David Brooks:
So, you go back to 2019, AOC is riding high, the Green New Deal. The party looks like it’s shifting quite rapidly to the left, and they think they have got a lot of running room there.
I recall, in one of the presidential debates, basically, people were asked, would you open the borders, decriminalize, and most of the candidates raising their hand said, yes, I would do it. And I was like, where is this party going?
But then look at what happens. Joe Biden wins the election against 17 people, all of whom were to his left. And a lot of people think that defund the police, some excesses on the left cost them down-ballot races.
And then we have had a bunch of races in the last several months where the — I don’t want to say moderates, I want to say party regulars beat progressives. And so the — you have got the New York mayoral race, the Virginia gubernatorial race, three House races in which Ohio is one.
And, partly, it’s moderate left. But, really, it’s, how do we do change? Do we do change within the party, within the system, or do we try to disrupt the system? And I think it’s pretty clear the base of the Democratic Party says, we believe in our party, we want to do change within the system, which is sort of the Biden hymnal.
