Joe Biden in Wilmington, Del., May 8.
Photo: Brian Cahn/Zuma PressHow can Joe Biden win over progressives? Here are three tips for his supporters: Stop insulting us, stop blaming us for losing an election you haven’t even lost yet, and ask us what we want.
I host America’s largest online progressive news show and co-founded Justice Democrats, the PAC for the progressive wing of the Democratic Party that helped elect AOC and the Squad. I can tell you with some authority what progressives think, but so far almost no one in the Democratic establishment has bothered to try to find out. They’re too busy fighting us to hear us out.
The overwhelming note I hear from establishment Democrats is “Ha-ha, you lost” and “You’re going to cost us the election.” I’ve never seen so many people planning their own funeral. I know that’s the record of wishy-washy establishment candidates: They almost always lose to Republicans. But this time maybe you can do something about that. You’ve got six months. Give it a shot.
Then come the stereotypes about progressives: You can’t ever please them. No one can pass their purity tests. They’re all radicals. Like all millennials, they’re so entitled.
The reality is that younger voters know the substantive differences between candidates and insist on the one who better matches their preferences. That’s how elections are supposed to work, but establishment Democrats call it a purity test. They offer older voters poor advice on television: “Trust me, the moderate Democrat is the only electable candidate. Anyone who questions his voting record is being divisive and hurting our eventual nominee.” Young people don’t listen to any of that nonsense.
What do we want? If you asked, you might have found out, for example, that Justice Democrats has one litmus test. It isn’t Medicare for All or the Green New Deal—it’s rejecting money from corporate PACs. Why? Because the central issue in U.S. politics is corruption.
This bothers political elites the most. They pay lip service by opposing the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling—the easiest point to score in politics—but if you tell them taking corporate money is corruption, they will despise you. They almost all take the money, so it feels like a personal insult. They have two choices: stay offended or change.
Saying you want to get money out of politics is meaningless. Saying you’re going to make it your top priority and should be judged a failure if you can’t get it done—that’s serious. Democrats should promise to pass Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s Clean Elections Act, which would give every American $600 in “democracy dollars” each cycle to donate to federal candidates. Then fight for a constitutional amendment to get public financing of elections. That’s the same amendment Mr. Biden said he favored 23 years ago.
But you have to stake your reputation on it. If Mr. Biden says passing the Clean Elections Act is his top legislative priority and he’ll have failed as president if he doesn’t get it done, then I’ll believe him. Loose talk about how he’d like to pass it, one day, won’t do.
The question is whether Mr. Biden will commit to that. If not, it proves the establishment is corrupt and hopeless. Then good luck getting progressives excited enough to vote for him.
Mr. Uygur is CEO, founder and host of “The Young Turks.”
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