The Democrats Decide to Lose | The American Spectator

At the end of October, the center-left group WelcomePAC published Deciding to Win, a comprehensive exploration of why Democrats lost the 2024 election and what they must do to start winning again. It drew on surveys of more than 500,000 voters conducted over a six-month period and found that 70 percent of voters think the Democratic Party is “out of touch” and only 39 percent say the party has the “right priorities.” It recommended that the party moderate its most unpopular positions, avoid ideological purity tests, and offer genuine solutions to issues the voters actually care about. This is good advice based on a serious analysis of concrete data and it is being ignored by the Democrats.

Instead, the party is devoting its energy to an internecine struggle between its progressive and establishment factions. Inspired by Zohran Mamdani’s victory in New York City, the progressives believe the time has come to remake the party in their own image. Backed by a variety of donors and leftwing activist groups such as Justice Democrats and the Sunrise Movement they are mobilizing to purge longtime Democrat incumbents by recruiting “ideologically pure” candidates to challenge them in primaries prior to next year’s midterms. This is taking place from coast to coast. Moreover, their targets are by no means limited to “moderate” members of the party.

In New York, for example, incumbent Rep. Daniel Goldman is being challenged in the 10th District by outgoing NYC comptroller Brad Lander. According to a report in the New York Times, the rationale for Lander’s run is that Goldman is an “oligarch” and too cozy with the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC. Lander has the endorsements of Mayor-elect Mamdani. Another New York Democrat who faces multiple primary opponents pursuant to his support for Israel is Rep. Ritchie Torres, who represents the 15th District. His most prominent challenger is Michael Blake, a former state lawmaker who denounces Torres in his campaign launch video for caring “more about Bibi than the Bronx.” He went after Congressman Torres on social media thus:

I am running for Congress because the people of The Bronx deserve better than Ritchie Torres. I am ready to fight for you and lower your cost of living while Ritchie fights for a Genocide. I will focus on Affordable Housing and Books as Ritchie will only focus on AIPAC and Bibi. I will invest in the community. Ritchie invests in Bombs. I want to end credit scores for housing. Ritchie only wants to take credit. We cannot afford anymore of Ritchie Rich Torres. We need Change now.

Goldman and Torres aren’t the only New York Democrats infected with primary fever. Axios reports, “Congressional Hispanic Caucus chair Adriano Espaillat (D-NY) on Wednesday became the latest House Democrat being targeted by a leftist primary challenger.” He will be primaried by Darializa Avila Chevalier, who is backed by Justice Democrats, the group who propelled Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to office. Other New York Democrats that are being challenged in the primaries are Reps. Laura Gillen (4th District), Gregory Meeks (5th District), and Grace Meng (6th District). None of these Democrats are part of the “old guard.” The only thing they clearly have in common is that they had the temerity to accept campaign contributions from AIPAC.

This brings us to Justice Democrats. Most people vaguely associate this group with AOC and other members of “the squad,” but the key to understanding which incumbents and primary challengers they support is their Reject AIPAC campaign. It is no coincidence that every Democrat being challenged, including several progressives like Dan Goldman, has received campaign contributions from AIPAC. This is why Justice Democrats are backing Nida Allam, an obscure  31-year-old Durham County commissioner who is challenging two-term North Carolina Democrat Rep. Valerie Foushee. The latter committed the unforgivable sin of accepting AIPAC money. Consequently, the group now backs Nida Allam according to a report in the Intercept:

The group, which previously recruited progressive stars including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, (D-N.Y.) and Ilhan Omar, (D-Minn.), is endorsing candidates challenging incumbents next year in Michigan, California, New York, Tennessee, Missouri, and Colorado. Justice Democrats is taking a more aggressive approach to primaries this cycle after only endorsing its incumbents last year and losing two major seats to pro-Israel spending. The group plans to launch at least nine more candidates.

Justice Democrats are going after another AIPAC villain in Tennessee. Rep. Steve Cohen represents the only Democrat district in the state (TN-9), yet the group supports his primary challenger state legislator Justin Pearson. Justice Democrats also backs former Rep. Cori Bush’s comeback campaign for Missouri’s 1st Congressional District, now held by Democrat Rep. Wesley Bell, whose deadly sin has been to accept AIPAC contributions.  Justice Democrats also endorsed Michigan state Rep. Donavan McKinney in his Democratic primary challenge against Democrat Rep. Shri Thanedar (13th District). By now, the incumbent’s transgression will not be difficult to to divine: Thanedar accepted AIPAC campaign contributions. And the beat goes on.

In the end, the progressives who want to control the Democratic Party are less motivated by a desire to eliminate aging or establishment Democrats. The reason they are ignoring Deciding to Win, is a refusal to repudiate their ideological purity tests — particularly where they concern the “Israel lobby.” What we are witnessing is political recidivism. The left is returning to its anti-Semitic roots. Because no one teaches history in our public school system or institutions of “higher education,” few Americans recognize this reality. The good news is that the progressives are confirming what 70 percent of the voters instinctively know — the Democrats are increasingly out of touch with normal Americans and have therefore decided to lose.

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