I see under Michele's rules, when we smear a ‘leftist’ with “some of the newcomers’ rhetoric has been stupid and irresponsible”, we don’t have to provide a single example. After all it’s beyond dispute that politicians are utterly unaffected by lobbyists’ Benjamins - and that anyone who would suggest otherwise must be hopelessly tone deaf or simply hates Jews.
So Michele, here you offer a nice example of how Dem leadership decided which of its representatives are expendable - when the Speaker declared open season on four last week and the president responded cooperatively and predictably. You’re right to criticize her here, but it’s weak when she’s not doing her job, she’s a cowardly tool of the right leaning Problem Solvers Caucus that made her Speaker, and she needs to be replaced.
And let’s not forget - her chilling, ongoing, self-serving claim, that just 4 people think children should be returned to their families at no cost and not kept in costly for-profit detention camps - is beyond forgiveness. Please write about that next time.
8
Pelosi is a frightened old woman who represents the old guard of Democrats who were so scared of being called communists that they jettisoned their principles.
That approach brought us Regan, two Bushes and Trump.
No more cowardly, ineffectual Democrats who stand for nothing but short-term political expediency. Move over, Nancy. Your time is thankfully over.
11
Sorry Michelle, if one person has earned the right to get the benefit of the doubt, it is Pelosi, not you. I accept her tactics and strategy to put Trump in the rear view mirror.
12
There are many comments that AOC, Omar, Tlaib, and Pressley "play into Trump's hands".
But it turns out that's just what Nancy Pelosi did, with two assists from Maureen Dowd.
8
"Leftist criticism can be uniquely grating to liberals, especially the kind that treats disagreements over strategy as differences of morality. And some of the newcomers’ rhetoric has been stupid and irresponsible. "
You could have left it at that
6
I find myself in line with Michelle almost all the time, but this is not that time. It is the Squad that has brought the fight to Peloci. Yes all the house Demicrat's are frustrated. I'm sure Nancy would love to move faster if she could, but she can count and if you do not have a lot of power you have to pick your fights. I believe the party needs the input, ideas, and energy they are bring. Still they are in some cases acting like mouthy 13 year olds and in other cases like 2 year old having a melt down. Who is starting the fight when they act and say the the moderate Dem's from purple states and the Speaker are racists. They have not even proven that they can get re elected. They have built nothing they have 4 votes and thou we love them we are not going to march off a cliff with them just to prove they are right. They are not right, they are proving they have the power to destroy. I want to see them build. They are making a real stink and I think maybe there are a few diapers need to be changed, and an understanding that to get real change you will have to work in a policitial system with others who do not think exactly as you do. If you want perfection go to church!
13
Lets be honest Nancy is in the bag for Joe Biden no doubt, and nothing will turn away more voters than that.
5
Goldberg is, as usual, siding with the extremes. Pelosi is not fighting the squad. They are the ones fighting her and doing a godawful job of it. Playing the race card when they are rightly pointed out as being inexperienced and ineffective is just ridiculous. These people do not represent me as a woman of color. They represent extreme liberals who think that shaking up things equals effective politics. They see criticism of their ideas or their rhetoric as racial attacks. It is pathetic and divisive and helps only Trump.
15
"The Squad"???
What new level of juvenile absurdity have we entered into now?
Maybe instead of journalists and op-ed writers trying so hard to be hip and cool and young, maybe they should try to be mature, patriotic and intelligent.
We have serious problems in this nation - not least of which is a grossly incompetent, racist, Confederate in the White House, and a public unable to tell the difference between reality-television and reality.
The Dumbing of America is this nation's greatest threat and it is not reduced by immature inanities like labels such as "millennial" - much less nerd-patrol devices such as calling four members of Congress "The Squad" because it creates an impression of hipness ... a sort of "New-Coke" version of the original "Mod-Squad" - by columnists for the paper of record in America.
GROW UP!!!
8
Pelosi is the elected leader of the Dem Party in the House,
and the elected Speaker of the House.
Why is AOC calling Pelosi a racist?
AOC puts both Trump and Pelosi in the same category
of "racist"!!!
