What Does It Mean to Be a Democrat?
One common remark made about Bernie Sanders and some of his supporters are “they aren’t Democrats.” This has been intended negatively as a means to discredit the opinion of Sanders when it comes to the future of the Democratic Party. It’s a petty comment that doubles as political ignorance. We’re at a point where neither party is particularly popular and both have been on a decline in terms of self-identification numbers. It does raise an important question about what it means to be a Democrat though. Bernie Sanders has caucused with the Democrats, and supported Democratic candidates and causes throughout his career. If that doesn’t essentially make him part of the Democrats, then what does it mean to be a Democrat?
To answer that question, it’s important to look at what it means to be a Republican. White, upper middle class, evangelical, and quite conservative. These make up the base of the party. The upper echelons of the party all fit this identity and although Trump doesn’t exactly fit, his policies are largely consistent with the Republican identity. There are still divisions in the party, primarily between the Freedom caucus and the establishment Ryan wing, but they do generally have a cohesive ideology. There are a couple deviations here and there, but they’re all on the same page. The Republican Party is an incredibly conservative party and shored up by deeply racist attitudes.
Democrats do not have any core ideological identity. The Democratic Party has largely become about sound government and technocracy. Even the most common held beliefs like pro-LGBT rights and abortion rights have some major exceptions, or have only recently been adopted. Ideologically they don’t have any identity other than soulless technocracy. In response to a very white an increasingly moreso Republican Party, Democrats have taken in the identity of diversity and tolerance. Men and women of color have gotten behind the Democratic Party at the polls in unprecedented numbers. A diversity of age, race, gender, sexual orientation and religion makes up those who vote for the Democratic Party so they have embraced the identity of a cosmopolitan technocratic party.
The accusation has been made that Bernie reaching out to the white working class (when he’s reaching out to the entire working class), is an attempt to take party power away from women and people of color in order to make it a white male dominated party. Every time Bernie suggests that the party should abandon this soulless technocratic view in favor of a clear leftist ideology, this accusation is thrown at him. Even though Bernie is a Democrat in everything but name only, this isn’t suitable because Bernie is willing to question what the Democratic Party stands for, which is why party loyalists insist he is not a Democrat. What is also meant here is that since Bernie is a white male, and they wrongly assume that’s most of his supporters as well, they consider them opposite of the identity of the Democratic Party. The initial accusation makes a claim that largely goes unchecked, that the Democratic Party is ran by women and people of color because that’s who makes up their base of voters.
Looking at the upper echelons of the party, that isn’t the case. There are exceptions, such as President Obama and Senators Kamala Harris and Cory Booker, but the biggest donors, and many of those who make up the Democratic establishment are white and are the most conservative members of the party. The donor class especially is rich, white, and male. And the policies of the Democratic Party influenced by those donors are incredibly destructive to people of color on economic and criminal justice issues.
This tactic of smearing Sanders for his supposed goals, while ignoring that the actual Democratic Party regularly fights against left wing policies that would benefit it’s base the most is particularly egregious. Rahm Emmanuel, Obama’s first chief of staff and mayor of Chicago, has been behind some disgusting policies in that have devastated people of color. Defunding schools and mental health clinics only to increase the budget of the police department, covering up the murder of LaQuan McDonald as his election came up, and more. Mayor of Baltimore Catherine Pugh vetoed a proposal to raise the minimum wage in Baltimore to 15 dollars an hour. California, supposed liberal bastion, spends more on prisons than it does on schools. Former Attorney General and current Senator Kamala Harris didn’t prosecute Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin when she had the chance, and largely left California’s numerous oppressive police departments at peace. What she did appeal though was a court’s decision to make a state prison to grant gender reassignment surgery to a transgender inmate whose doctor prescribed to her the procedure.
Sanders was repeatedly accused of downplaying criminal justice issues and voting rights, but when the Democratic party held a super majority in both houses with Obama as president, they never bothered to expand voting rights. Obama was largely combative with the Black Lives Matter movement, often lecturing activists unless they played nice at meetings in the White House. During the 2016 election, he downplayed the voter suppression laws that Republicans had passed in key states like Wisconsin, North Carolina and Florida, specifically shaming black people. Those that say the Democratic Party is one that is ran by or even influenced by its base of diverse voters is ignorant of reality or lying.
When there are progressive or left wing people of color that attempt to ascend the ranks of the party, the party sides with their donor class. Donna Edwards was a progressive black female representative going up against Chris Van Hollen, a white more moderate representative, for a Maryland Senate seat. And the establishment overwhelming got behind Van Hollen, and aggressively attacked Donna Edwards. This wasn’t even a divide between Hillary and Bernie, as Edwards had endorsed Hillary Clinton. Another instance, is when Keith Ellison was smeared by Alan Dershowitz and other elements of the Democratic donor class that were possibly the deciding factor in Ellison failing to become DNC chair.
Repeatedly, the party has taken its base for granted and has made sure it’s politicians line up with the wills of their white male donors. For all the accusations of Bernie attempting to keep white people in power, his policies would only increase the amount of power women and people of color have. Economic status ties directly into political power. By redistributing wealth through providing health care, tuition free college, equal pay and increased wages, that would give these groups greater political power. It is Bernie’s policies that are the greatest threat to the political power of the white male Democratic and Republican donor bases. This doesn’t even include how often he has emphasized criminal justice and expanded voting rights in his speeches.
This fight from the primary isn’t going to go away soon, especially as Democrats are still trying to figure out how to move forward going into 2018. While some Democratic operatives, pundits and twitter personalities try to frame the Democratic Party as one that is ran and directed by women and people of color, the leaders and donors are overwhelmingly male and white. Sanders is the one that has consistently talked about the Democratic Party needing to embrace the grassroots movements that are forming, primarily being led by women and especially women of color, who are often to the left of Sanders, let alone near Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton.
Being a Democrat should mean supporting economic, racial, social, international and environmental justice while standing alongside the base that supports you through thick and thin. What being a Democrat unfortunately means today is shamelessly defending leaders that uphold a soulless and crushing status quo that hurts the very base they claim that has power in the party. All the while, they smear those that attempt to move the party left as furthering white supremacy, ignoring the rich white male donor class, and that the most vocal critics of the party are women of color.
