Last week I found myself seated at a cheery table decorated with a rainbow patterned tablecloth in downtown Olympia talking about politics. It’s something I’ve done all of my life, tucked away at little hippie restaurants with the classic COEXIST sign or something honoring the sun and the moon, discussing what it means to be a Democrat.
We had just concluded an environmental lobby day––advocating for the declaration of a climate emergency and more progressive funding for public transportation––and had all convened for a cup of tea to take the edge off. At the table sat my district, District 22. The group included me, a mother with her elementary-aged son, another college student, and two high school sophomores.
Perhaps the one thing we had in common was our fear of climate catastrophe. And our general appreciation for progressive politics.
In Olympia, my hometown, this conversation happens all the time. We pride ourselves on being fiercely progressive, but we’ve yet to really pin down the exact meaning of what it means to be an Olympian Democrat.
The other college student explained her negative feelings toward Governor Jay Inslee to the table. Despite a presidential run on the basis of progressive climate policy, Inslee has yet to bring those policies back home with him. In the past few months, the Protectors of the Salish Sea (a group of Indigenous climate activists) have petitioned Jay Inslee to meet their climate demands, only to be met with riot police. For a politician claiming to be so dedicated to climate action, this sure felt like a lot of resistance to actual policy change.
Despite growing evidence of a national crisis, Inslee has yet to call a climate emergency. How progressive can you really be without doing the work to prove it?
This critique of Inslee was met by the mother sitting at the table with something I’ve heard many times, especially from people in older generations:
“You should be glad we don’t have somebody worse.”
Of course, this isn’t a completely incorrect statement. Unlike other governors, Inslee was willing to meet with several students at the lobby day earlier in the afternoon. He wants to do something about the environment, even if we don’t know exactly what that looks like yet. But is that good enough?
In a world that’s already in the midst of a crisis––with fiery summers, frigid winters, and frequent storms, do we have time for good enough?
This isn’t the first time I’ve been confronted with good enough politicians and moderate voters fighting to push me toward the center.
Democrats, in particular, are obsessed with the idea of better-than-the-worst-case-scenario politicians. And maybe with good reason. It’s why Joe Biden is able to maintain his spot as a frontrunner in the 2020 Primaries.
Even in the earliest Democratic debates, so many people aligned themselves with the person most likely to win. Cory Booker perhaps defined the attitudes of modern Democrats best when he said,
“I plan on being the nominee, but if I’m not, I’m going to make sure that we unify behind whoever is there,” he said. “Because again, we can’t fight each other, as opposed to unifying each other, which was going to make us stronger.”
Sure, Booker’s right. When the time comes, it’s important for Democrats to unify and fight for whoever is the 2020 nominee, but why should we have to be unified at this stage? Isn’t the whole point of a debate to hear the strengths and weaknesses of each candidate? While debates shouldn’t house open hostility or unnecessary cruelty, they should give us a window into each politician’s view, and we’re certainly allowed to have opinions. In the Trump era, Democrats feel constant pressure to elect somebody, anybody else beside our current president. Though I agree that just about anyone would be more fit in office, this has cornered Democrats into a position of compromise and pushed us toward a more moderate viewpoint.
Rather than voicing criticism of politicians, democrats (especially progressives) are asked to sacrifice sometimes core beliefs for the good of the party. We’re told not to be too critical of Biden’s lack of prowess on the debate stage or Buttigieg’s lukewarm perspectives on healthcare. We are told that wanting a candidate who fully upholds our moral and political standards is “knit-picky”.
It’s the same reason Democrats take issue with Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren. Rather than working against voter suppression or to engage young voters (who overwhelmingly support Senator Sanders), we preach about appealing to the middle––even moderate Republicans. I’ve never heard Trump––or even any Republican––talk about what they’re doing to win the hearts of progressive voters, but for some reason, that’s all Democrats can talk about.
In our own state, we face a similar challenge.
Washington Senator Patty Murray, who is known for her outspoken comments on Trump, ran for re-election back in 2016. As a Democrat and an incumbent senator, Murray would have an overwhelming advantage over any potential opponent. Why, then, did she receive $7,500 from private prisons? Despite her “outspokenness”, Murray received the most money out of any Democrat from the private-prison industry. Sure, you can speak out about the dangers of the prison industrial complex all you want, but in a society that will sooner see the end of the world than the end of capitalism, money speaks louder than words.
So how does one of the most liberal states in the US continually elect somebody with these shady methods of financing? It’s because of this idea that Senator Murray is better than the worst-case scenario. Maybe we don’t want to admit it, but it’s hard to break away from the establishment. Murray is currently serving her fifth term as a senator, and she’s in no danger of losing that seat. As long as we’re too afraid of this imaginary evil politician that could potentially take her place, we’ll put up with the dirty money coming into her campaign–the ends justify the means, right?
This system isn’t serving us. While we think we’re holding our cities, our state, our country together by sacrificing core parts of our beliefs for the sake of unity, we’re actually losing more than we think. Even seemingly liberal politicians (like Inslee and Murray) feel secure with your vote while giving little weight to your expectations that stand behind it. As long as they know we’re too scared to raise our voices in opposition, they can continue to ignore our demands.
As long as Joe Biden feels like he can win without charming the progressives, the young people, the marginalized, he will continue to push forward moderate policies. It is only with strong voices, sometimes with force, that we will change the tides of our political world. We cannot elect politicians with the hopes that they’ll be persuaded toward progressive ways once they’re in office. We cannot allow politicians (even ones we like) to act unethically and expect them to suddenly regain their moral compass once they’ve been re-elected.
Though Democrats have this looming fear of losing, here’s the truth: we have the power to win. If everybody in America (or at least a greater proportion of America) voted, we can win elections.
If you think critically about why we pander to the right, there’s a lot to do with identity politics. We know that Republicans tend to be older and they also tend to vote at a higher rate. We also know that people who don’t vote tend to be poor, people of color, or belong to another marginalized group.
We choose––whether we’d like to admit it or not––to cater to the middle because they represent people deemed more valuable in the political sphere. These good enough politicians disenfranchise many young and marginalized voters and make us hopeless in a system we feel too powerless to change. We feel that we have to compromise too many facets of our identity to be able to vote for these politicians in good faith. It’s the young people, people of color, and LGBT people who are constantly asked to sacrifice non-negotiables for the good of the middle.
But think, for a minute, of the power progressives would have if we had an equal opportunity at the polls. Think about a world where billionaires like Tom Steyer or Michael Bloomberg threw their money behind ending voter suppression in states like Georgia (where it takes weeks to register and still hundreds of thousands of votes are purged anyway) instead of running pointless, ego-fueled political campaigns. Imagine a world where progressives and moderates felt like they had to come to states like Washington (because, come on, they already have our vote anyway) and earn our votes. Imagine a world where we wouldn’t compromise progressive ideals for the sake of the right that would never do the same for us.
It’s time to stop selling ourselves short. We have the power to create a new, progressive future. Let’s hold our politicians accountable.