Opinion: The Democratic Party is pushing away independents
By John Opdycke, opinion contributor, 2 hrs ago
Rahm Emanuel — whom David Axelrod is pushing to become the new chair of the Democratic National Committee — believes he knows what’s wrong with the Democratic Party and how to fix it.
In a recent interview with Ezra Klein, Emanuel lamented that Democrats “use language to feel good about ourselves, not to communicate. We all think we’re applying to be adjunct professors at a small liberal arts college. We don’t listen to people. We tell them how to eat their peas.”
Many Democrats have commented on this elitism. But Emanuel went further when Klein asked, “If you were advising a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair working on candidate recruitment, who are you looking for?”
“I think independence is a streak that I’m going to look for,” said Emanuel. “Give me somebody that ran against the grain, said publicly what people are thinking … so their independence is a quality that gives them kind of the anti-establishment, the anti-elite tone. To me, independence, saying things that aren’t politically correct, willing to take on not just X interest group or whatever but even your own party’s interest group or leadership — to me, that’s the gold mine I want to go work in.”
Rahm is right. Political independence is a gold mine. I know because I’ve been pickaxing for 30 years!
Independents are now the largest group of voters. For the first time ever, they have tied Republicans and exceeded Democrats in presidential turnout. And the independent mindset — politically incorrect, anti-establishment, anti-elitist, pro-innovation, anti-identity politics and pro-people — is shaking up politics as usual. It’s a mindset that has been growing steadily since John Heilman pointed out that Barack Obama was the first independent president since George Washington.
But Rahm has a problem.
The Democratic Party hates independent thinking, independent organizations, independent voters and independent reform. It’s baked in. And unless the party adopts a new posture toward the broad independent movement and independent mindset, Rahm’s vision will remain a pipe dream.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/thehill.com/opinion/campaign/5050531-dems-independent-thinking/amp/
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