Democrats got beaten up. AOC and Sanders think they know why

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There is widespread agreement among Democrats that the next two years will be a joyless slog, with Donald Trump once again setting the national agenda, the Senate acting as a willing – but not generally compliant – partner and the silent House falling into disarray a standstill that is too tight for everything. To put it mildly, it's a dark moment for Democrats, who just 10 days ago believed they could control the triangle of power in Washington, and one in which answers are difficult to find.

But as he often does at the most unwelcome moments, Senator Bernie Sanders threw his own dime at the Democrats, and it didn't have a happy effect. Sanders, who has twice sought the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, caucuses with Democrats but insists he remains nominally a progressive independent. In this sense, he is a reliable proxy for the United States' left flank, happy to criticize the party he regularly works with but refusing to officially join.

“It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party that has failed the working class would find that the working class has failed them,” Sanders said in a statement released Wednesday, shortly before Vice President Kamala Harris gave her concession speech. “While the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change. And they’re right.”

Sanders' analysis is neither new nor inaccurate. Harris performed quite poorly with the Democratic Party base, losing ground in nearly every key targeting category. What was seen as a nail-biter ended in a bust in the final count, and Democrats are turning inward, blaming themselves aplenty about who and how the culprits are responsible.

But the Sanders push seemed particularly unhelpful coming from someone who has used his own brand to repeatedly force Democratic candidates left on the ballot, often helping progressive candidates win primaries , who don't match the districts they want to win. It's certainly a leftward shift for the party, but it's probably not one that has served the Democrats' mission to increase their numbers in office.

Sanders, who never confuses his own push with his progressive ideas for building a Democratic Party, doesn't seem to mind at all.

“Will the big money interests and well-paid consultants who control the Democratic Party learn real lessons from this disastrous campaign? …Probably not,” Sanders said.

Then, perhaps ominously, the 83-year-old democratic socialist suggested that he would have his own thoughts about what happens next: “In the coming weeks and months, those of us who are concerned about grassroots democracy and economic justice will have to do some have very serious political discussions.” . Stay tuned.”

On his own, Sanders would be easy to write off. But he is rarely alone. He has inspired a legion of supporters loyal to him, and he has marginalized progressive ideas less than he did when he pitched himself as a socialist alternative to Hillary Clinton in the 2016 campaign. Democrats were so threatened by a Sanders nomination in 2020 that the primaries ended almost within 48 hours as the party coalesced behind Joe Biden with shocking speed.

And that's why the grimace of anger at Sanders threatened to become a torrent of self-reflection when Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — a progressive role model — picked up some of the debris and amplified it in her own narrative. Although Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez ended up rooting for Harris, it was clear that they had their own perspective on this conundrum.

“Our main project is to unite the working class in this country against a fascist agenda. Point. We suffered a huge setback in this election because the fascist won a lot of working-class support, which has never happened before in history,” AOC said in a livestream later Wednesday evening: “I think what's important is is that we need to be able to do that analysis and have those discussions without attacking each other.”

An honest discussion about the future of the Democrats? Without turning on each other? Given the establishment's fresh wounds, deep hostility toward people like Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez, and a shaky alliance with members of The Squad, this seems entirely fanciful. (It was particularly unhelpful that Squad member Rashida Tlaib, a Palestinian-American who represents the Muslim and Arab-rich city of Dearborn, declined to endorse Harris, in part because of the ongoing war in Gaza.)

Ocasio-Cortez, who again called for a $15 national minimum wage and proposals for universal health care during her hour-long direct-to-smartphone chat with supporters on Wednesday, continued to pressure her party not to do more to connect with the base, even as others in the party argue that their real problem was giving too much respect to that side of the tent. “Ultimately, the ultimate problem is our ability to clearly advocate for an agenda that is unequivocally pro-working class,” she said.

The establishment Democrats, for their part, wanted nothing to do with it and immediately defended themselves against Sanders – although not explicitly against AOC, who remains a strong force and potential national candidate.

“This is complete nonsense. … There are a lot of attitudes after the election and this one is not good,” wrote Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison commented on Sanders' expertise, pointing out that Biden saved union pensions and was the first sitting president to join a picket line.

Harrison strongly defended Harris, also pointing out that the candidate was committed to expanding Medicare to include home care for seniors, creating a $25,000 down payment assistance program to increase homeownership and reviving a tax credit for children at the bottom and middle income groups. Class families.

The public bitterness reveals a party still reeling, so close to Election Day that gave many Democrats a sense of déjà vu in 2016, when they also thought a female candidate could easily defeat Trump. Once again they were pouting and genuinely confused about what had gone wrong. There are many answers—TIME's Charlotte Alter, Brian Bennett, and I attempt to unpack them here—but none prove to be an actual antidote. Senator Elizabeth Warren, writing for TIME 100 Voices, shares her thoughts here.

Sanders may be on to something, even if his approach is unlikely to have much appeal among centrists in the Democratic Party. AOC may have an easier framework to build on. But there are likely multiple factors that led to Harris losing out to Trump, and party leaders are more inclined to listen to people who seem like team players, not to gloating, and certainly not to those who unite the party reach a point where she cannot win. That's why they exist a lot There are many critics of what just happened in the Democratic Party, but those who want a future are putting their ideas aside so they can pull policy memos out of the drawer when leaders are ready to issue them and to ask. Throwing them into the airwaves while Harris staffers haven't yet packed a single office is definitely not the way to get these ideas across to the players who still have a stranglehold on the party.

These ideas, coming from those seen as short-sighted supporters of the progressive left at the expense of courting the middle majority, are just a nuisance to party insiders trying to figure out why so many persuadable voters have skipped, ignored or ignored this race defected to Trump because they were frustrated with pursuing a left-wing agenda. As is often the case in politics, timing is everything.

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