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Ian's avatar

Having read Ezra Klein's "Why We Are Polarized," I'd argue that the national Democratic party is already a big tent party. It has senators and representatives at the national level that could be described as "conservatives," and its voting base includes some people who would describe themselves as conservative. Even when focusing on The Squad, it's worth noting that the leftmost and rightmost House members in the Democratic party represent a wider span than in the Republican party. The Republican party includes no national candidates that could be described as center-left, and there are virtually no left-leaning Republicans among Republican voters.

Quantitatively, the Democratic party gets more votes than the Republican party. The design of our system protects the rights of political minorities, and that protection distorts the voices of the people in some cases. It makes sense, again, to argue that the Democratic party is already a big tent.

The core issue of this piece isn't "The Democrats need to be a big tent party," but "The Democrats need to do more to bring in right-leaning voters and shaky Republicans." Doing big-tent politics might require some shifts from Democrats in some cases (and your piece points out where that happens), and it also requires some right-leaning folks to question some assumptions or positions in order to work with folks. "We want you to get rid of the commies and the hippies to get our votes" isn't going to work because that's trading a reliable progressive vote for an unreliable shaky Republican. There are spaces and ways to build a big tent, but demanding Democrats purge their left-most members or positions is not likely to work until enough right-leaning folks become reliable Democratic voters.

My personal hope for common ground with left-leaning and right-leaning folks in Arizona comes from issues like wages and poverty. There are folks who voted for Trump and Republicans while voting to raise the minimum wage and limitations on medical debt. Democrats aren't doing nearly enough on those issues, but I think those problems are good starting points.

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Carolyn's avatar

Very thoughtful, thought provoking piece. I do not social media so the points he makes here are news to me. Thank you.

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