Blue State Blues: Rename the Democratic Party

The Democratic Party is a relic of slavery, Jim Crow, and racism, and should be renamed as a gesture toward achieving social justice in the United States.

Moreover, it cannot even be said to be “democratic” — small “d” — anymore. It does not recognize the outcome of elections that it does not win, and it uses street violence to pressure the country’s leaders and entrepreneurs to do what it wants. And what the party wants is redistribution of wealth, income, and opportunity.

There is a word for that: “socialism.”

As I note in my forthcoming book, Red November, the Democratic Party’s transition to socialism is well under way.

Party leaders have maneuvered, in two successive elections, to ensure that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) — who is honest about the fact that he is a socialist — cannot be its nominee for the White House.

But even as it has rejected Sanders, the party has embraced his ideas. And, given the opportunity in November, Democrats will bring socialism to the United States.

More than half of Democrats think America should “defund the police” and redistribute the money to “communities of color” and the poor. More than three-quarters support the “Green New Deal,” which aims to eliminate fossil fuels in the next ten years. Likewise, over three-fourths of Democrats support “Medicare for All” — the mandatory kind, not just the optional one.

These policies were almost unthinkable just a few years ago. Today they are the mainstream view in a party that prefers socialism to capitalism as an economic system.

We have just endured the most left-wing primary in the history of American policies, producing the most left-wing nominee. Biden was cast as a “moderate,” but that was only relative to Sanders.

As FiveThirtyEight.com noted, Biden, if elected, would be the “most liberal president in modern U.S. history.” Obama himself says Biden has “the most progressive platform of any major party nominee in history,” including himself.

Even though he has secured enough delegates to win his party’s nomination, Biden continues moving to the left — unlike most candidate, who pivot to the center.

The New York Times noted last month that Biden “is striking fewer of the moderate notes that won him the nomination, instead courting progressives with a new openness to systemic disruption.” The Washington Post agrees, reporting earlier this month that Biden has begun to map out a “revolutionary” agenda.

Biden is collecting far-left advisers, including “democratic socialist” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). He is also echoing the “transformative” rhetoric of Obama and Sanders.

He told a group of Latino leaders last month: “I truly think, if we do this right, we have an incredible opportunity to not just dig out of this crisis, but to fundamentally transform the country.”

That is not the “moderate” agenda of a traditional New Deal Democrat. It is the battle cry of socialism.

Democrats are attached to the “Democratic” label. They certainly prefer it to “Democrat Party,” a rough-sounding label conservative media often use. The word “democratic” has positive connotations of popular sovereignty and freedom.

But while “democratic” is good, “Democratic,” capital “D,” has not been good. All of the Confederate statues being torn down in the South? They were all Democrats. The segregationists Biden courted as a junior Senator? Also Democrats.

In contrast, “Republicans” are still “republican,” believing fundamentally in the principles of the Constitution and the primacy of representative government, balanced by individual liberties.

It is time to rename the Democratic Party.

The long arc of justice, as well as the basic principle of truth in advertising, demands no less.

There already is a tiny Socialist Party, and the Democratic Socialists of America.

So pick another name. And close the book on a sad history of systemic racism.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His new book, RED NOVEMBER, is available for pre-order. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.