It’s been said that rising lefty start Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s upset primary win over incumbent Rep. Joe Crowley (D-NY) was the beginning of a new era. She’s the future of the Democratic Party some say, though many outside of deep blue urban America have said she might be good for Queens, but not rural America. Well, that turned out to be true. The left wing insurgency hit a wall in the Midwest, with most of Ocasio-Cortez’s endorsed candidates lost in last week’s primaries (via WaPo):
The Democratic Party’s left-wing insurgency found its limits Tuesday night, with voters favoring establishment candidates over more liberal challengers in almost every closely watched race across several states.
In Michigan, former state senator Gretchen Whitmer easily won the Democratic nomination for governor over Abdul El-Sayed, a doctor backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) who was vying to become the country’s first Muslim governor.
In suburban House districts across the Midwest, left-wing candidates lost to Democrats backed by party leaders, abortion rights groups and labor unions.
And in St. Louis, where party giant-slayer Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez traveled to help another young insurgent candidate topple an incumbent, Rep. William Lacy Clay (D-Mo.) cruised to an easy primary win over challenger Cori Bush.
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This is a fantastic night for centrist Democrats,” said Jim Kessler, senior vice president for policy at the center-left Third Way think tank. “We nominated the right candidates who can win House seats and governor’s mansions for the Democratic Party. There’s a quiet enthusiasm in the middle. There’s a quiet voice that people are not hearing in the media, but it’s loud at the ballot box.”
Yet, this was a bad night. In May, the far left nabbed some big wins. I agree with the Post that perhaps the notion of the Left vs. Establishment war within the Democratic Party has not hurt the party’s 2018 chances. At the same time, the generic ballot advantage for Democrats has shrunk to the low single-digits—four points. The caveat: we’re still 85 days away from Election Day. That’s a lot of time. Is the far left losing? I don’t think so. The Democratic Party is on the leftward shift. You see that with their penchant for universal health care, free college, and the utter contempt for border enforcement. Immigration, abortion, and gun control are the top cultural issues in which you can see how extreme the party has become. In all, the Left’s goodie bag agenda of free stuff will cost us $40+ trillion over the next decade and $218 trillion total over three decades. We can all suffer economic destitution together—equally comrades. Sticker shock remains to be seen, but the way you know the far left is going to stick like barnacle instead of receding with the tide is that the Democratic Party is slowly morphing into the envy-ridden, redistributionist parties of Europe. Gallup noted for the first time, more Democrats view socialism favorably to capitalism:
For the first time in Gallup's measurement over the past decade, Democrats have a more positive image of socialism than they do of capitalism. Attitudes toward socialism among Democrats have not changed materially since 2010, with 57% today having a positive view. The major change among Democrats has been a less upbeat attitude toward capitalism, dropping to 47% positive this year -- lower than in any of the three previous measures. Republicans remain much more positive about capitalism than about socialism, with little sustained change in their views of either since 2010.
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