What?
How can this be constructive for America and the Democratic Party?
10
The squad is in danger of becoming known as the "Nimrod Squad."
Trump is playing them like a fiddle. All the way to reelection.
6
Excellent column!
2
Please, squad, fight Trump, not Pelosi.
7
Michelle Goldburg is the first columnist I've read who has correctly voiced what I said immediately when Nancy Pelosi dissed the four AOC etc representatives in the New York Times Magazine about a week ago! What on earth was she thinking/not thinking?????!!!!!! She is inviting Trump to attack her progressives! Nancy has never been exceptionally bright but she's always been the conscientious student of policy and vote counting who does all the homework and tries to get help on the extra-credit problems!
Instead, this time she shot herself in the foot - apparently with her head turned by her increased popularity after a long period of criticism. Now she hass splintered the party so Trump moved in for the kill.
Nancy must now circle the wagons and apologize for forgetting about the Democrats' big, rainbow-colored umbrella. You don't have to agree with everything the four young women progressives say (they have said some really stupid inflammatory things) - no one pays that much attention anyhow, and, as Nancy points out, their votes are limited. But you do have to give them cover and include them because they represent the unrepresented - three of them in states which Trump took!
How stupid is Nancy Pelosi? She needs to learn quickly from this mistake - hopefully someone in her office can explain it in the "mothers are always fair" language that 5-child, upmteenth-grandmother Nancy so loves to describe herself!
10
I hope that Squad gets that DT is in baiting mode.
4
This is what my Democratic Freshman, Chrissy Houlahan is doing. "Houlahan’s bill, which would codify in federal law what is now provided for in Federal Election Commission regulations, is part of a set of legislative proposals put together by a bi-partisan group of freshman legislators in the House of Representatives designed to provide security for U.S. elections.
The six Democrats and one Republican call themselves Task Force Sentry,
That prompted the freshman lawmakers — traditionally the lowest people in the congressional power structure — to take on the issue themselves, meeting once a week for the past two months to discuss and craft the legislative package that Houlahan’s bill will be one piece of.
The group includes Republican U.S. Rep. Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio, (a former Indianapolis Colt), and Democrats Houlahan, Spanberger, Rebecca Sherrill of New Jersey, Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, Lauren Underwood of Illinois and Xochitl Torres Small of New Mexico."
Funny I don't see AOC, Omar, Pressely, or Tlieb among them. These are folks from the Center Left doing concrete things about the Mueller reposts findings on collusion. Ms Golberg, try getting out of your bubble in NYC and seeing the rest of America aside from folks who always think like you.
5
Insightful article.
Isn’t it puzzling we can again blame Jill Stein’s voters for 2016, yet absolutely refuse to join the moral Democrats whose progressive policies would recruit all of those voters and millions more in 2020? It’s like the Democrats are so afraid of the “left” they’d rather rest all their hopes on recruiting a few of the president’s right wing bigots with a candidate who opposed Roe v Wade and busing - and tie or lose again. What if the 100M who refused to vote in 2016 are actually sick of hate and want universal health care with no premiums, as polls confirm? Dysfunctional Democrats would rather attack the left than win by a landslide.
7
As a life long athlete who has captained teams you expect your teammates to fight for the common goal of winning.
You don't give your opponent anything they can use against you. Deplorables? Benjamins?
You don't fight in public. Hold a players only meeting to hash things out.
United you stand. divided you fall.
Note how very few Republicans have condemned this man.
Come together and let's finish this!
92
Stop playing Trump's game! Quit reacting to him! Ignore him! Walk away from his baiting diatribes! Elected Democrats, please get together and work out your policies, strategies, platform and messaging, preferably in private. Any impulse to publicly criticize one another must be resisted. You need to demonstrate your ability to lead this country to a higher place. Get out of Trump's gutter or you may be handing him another four years.
12
"Maybe if she fulfilled it, Democrats would direct their rage at the president instead of at one another."
Uh, no.
The squad is part of the 'everybody gets a trophy' generation and thinks they're entitled when they haven't actually accomplished anything yet.
