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It's my belief that the real battles in the Democratic Party are much more about how to present an agenda than ideology. Ultimately, even Bernie and Booker see things about 80% the same way. But there are generational divides that matter a lot.
lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2019/02/battle…
lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2019/02/battle…
To be clear, Bernie and AOC are just 70s-style liberals. Booker is a 90s style liberal. There are differences there, yes, but let's not overstate them.
What the real divide in the party on the ground is whether Democrats should put forward big new ideas to set the agenda or whether Democrats should be scared of getting out in front of the agenda. It's generational. It's too many people who came of political age under Clinton.
So with something like the Green New Deal, which every realistic Democratic presidential candidate is going to more or less end up supporting, those who fear it are mostly those who still think we are in the 90s.
But with the Republican Party utterly intellectually bankrupt, there is now a huge vacuum in American politics for leadership and big ideas and it is the left flank of the Democrats that are stepping up. The rest of the Dems will eventually get on board. But it takes time.
This is obviously riffing on @michelleinbklyn's column today. I am always skeptical of political scientists' big theories, but I think the column is fundamentally correct.
nytimes.com/2019/02/15/opi…
nytimes.com/2019/02/15/opi…
