Democratic strategists are beside themselves regarding the centrist group No Labels, which released its platform yesterday. They should stop whining and moderate their party’s positions to meet the challenge.
If you haven’t followed this much, here’s a quick update. A couple of years ago centrists — tired of the extremism of both parties — had a new and interesting idea to move our politics to the center. The idea was to get a generic third party qualified for the 2024 presidential ballot in every state. But they would only nominate a ticket to fill that ballot spot if Democrats or Republicans didn’t offer a centrist candidate of their own.
Democratic pols and some Republican Never Trump moderates hate this idea because polling suggests that a No Labels ticket would pull more support from Biden than from Trump, assuming those two end up in a rematch. That worry is bolstered by the fact that some of No Labels’ biggest donors — including Ted Kellner, a huge Badger sports booster and Milwaukee business guy — are also Republican heavy hitters.
To be clear, I share that concern. My top priority for 2024 is that Trump not return to the White House. For that reason, I have every intention of voting for Biden again. Even though his politics are a couple of clicks to the left of mine and I think he’s too old for the job, he’s not the other guy. For me, it’s not so much who he is; it’s who he’s not.
But Biden is only a moderate in comparison to the activists in his party. I’ve always thought of him as less a centrist than a survivor. He finds the center of gravity in his party and he goes there. “I go with the wind and the prevailing wind is from Vichy.” (Here at YSDA, we try to work in a quote from the greatest movie ever made, Casablanca, whenever we can.) So, Biden may be a moderate in the context of his party, but he’s pretty far to the left vis a vis the American public as a whole. His policies on paying off student debt, reparations, affirmative action, transgender issues and more are considerably to the left of where most voters are at on those issues. Around seven out of ten Americans oppose reparations, support the recent SCOTUS decision on affirmative action and oppose allowing transgender athletes to participate in women’s sports. while the nation is evenly split on paying off student loans.
Still, all things considered, given the threat to American democracy that Trump represents, I wish No Labels would push its policy platform but refrain from running a candidate. But I don’t think that’s going to happen. It sure looks to me as if No Labels is moving toward nominating a ticket.
And here’s the thing. The more Democrats attack them the more they’re likely to push No Labels into doing the very thing they don’t want. That’s just human nature. People don’t respond well to attacks. They get their backs up.
A far better strategy for the Democrats — and for the country — would be for the party to coopt No Labels by making common cause with them. They should cool their antagonistic rhetoric and sit down with No Labels to see how much of its agenda they can incorporate into their own party platform.
Admittedly, that will be hard work because the activists who run the Democratic Party are not moderates, though the party rank and file is much more reasonable. And think about this. Why is it that more potential Democratic voters would be picked off by No Labels? It must be because there are more moderates among the pool of Democratic voters who are currently turned off by the hard-left that dominates the party.
If the goal is to keep Trump out of the White House, then the Democrats’ jawboning and bad-mouthing of No Labels is counter-productive. They’re just pushing No Labels further down the road of putting real names on their ballot lines.
And on another matter… Madison schools spokesperson Tim LeMonds has opted for retirement. That felt likely when he was placed on leave as the result of accusations of bullying made by his staff. But it wasn’t just alleged bad behavior as a boss that was the problem. LeMonds had a long history of treating the press as the enemy. What’s most encouraging about this is the direct involvement of interim Superintendent Lisa Kvistad. It’s likely Kvistad convinced LeMonds to go and she was quoted in this morning’s story about his departure. Her predecessor, Carlton Jenkins, had been AWOL on the entire LeMonds controversy, as he was on just about everything else.
Yellow Stripes & Dead Armadillos 
The Casablanca quote seems to be an odd thing to invoke as, unless I’ve misread you here, a positive association. The exchange it comes from is as follows:
Strasser: I’m not entirely sure which side you’re on.
Renault: I have no conviction, if that’s what you mean. I blow with the wind, and the prevailing wind happens to be from Vichy.
Strasser: And if it should change?
Renault: Well, surely the Reich doesn’t permit that possibility.
This is a man of authority telling a Nazi commanding officer that he is reliably in the pocket of whoever is running the show. This is your assessment of Joe Biden? That he lacks scruples and will serve power no matter which ideology wields it? That’s a pragmatism of the worst sort.
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I have to confess I didn’t give it that much thought. I didn’t mean to imply that. I guess it occurred to me because the Claude Rains character is the kind of likable, practical, and not obsessively principled character that I take Biden to be. As a rule, I appreciate politicians who can adapt to changing circumstances. I don’t usually see it as a negative trait.
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Ok, I get that, and thank you for your reply.
But surely you’d draw the line of appreciating someone who adapts to circumstances well before reaching “serving the Vichy government”… wouldn’t you?
I’m trying to understand because I don’t share your appreciation of adaptability or a lack of obsessive principles. I like to know what people stand for, and what they’ll fight for (or against).
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Yes, I would draw that line. I don’t think Biden’s practicality and his adaptations to the changing climate in his party come anywhere near collaboration with Nazis. (In his defense, Captain Renault went off with Rick to fight in a Free French garrison.)
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The reason that third party tickets are never viable is because our election system doesn’t support the concept. If we had Ranked Choice voting in every state, I would feel way more comfortable about a No Labels ticket, but we don’t. For those who could use some background on Ranked Choice voting, take a look at Fairvote.org.
I agree that the Democrats’ best defense is to co-opt a large chunk of the No Labels agenda, which I would like to see even if No Labels wasn’t running its own ticket. The far left has undue influence in the party and Democrats would enjoy more electoral success if they had a more centrist, working-class agenda.
I would also like to see a primary election for the Democratic nominee. If Biden earns the spot, then fine, but I strongly feel that we need new, young leaders to step forward. The people who are running the country should be around for another 40 years to experience the consequences of their decisions.
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Here’s hoping someone does a FOI request on whether MPS cravenly paid for Lemond to decide to retire.
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Seconding the idea of the need for a Democratic primary.
I think your analogy, though unintended, is apt Dave. Biden bowed to Vichy long long ago. Vichy here is the military-industrial complex and the neo-cons, who are doing their best to start WWIII. Biden’s outdone Rains by being their cheerleader. If one can call his crypt-like grimace when he speaks about this cheerleading.
What I can’t get my head around is why anyone would say Not Trump, or discuss relatively trivial issues like transgenderism, student loans, identity, etc with the specter of WWIII overshadowing all of us.
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