Nothing short of effusive and completely undeserved praise or total capitulation to their views would satisfy them.
You might direct more of your ire at them for demanding things they haven't earned yet.
10
This is a false narrative. The four congresswomen are doing their job, and so is Nancy Pelosi. The Democratic Party is about embracing diverse points of view, listening to different voices, and being effective. Pelosi is one of the most effective Speakers the country has ever had. The freshmen congresswomen have beautiful, brilliant voices and minds.
We need both of them, and everything in between which includes white men, different age groups, moderates and liberals, and the center as well as the spiraling out of views.
No one view owns the Democratic Party. If you cannot embrace the center as well as the edges, you do not understand Democrats.
11
It’s not a perfect world. All Democrats do not have the same position on every policy. No-one, including AOC, expects the entire caucus to agree on everything. What we expect is respect and leadership. Instead, Nancy Pelosi is belittling people in her own party who don’t share her views. She’s attacking these four courageous freshmen women of color who are outraged by the treatment of minorities at our borders. I think it is arrogant of Pelosi to take the tack she is on. She sounds more like a Republican than a Democrat. I’m hoping the latest rants by our current president will inspire her to find us a winning path into the future. I know she can do it! Harness the strength of these women. They came to serve and fight for our ideals. Help them!
6
You can always trust Michelle to cut to the heart of the matter. I wonder if the members of the Squad, whom I greatly respect, feel their re-election depends on Mr. Trump winning in 2020.
Does any of this really matter? We're doomed anyway. Democrats are about as inspiring and firey as watching paint dry.
And yes, inspiration matters.
6
As an old white woman, I should be firmly in Pelosi’s camp but when I look out at our society, I see a hopeless landscape of financial struggle, working longer hours, no retirement, putting off unaffordable healthcare, crumbling infrastructure, boiling climate, lousy education, mountains of student debt, lack of opportunity and social mobility, a lazy, ineffective media that’s all about profit and a corruption filled government who work only for their donors. All brought to us by the old guard. I’m not a racist and I believe in a social safety net and science, so I prefer democrats, but I understand why so many see the two parties as opposite sides of the same coin. I’m ready for some people to shake things up. The institutionalists who’ve actually done a worthless job and presided over the decimation of the middle class for the past 40 years need to go.
11
The "squad" should remember that they are beginners in the profession of politics, that power and influence are earned, not demanded, and that their job isn't to destroy any part of the Democratic party that is not as far to the left as they are. They may have won in their heavily-Democratic districts, but they were not elected by a majority of Americans. Having an aide insult those who have fought for equal rights for minorities since before he was born isn't the way to power. "Move fast and wreck things" may work in Silicon Valley, but it's a fast track to marginalization and national defeat. Threatening to sit out a national election if the Democrtatic candidate isn't "woke" enough is simply self-righteous petulance.
7
Oh, come on. Pelosi merely pointed out these were four legislators with four votes. That is true. The divisiveness is coming from this small group that feels it should wield far more power than their constituencies or legislative experience justifies. The last thing Democrats need is a left-wing tea party making demands and throwing tantrums.
13
Great insight. Hope the Democratic leadership red your column and take your advice.
1
As one of the comments to this article alluded to, the squad is the mirror image of the Tea Party. Deja Vu 2010! We have 4 freshmen members trying to derail a major political party's agenda....and what do they have to back them up? Twitter followers!
Its like the Democratic party will do anything to ensure Trump remains in power. I am stunned that someone as incompetent, crude, and prone to falsehoods as him, will be comfortably re-elected.
3
Cut the illusions.
Pelosi will always fight for the big corporations. For her it does not matter who is the president, as long as her sponsors get the benefits.
AOC, Bernie Snaders and others are much worse than Trump for her sponsors, thus Pelosi will always undermine the "socialists" (actually, more like European social democrats) within the democratic party.
3
The problem with Ms. Goldberg's commentary is --- there is no center anymore. There are passionate rightwing populists, whose racism is inflamed daily by Trump and Fox, and there are passionate advocates of Democracy and Justice. There is no 'in between', only energized voters on the right and left.
