Bernie Sanders is no longer a “democratic socialist.” He has dropped that label on his website.
President Joe Biden has gone out of his way to say he is not a socialist, contrasting himself with Vermont’s Sen. Sanders. The label has proved to be a political liability.
When Biden ran for president in 2020, he first defeated Sanders for the Democratic nomination. Sanders was the leader of the left wing of the Democrats, while Biden ran as a moderate. Now Sanders backs him.
That shift reflects the gradual move to the right of American politics. In my last column, I focused on the Republicans as they have become more conservative. This time, it is possible to see how the GOP’s apparent appeal may be drawing the Democrats away from the progressive left.
The Republicans have almost abandoned moderate positions, while the Democrats have moved somewhat more to the center, leaving progressives with the choice of accepting Biden’s practical politics or continuing with what may be self-defeating insistence on their positions.
Biden has scored some liberal wins, but the Democrats have accepted moderate policies in order to preserve their remarkable unity. They protect the liberal democracy threatened by the hard right wing that now dominates the Republicans.
In his first two years, with a Democratic congressional majority, Biden gained victories on the COVID relief, infrastructure, and the Inflation Reduction Act. He received some GOP support. In his third year, a Republican House majority harasses him and votes as a bloc against anything he proposes.
He has split the Republicans on support for Ukraine and worried Democratic progressives by authorizing the sale to Ukraine of cluster bombs, outlawed by much of the international community. He has not closed a major tax loophole benefiting the wealthy or provided a competitive public option for Medicare.
The Democrats’ election vulnerability stems from its feeble responses to the GOP and Biden’s lack of charisma. Their strength comes from Biden’s legislative successes and their unity, caused by the threat of a second Trump presidency.
Conservative Republicans won’t compromise with the Democrats, because they believe their policies will prevail in 2024. Pragmatic Democratic moderates believe they can succeed through policies that increase middle class incomes and potential gains among disaffected Republicans.
Maine Gov. Janet Mills may be the model of the right-of-center Democrat who can cater to some GOP interests without losing progressives.
On the progressive side, her advocacy of easing abortion restrictions has wide appeal and is taken as a sign of the state’s liberalism. She supported paid family leave including a payroll tax increase, displeasing business, because she knew it would win if it went to a referendum.
Mills opposed allowing Maine’s Indians to enjoy federal benefits, even opposing her party’s legislative leadership and showing some innate conservatism. Similarly, on offshore wind power development, she was willing to allow labor unions, the Democrats’ natural allies, a preferential shot at only about half the jobs.
And she was lukewarm about the development of a public defender system for poor defendants and did not allow the Legislature to send out the public power to referendum, leaving it up to a people’s petition. In effect, she moved away from traditional Democratic positions.
Mills and Second District Rep. Jared Golden may be the wave of the future for Democrats. Last week, Golden was only one of four Democrats to join House Republicans in voting for a military spending bill containing a provision designed to cut back on Defense Department outlays for abortions, though that version of the budget will not pass.
Clearly, Mills often takes positions favorable to business, based on the claim that they promote economic development and outside investment. They include her support for the major new electric transmission line, coolness to public power and her stance on wind generator labor.
The Democrats may not have ceased being liberals, but they increasingly reach out to business interests traditionally associated with the GOP. That’s one big reason the president has taken to campaigning about the success of “Bidenomics.”
As they move to the right, the Republicans may put into play traditional economic allies, which care relatively little about the conservatives’ wedge issues compared with their traditional concerns about regulation, taxes and the state of the economy.
Biden may also have an eye on the No Labels movement, which could run a third-party candidate in the presidential election. It claims to be centrist, taking pro-business positions, while opposing some Democratic policies. If West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin joins No Labels and some fellow Democrats follow, it could enhance Trump’s chances.
If 2024 will be a test for the Republican right’s faith in wedge issues and Biden attacks, it will also test if Democrats can maintain and expand their moderate-progressive unity.
Gordon L. Weil formerly wrote for the Washington Post and other newspapers, served on the U.S. Senate and EU staffs, headed Maine state agencies and was a Harpswell selectman.
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