On Friday’s broadcast of C-SPAN’s “Ceasefire,” Rep. Ed Case (D-HI) said that Democrats need to bring in people from the DSA and progressive left because “the alternative is that the party can perfectly represent some of the constituencies within the party and be a beautiful minority party, and I’m not particularly interested in that. So, yes, this party needs to make that accommodation.” But also that the election will hinge on who represents the mainstream of the electorate.
Host Dasha Burns asked, “Rep. Case, you also — you recently fended off a primary challenge from a progressive candidate. I’m curious to get your perspective on this debate about the future of the Democratic Party and the progressive winds that we’ve seen across these various races. Where do you think this party is headed, and how should the party at large handle these factions, particularly folks in the DSA and the progressive left?”
Case answered, “I think it’s going to be a very difficult — it is a very difficult discussion inside the Democratic Party right now between a moderate, mainstream view of politics and a far more extreme view of politics. And by the way, we’re not alone. The Republican Party has the same discussion going on inside the Republican Party. So, I would almost characterize this in a different way. I would say that, if you look at the voters of this country on a bell curve, right? Where the peak of that bell in the middle is really the moderate middle of the country, whether you want to call them Rs, Ds, Is, or anything else, and then you’ve got kind of the far right and the far left. … I consider myself to be in that moderate middle problem-solving part of the country. Which party is going to be able to develop a mandate to govern in that way while incorporating, in some way, shape, or form, those people that do have a different view inside their party? And so, this is a –.”
Burns then cut in to ask, “You think the party should be a big tent party and bring those folks in? Because I’ve heard different perspectives from Democrats on this.”
Case responded, “Well, the alternative is that the party can perfectly represent some of the constituencies within the party and be a beautiful minority party, and I’m not particularly interested in that. So, yes, this party needs to make that accommodation. In my case, in my district, the voters took a look and said, yeah, that’s what we want. But that’s a central issue that is going to turn this election. That central issue will turn this election, which way do voters think, which party has demonstrated that they represent the mainstream of voters in this country that want their problems solved, rather than talk about issues that they don’t think are particularly relevant?”
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