Ms. Pelosi's rhetoric is enervating and inarticulate; she is bringing a rhetorical nail clipper to a machine gun fight. She stands for nothing, stands against nothing and ultimately, will lead Democratic voters to abandon a party that mumbled while the Republicans roared.
3
Fighting the Squad is fighting Trump. How can you miss this.
1
Seems to me they have big followings on social media and are making a stir, thereby raising their profiles. No one can argue they are advancing themselves and their careers. However, I wish they'd think more about the rest of us. I'm just wincing seeing the Dems fighting with each other. Worse, female Dems fighting female Dems.
Perhaps these women are unaware, that it was due to Nancy Pelosi's brilliant, and almost impossible political maneuver - passing the Senate version of the affordable care act, without emendation, because the Democrats had lost control of the Senate – that got the affordable care act through Congress to become the law of this land. The bill would have died without her! No legislation has done more for minorities, women, families, since Lyndon Johnson was in office. But, it doesn't strike me that these women read history, are aware of history, or think that it has anything to do with them. Past fighters in the progressive cause – don't look for any thanks from these…
and don't expect them to ally themselves, with those women, who have actually gotten things done. It's a shame.
4
Ocasio-Cortez’s chief of staff's comments were as bad as Trumps. But she cant see that because she is righteous. It was moderates that actually won back the house. Something else she seems unable to see.
4
If Nancy Pelosi had issues with "The Squad" she should have called them in and had a frank discussion. Instead, she made disparaging comments about them, in public. "They're only four votes." Their response was not measured, but what did Pelosi expect to happen by belittling them in public?
I can see only two possibilities here. Either this is classic Democratic inept self-destruction, i.e. Pelosi is not the brilliant strategists everyone thinks, or Pelosi used the media to punish these young Congresswomen for not toeing the line - to put them in their place. In either cast the result is the same. The overwhelming perception that Democrats are a disfunctional party, incapable of a cementing a cogent and consistent message, other than identity politics, in the minds of voters that will keep the House, turn over the Senate, and put a Democrat in the White House.
3
Might it be wise for the Squad to go deep into Trump territory and see how their polar opposites view reality? They may catch Pelosi's drift. Or maybe not.
2
Let's be clear.
What should be front and center in the differences between Pelosi and her leadership team and AOC and the "Squad plus, at last count, another 80 or so House Democrats is her choice to abdicate her Constitutional responsibility to impeach Trump.
Pelosi, as much as she is capable, emulates the leadership style of Mitch McConnell, regardless of her being a card carrying liberal.
Putting aside the accuracy of her political calculations on the effects of a failed conviction in the Senate after her House's successful impeachment, her failure to fulfill that Constitutional duty shows an utter lack of integrity.
Next week, we will see if another person whose integrity was touted as unchallengeable, Robert Mueller, will also show himself to be a coward.
As Goldberg no doubt knows, if pushed, "centrist" (sic: rightwing) Democrats--the corporate wing in power--would much rather triangulate if not tacitly cooperate with Trump, and apparently any level of far-right lunacy, in order to fulfill their real institutional role: preventing any real progressive change from ever occurring.
That is Pelosi's role.
But dampening? No way--Pelosi's antics, intertwined with Trump's, are the very definition of a teachable moment. When push comes to shove, corporate Democrats will join with the far right in bashing progressives--the very people who have the policies that will, as in the 1930s, undermine the appeal of fascism.
I think they know it, honestly, but I always find myself overestimating the knowledge and intelligence of not only the corporate Democrats but also of their professional-class supporters.
Note how far the NYT allows its readers--who mostly follow its lead, no matter what lip service they give to "thinking for themselves"--to go: the progs are annoying and grating and stupid and irresponsible. But we need them, so tolerate the fools to win.
Another teachable moment--and in a paper that just ran another op-ed that showed, accurately, how far to the right both American parties are on the actual ideological scale of comparable societies.
Gee, how'd that happen? Corporate-Democrat triangulation for donor dollars, that's how.
Where else were the GOP going to go? Left?
