Political Suicide: The Fight for the Soul of the Democratic Party w/ Political Cartoonist Ted Rall

On this edition of Parallax Views, many left-leaning and progressives Democrats, particularly those who loudly lent their support to insurgent candidate Bernie Sanders in the 2016 and 2020 elections, feel increasingly unwelcome in the Democratic Party of Joe Biden and the Clintons. But is the so-called "Democratic Party Civil War" a relatively new phenomena? Political cartoonist Ted Rall argues that the struggle between the Party's moderate (or, in the eyes of leftist, right-of-center) leadership and it's progressive base extend much farther back in recent history than 2016 and the Sanders insurgency.

Ted and I begin the conversation by discussing how he became a progressive and a political cartoonist. From there we discuss the history of the Democratic Party in-fighting going back to Jimmy Carter, whom Rall takes a critical view of and believes began the Party's slow rightward turn. From there we discuss the domination of the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) over the Democratic Party and its centrist tenets. This leads us to a discussion of the triangulation strategy that led to the rise of "Third Way Democrats" like Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. Although the DLC supporters claim that their strategy remain successful electorally speaking, Rall makes the argument that it has led to more defeat for the Party than victories.

This brings us to a discussion of "spoilers", or the Third Party candidates often seen as costing the two major parties elections. Rall makes the case that independent Ross Perot's third party run allowed Bill Clinton to triumph over George H.W. Bush, but argues that the same is not true in regards to Ralph Nader (who is often blamed for Al Gore's defeat in the 2000 against George W. Bush). This opens us up for a conversation about whether or not the Democratic Party itself should take responsibility for losing progressive voters to Green Party candidates like Ralph Nader, Jill Stein, and Howie Hawkins.

From there we delve into the 2020 election that'll be pitting Democratic nominee Joe Biden against Donald Trump. Rall expresses his issues with what he considers the "vote shaming" of progressives who are withholding support for Biden and his grievances with Biden as a candidate. This portion of the conversation also brings us around to tackling what Rall describes as the de-politicization of politics and the obsession with the cultural tastes and mannerisms of candidates rather than their policies. Perhaps more controversially Rall argues that it is time progressives begin considering the Third Party option.

Before wrapping up we get around to discuss previous progressives insurgencies within the Democratic Party including Rev. Jesse Jackson and his Rainbow Coalition, Howard Dean (whose campaign was stopped dead in it's track by the now infamous "Dean Scream"), the 2008 "Two Americas" campaign of John Edwards, media blackouts of progressives candidates, institutional corruption within the DNC, Ted Kennedy's failed 1980 presidential campaign against Democratic incumbent Jimmy Carter, and Rall's thoughts on current debates raging over class, identity politics, and Black Lives Matter. Ted strongly believes that progressives can oppose misogyny, racism, transphobia, etc. while also having a class analysis at their core.

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