How are Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Joe Biden both Democrats?
AOC famously said that in any other country,
she and Biden, quote, "would not be in the same party."
And yet, in the United States,
they are both under the big-tent Democratic name.
The congresswoman is pointing out the
the deep differences over basic ideology and policy
between the party's establishment
and the growing progressive wing.
The Democratic party is a center
or center-conservative party.
It also has to do with the way
politics is structured in the U.S.
Look, Democrats. I know you're having a rough time.
You hate being lost in the wilderness.
One arm is doing f*cking kettlebell swings
to Rage Against the Machine and the other arm
is doing bicep curls to the Hamilton soundtrack.
Today, it seems the main thing Democrats can agree on
is that they need to beat Donald Trump.
It's like in the sci-fi movie, everybody is fighting on Earth.
But the only thing that can unite humanity
is an alien invasion.
So, what are you voting for
when you vote for the Democratic party?
We're going to look at the ideological rift
among Democrats
and what the future holds for the blue party.
First, let's take a look at who's voting
for the Democrats.
40% of the Democratic Party electorate is nonwhite.
By contrast, 17% of the Republican Party electorate
is nonwhite.
The Democratic Party voters are also generally younger.
53% of millennials identify with Democrats.
And 56% of women voters are leaning
leaning towards the blue party.
But what are they voting for when they
cast their ballot for the Democratic Party?
Well ... it depends on who you ask.
Broadly speaking, there are two
ideological camps within the party.
There's the AOCs and Sanderses
versus Pelosis and Bidens.
And their policy views aren't exactly in line.
The party's top leaders Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer
and Joe Biden represent the Democratic establishment.
The pragmatic approach to win Congress
and the White House is shared by all in the party.
The real divide is over what that's going to take.
I don't think people are looking for revolution,
I think they're looking for results.
On the other side, we have progressives like "The Squad."
They believe that the party should fight for
accessible health care, sustainable climate policies
and affordable education for all.
But to achieve these policies, the United States needs
to drastically change what its politics and economy look like.
It is about transforming this country.
And that's where the progressive movement
challenging the establishment comes in.
Take Justice Democrats, for example.
He has the backing of the Justice Democrats.
Jamaal Bowman is a long-time educator and
and a middle school principal in the Bronx.
They're a federal PAC whose mission is to, quote,
"elect a new generation of diverse, working class Democrats."
And this is Alexandra Rojas.
This footage is from Justice Democrats
and Rojas was behind the successful campaign
that recruited Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
to help her become the youngest
member of Congress in 2018.
For movement-driven groups like Justice Democrats,
it's not just about who's in the White House.
It's about who you fight for.
And the Democratic Party has for a long time
lost touch with working people across the country.
But this push for sweeping reforms isn't radical.
And it is not new.
Democratic Party became the dominant party
in American politics in the 1930s
during the Great Depression.
Under President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal,
which was really the beginning of a Democratic Party
being the modern, liberal or progressive party
in American politics.
FDR's New Deal offered social security,
health care, education and created public jobs
for millions of Americans.
It basically saved the U.S. during the Great Depression.
There's always been, since the 1980s especially,
there's been a sort of hunger by progressive Democrats
to run a more progressive candidate for president
and hopefully get that candidate nominated and elected.
One example is Reverend Jesse Jackson,
a leading figure in the civil rights movement.
Jackson, in 1988, ran on a program that was not so different
from the kind of program Bernie Sanders ran on this year.
He supported national health insurance for all.
He was very supportive of labor unions.
He wanted much cheaper college for Americans.
He wanted a housing program.
He wanted to tax the rich much more.
But when the Democrats came into power via Bill Clinton
in the 90's, things changed.
Clinton was part of the so-called "New Democrat" wave,
which helped turn the Democratic party
into one based on Wall Street economic thinking.
Wall Street has a critical role to play in fulfilling
Dr. King's dream of opportunity for all Americans.
But since 2016, the progressive movement,
galvanized by Sanders' presidential campaign,
has been gaining momentum.
Both Bernie and AOC have also shown how campaigns
can be successfully funded
using social media and small donations.
The movement attracted a whole generation of Americans
who feel the Democratic establishment offers them
no hope for the future.
Today's young people are the first in U.S. history
who will be poorer than their parents.
So many say they want major reforms
to change the party's status quo.
Whether you look back at
abolitionist movement, the civil rights movement
the labor movement, the gay rights movement—
there has always been push back against these more
progressive universal ideas until they get implemented.
And so I think tension, at least within the Democratic Party,
is not only healthy, it's necessary for us to truly strive
to be what we say we want to be as a country
and as a party to be truly living our values.
But despite the influx of progressives
and the push to move the Democratic party to the left...
We don't have a left party in the United States.
The Democratic party is not a left party.
The Democratic party is a center,
or center-conservative party.
The Democratic Party includes politicians
who have very different priorities,
just so they can have a seat at the table.
More moderate and conservative Democrats still want
to make sure the party can win a very big majority by
by appealing to those who are to the right of the center of the Democratic Party,
often vote for Republicans like Donald Trump most recently.
Whereas the left-wing of the party has always wanted to
enlarge the electorate to win over many nonvoters
especially young voters, especially voters of color.
Black, Brown, Asian American voters who they think
will be attracted much more to a more progressive,
more left wing platform.
As a result, the establishment and progressives
differ on many issues.
For example, when it comes to health care,
progressives are calling for universal coverage
through a government-run system, or Medicare for All.
But the establishment is by and large against
a single-payer system
and wants to keep private health insurance.
In fact, the Democratic National Committee,
which represents the Democratic party's establishment,
blocked Medicare for All from the party's list of priorities.
Another issue where Democrats
are scrambling to pull together is policing.
Activists and some progressive Democrats are
are on board with defunding police.
But senior party members like Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi
only propose a bill to restrict excessive police force
and bolster transparency.
I think for a lot of folks who have traditionally
been in leadership,
the police and law enforcement officers
are viewed as trustworthy entities and agencies.
This is Alexsis Rodgers.
She just left her post as president of
Virginia Young Democrats in May.
But for so many people,
especially young queer Black people like me,
the police have not always been that force for good
that has been projected in your traditional information sources.
Alongside this ideological split
that's happening in the Democratic Party,
there's also another split happening at the same time:
a generational one.
Like Rodgers, more new and younger faces
are running for seats in Congress,
state legislatures and city halls.
For a lot of young people, we believe that
the system is fundamentally broken,
it's not working for people.
And in order to fix the system, we have to make
large structural changes to redo it in a way
that actually serves working people, serves communities of color.
So where are we today?
Because the two-party system is dominant,
progressive activists have chosen to work within
the Democratic party at the grassroots level.
Basically, they're pulling the party leadership to the left
on policy issues.
The Biden campaign, I think, very shrewdly has
made itself open to more left-wing demands.
Biden especially appeared to have warmed up to
the Green New Deal.
Joe Biden, just to give a metric of where the Democratic Party is going,
started off this race, saying
we're going to do something by 2050.
That was his climate plan.
Recently, after lots of task forces,
like AOC was on one,
our friends at Sunrise [Movement] were on one.
He is now at 2035.
But for many progressive groups,
reshaping the Democratic Party isn't just about
the presidency in the long run.
It's about where the party is going ideologically -
and, ultimately, what the party stands for.
I think it is imperative that we defeat Donald Trump.
It is also imperative that we hold all of our
elected leaders accountable,
no matter what party they're in.
And that's where I think we have not been doing
as a Democratic party.