What's Left?

by Eduardo del Buey

The Democratic Left

Up until yesterday I had a complete article prepared about how the Democrats lacked a common vision and party cohesion.

I wrote that left-wing radicals irritate party centrists as well as those independents crucial for electoral victory in this highly volatile and polarized environment.

Many issues divide Democrats such as gender politics, universal health care, the situation in Gaza, the cancellation of educational loans, the exponential rise of antisemitism, the ongoing massive street protests since October 7th that have paralyzed many cities and campuses and left Jews and Jewish institutions vulnerableto violence, and the fight against Islamist terrorism, among others.

These issues have been played out publicly and, in many cases, the Democratic Party has been found wanting by many.

The result has been an image of a party lacking a strong, united base, a cohesive leadership, or a strong and cohesive policy core.

Unlike Republicans, the Democratic Party’s identity isn’t personified by a singular leader who can force consensus among all competing wings.

And the leaders of each center of power have been vociferous in publicly expressing their criticism of party leaders on many occasions.

A week before the election, I argued that many Americans had been feeling confused about where the Democrats stand on key issues and in the face of a unified Republican cult.

But Trump’s massive event at Madison Square Garden on Saturday has resulted in a tectonic shift in campaign dynamics that has rendered much of what I was going to write irrelevant given the new dynamic.

Trump’s event demonized Puerto Ricans and has led major Puerto Rican personalities like Bad Bunny, Ricky Martin, and others who together have over a hundred million followers on social media to coalesce around Harris’ candidacy and motivate the hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans who live in swing states to vote against the instituionalized racism of Trump’s cult.

It reminded many of the mass Nazi demonstrations in 1930’s Germany and of a similar pro-fascist “America First” event at Madison Square Garden in 1939.

All the presenters demonstrated incredible levels of evil in their speeches.

They railed about the need to terminate constitutional democracy and called for the use of military and judicial power to provide a Trump administration with the absolute power he seeks in order to impose his vision of America.

They expressed hatred for a wide variety of Americans and American institutions and called for the murder of some prominent Americans who oppose Trump — all of this in front of the tens of millions watching on television.

As a result, Donald Trump appears to have united Democratic from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on the left to former right wing Republican personalities like Lynn Cheney on the right, as well as independents across the board in a way no Democratic leader has been able to achieve.

The world has now witnessed first-hand the inherent evil of the Trump program, and I believe the cost to the party will be fatal.

So, despite the Democrat’s institutional weaknesses that now seem to matter less, it appears that Trump may have snatched defeat from the jaw of victory through his own immaturity and ego-fueled stupidity. His policy of bread and circuses that has fed his ego for ten years has backfired big-time and he and his followers have only Trump to blame.

Is the Republican self-inflicted wound fatal?

We will know in seven days.