomed they felt by the attendees. And this is good! A coalition of broad support is not only how you win an election but how you pass legislation as well. However, it does serve to highlight that with each successive election cycle, the Democratic candidate for President is farther and farther away from the demands presented by the Far Left.
The Republican Party is bound by two things: Race and Religion. Everything they believe, every piece of legislation they create, and every policy they support is tied to whiteness and/or Christianity. This doesn’t mean every Republican is white and Christian, but it does mean that every Republican is invested in upholding the power structures supported by those two pillars. If you’re an atheist Republican (laughable, yes, but go with me) who is pro-life and anti-gay marriage, you are investing in legislation created by misinterpreting the Bible and spoon-feeding it to the masses. If you’re a Black Republican who believes affirmative action is a bad thing and “he should have just complied,” then you are in direct support of white supremacist policies that keep white people on the upper rungs of power in an increasingly diverse country. And, if you’re a Republican simply because you’re rich and you believe the GOP is your best bet to be as rich as possible at the expense of everyone else, that is a direct extension of the Evangelical Prosperity Gospel Playbook where the rich take from the poor because if you’re rich, this means God is shining his favor upon you — wealth means virtue, so if you have money, you must have deserved it.
The Democratic Party is bound by one thing: Not being a Republican. That’s it. And you can’t build a coalition based on what you are not.
Maybe you’re in this pocket of Democrats whose driving force is income equality through affirmative action and reproductive rights.
Maybe you’re in this pocket of Democrats whose driving force is ending American Imperialism and colonization abroad.
Maybe you’re in this pocket of Democrats whose driving force is a justice system that works for the people to rehabilitate communities instead of destruction through punishment.
Maybe you’re in this pocket of Democrats whose driving force is immigration reform and pathways to citizenship for a wide community of people who underpin the entire American economy.
Maybe you’re in this pocket of Democrats whose driving force is saving the planet through climate reform because none of the rest matters if the Earth is unlivable.
Those pockets are barely on the same pair of jeans let alone in the same closet.
The Republican Party, for all its handwringing about “straying” away from their values under Trump, is still united by whiteness even while some of them are just now pretending to realize the hypocrisy of “following Jesus” while destroying all of the people Jesus would have loved. They’re not splitting up. Some of them will continue to trickle toward the Big Tent until there are enough people on the Far Left with not only the drive but also the political acumen and organizational ability to take a big chunk of Democrats with them into a viable third party behind someone who is not a grifter like Jill Stein.
It’s the lack of political acumen from people who pride themselves on being well-read and educated on current events that seems to be the biggest blocker to pulling a wider base of support. Their current cause célèbre is Palestine (and, by extension the American War Machine in general), but they’ve managed to turn a non-controversial statement into a litmus test of whether someone is a good or bad person.
Genocide is bad.
That’s not controversial statement. You are a good person if you believe genocide is bad. But! If you understand why the DNC didn’t allow a Palestinian speaker, if you understand why Kamala’s speech highlighted the US military, if you understand why her comments have to be very cautious and measured in order to win an election, then “genocide is bad” is somehow no longer your position! You are now a bad person who does not believe genocide is bad!
The DNC is a four-day celebration to support your Presidential candidate. Every person who spoke is a supporter of Kamala, so the breathless criticism of allowing a Republican to speak but not a Palestinian is irrelevant. The Republican supported Kamala Harris. The proposed Palestinian supporters wanted to use their support as a bargaining chip for being able to speak at a celebration for a woman they have called a murderer for months. The ability to understand why you can’t call someone a killer and then give a speech at their crowning ceremony does not mean you are in favor of genocide.
Kamala said “lethal military” in her speech last night, and the reactions are baffling to me. Is the problem that you previously thought the US was not the most lethal military on the planet? Did you expect her, running to become the first female Commander in Chief, to tell Middle America and Trump’s supporters that she is going to make the military weaker instead?
This is exhausting to everyone who wants to Free Palestine and also lives in the real world. As a person who is disgusted by what the US has done in Nicaragua, Venezuela, Libya, Vietnam, etc. I would love for the US Military get out of everybody’s business. As a person who lives in the real world, I also understand that the US military is the only thing that is keeping Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran from blowing up all their neighbors, and a woman running to lead that military needs to say it out loud to be a palatable alternative to Trump: The US military will remain deadly. Understanding this does not mean you are in favor genocide.
And Kamala is threading as thin a needle as she dare when speaking about Israel and Palestine. To put it plainly, there is no world in which a US Presidential Candidate says “I do not support Israel” and wins that election. To think otherwise is childishly foolhardy. You cannot win national office in the United States without supporting Israel. If you want to live in a country where that is not the case, then you need to build support among people who understand why Kamala Harris equivocates and tries to tiptoe down the party (country!) line. Understanding that Kamala cannot advocate for the destruction of Israel by denying a right to exist does not mean you support genocide.
Calling everyone who disagrees with you a Genocidal Maniac is a big hurdle toward building a viable third party that will attract people away from the Democrats who don’t want to be associated with moderate Republicans. It’s this hurdle of having a position but being aggressively unwilling to understand responses to your position that keep the Far Left in a corner of the Big Tent lacking the support to erect a tent of their own to actually place distance between themselves and the moderate center welcoming Republicans with open arms.
There are still two months and change between now and the election, and a lot can happen. I don’t think the Far Left has the numbers, acumen, or structure to be able to truly affect an election where Kamala is aiming directly at the center. I think a more likely outcome is a push even further to the center for the Democratic Party that will see a larger variety of voices moving toward the Far Left, voices who better understand global politics and America’s place in it to offer more solution-based criticism.
If the GOP can get Donald Trump off their back and return to the kind of party where Democrats don’t want them to win, but they’re also not afraid of the country’s future if they do win, we will see a return to normalcy in the election cycle. In a head-to-head matchup between a normal Republican and normal Democrat, the Far Left is better able to make their case for throwing votes at a Third Party (under NOT Jill Stein) where the future of America isn’t at stake. If they do want a seat at that table when the time comes, somebody needs to start laying the foundations now or 2028 and 2032 will see them right back where they started from — sitting in a corner of the Big Tent with a box of matches confused that anyone has accused them of wanting to burn it down.
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