In 2016, after Hillary Clinton lost the Presidential election, I was invited to attend a meeting of a new grassroots political organization called Route 25 that dubbed itself “progressive.”
With my kids grown, and having amassed a considerable understanding of public policy and economics, I decided to attend. Unfortunately, this group was neither grassroots nor progressive. In attendance were Jay Jacobs, then head of the Nassau Democratic Party. Adam Haber, who needs no introduction to readers of this newspaper, and then District Attorney for Glenwood Management, Kathleen Rice. Basically, this was a Democratic Party event.
Mr. Haber took the mic and launched into a fury about the policies proposed by Bernie Sanders.
Mr. Haber expressed shock at ideas like universal health care or free tuition. Almost apoplectic, in my view. I’m not a Berner, but it was clear at this point that the Democrats had lost some of their traditional allies. And now, party leaders weren’t blaming themselves. They resorted to scapegoating progressives for their losses.
So it comes as no surprise that Mr. Jacobs should launch a shrill tirade against Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Mr. Jacobs is, once again, scapegoating progressives when he might want to consider the deadbeat candidates he’s fielding have nothing to offer the voters but the status quo they’re already disgusted with.
Let’s get something straight: You may not like AOC’s policies, but having cast my first vote in 1968, I can tell you this woman is the smartest, most able and articulate politician in this country. She has “it.”
She is a gifted natural, not the product of a patronage mill. One need only compare her intelligence and fire to the team of shlubs Mr. Jacobs has assembled.
Mr. Jacobs challenged AOC to run in the “suburbs.” Know what would happen? She would butcher any candidate the machines could cough up.
But this misses the point.
Mr. Jacobs’ assessment of the election result is flat wrong and reflects stunning political ignorance. It appears that Democrats merely solidified their lead in counties that were already Democratic, as well as in counties that have seen a steady erosion of GOP support over time.
For some of those counties, the Democrats had finally crossed the Rubicon. That was the whole trick. “Defund the Police” tropes had little or no effect. They do with Republicans, but not with Democrats.
Some time ago, I wrote in this newspaper that the political battle to come wasn’t between Democrats and Republicans. It was between progressive Democrats and corporatist ones. And Biden getting the progressive wing behind him was the key to victory because Republicans are irredeemably lost to Trumpism.
So it turns out Mr. Jacobs’ assessment is not only backward, it’s dissonant: he actually believes the key to getting more Democrats elected is to appeal more to Republicans than Democrats!
An odd take for a party “leader,” but remember, Mr. Jacobs main task is putting backsides in seats. By freaking out over the transparently phony law enforcement issue, Nassau Democratic leaders are showing who they are. They are pro-choice Republicans.
Jacobs seems to have no idea what motivates voters.
Democrats run on policy. The Trumpist GOP is all “id.” They don’t care about legislating, they want the show. The trade deficit may be at a 12 year high, jobs are still moving to Mexico, and thanks to the TCJA, corporations are sheltering billions of more dollars overseas from taxation, but boy, did Trump show us that the good ol’ USA was no one to be pushed around by a bunch of foreigners, and who cares if he stripped health care from a few million impoverished people, or killed over 200,000 of them by sleeping through COVID because he didn’t want to spook the markets?
You’re going to sell those people? Really?
The entire country and the entire county need a complete restructuring of the perverse economic and social incentives that have been allowed to fester for decades.
Let me be clear: if Nassau “Democrats” like Jacobs, Haber, Rice, Fishkind, Curran and the others think they can toss the Democratic base a sardine in between their courses at Bryant and Cooper, they are in for a rude awakening.
And that’s why they fear AOC: because she threatens their privilege and their place. They are blind to this. But their focus doesn’t belong on Route 25. It belongs on Route 24. And they better wake up to that reality or start looking for new leadership.