This is the dynamic that dare not speak its name.
2
As for the Squad: "Never disturb your enemy while he is making mistakes" - Napoleon. Trump and Pelosi are the enemy. (Napoleon liberated Europe from the Bourbon Kings.)
I will concede that Speaker Pelosi's comments to Maureen Dowd could rankle the impassioned. What I think is being lost in the discussion, however, is Pelosi's lesson: you don't win if you don't have the votes. Period. End of story.
Instead of threatening, like AOC's singularly uninformed Chief of Staff has, wouldn't be wiser to learn from the best legislator this country has seen in the last fifty years?
5
The squad has a lot to offer, and a lot to learn. Doctrinaire quests, or worse, demands, for purity do not accord with the hope for a politically viable road to a better future for all. Lenin tried the broken egg approach, and we saw where Stalin took that. AGB
2
Michelle Goldberg lecturing Nancy Pelosi and readers of this paper on proper political etiquette toward outspoken democratic members of the caucus is highly offensive. Pelosi and some progressive minority members have serious responsibilities and some important differences. The young squad as they are called may not yet have a comprehensive understanding of the tightrope that Pelosi walks and talks. That is OK. The squad and many of their constituents have endured racism, discrimination and inequality all their lives. It is the unelected agitators involved in this particular struggle that need to be identified and called out. Progressive legislators and the leadership have the people's interests at heart and in their work. They will work it out.
1
Michelle, this is all about the "purity ponies" who defeated the Democrats in 2016, and the gang of four should recognize that.
These squabbles should be held in private, lest we be defeated again.
2
Works both ways, Michelle. With friends like the squad, Pelosi hardly needs enemies.
3
Pelosi must change course on Impeachment or GO! For her to be thinking now of tactics instead of duty is a gross moral failure on her part.
1
Many of my generation, the older generation, believe there is still a middle ground, a moderate way, that the voting population is a bell curve, but what really exists is a bimodal distribution, a barbell distribution, and to win an election you must be in an end and move the greater number voters to your end.
The 'squads' positions in illegal immigration have soured me to the Democratic Party. The party if working people cares nothing about working citizens. I cannot support a party that cares more about criminals than citizens.
1
Surf's up and grab your board. This happens in a storm.
There are deeper principles however and despite all the rolling thunder the foundation evolves naturally.
I am sorry you think Pelosi is the negative influence in this issue. The Squad can do its thing, now, but the tide will retreat and moderate principled Democrats will carry the day.
Wisdom is not based on passion, but on truth.
Don’t blame Pelosi. She didn’t play the race card. She merely recited the math. Facts matter.
3
I am shocked, shocked I tell you that there are some young people out there who want to change the world; and they want to do it today.
I am old now, but I seem to remember being impatient for change, for a better world. I seem to remember that was yesterday. I am still impatient.
2018 was as successful as it was for democrats because the candidates ran on the values of their districts, not on some National message. I think that can be done again next year.
Moderates need to remember that the Green New Deal is not very different from the original New Deal. They need to remember that social cohesion is not communism.
And the liberals need to remember that change is usually slow in coming, but it does come.
And if voters cannot see the fact that any one of the Democrats running would be a damn sight better than the dumpster fire currently occupying our White House then we are surely doomed.
3
This editorial is spot on! I admire Michelle Goldberg more with each and every column. She was too nice, though, in that she didn't mention that Pelosi and her ancestors have taken their base for granted for decades! The Dem party's record of liberal achievement is spotty at best as well, and people who now can only get by with two wage earners have been waiting a long time for minimum wage increases, labor protection, the end of wars, income tax fairness--measures that "liberals" like Nancy Pelosi used to believe in. Instead, we are consistently forced to court moderates from Iowa and New Hampshire who wouldn't need to be courted if they reliably voted Democratic in the first place. The 1st primaries are kept in those centrist areas of the country, so the party can be pushed to the right as far as possible. Black Dem voters have been the most taken advantage of, as they have received remarkably little for being the group with the strongest loyalty. It's time to turn away from Clinton triangulation. It is indeed a pyrhhic victory to win elections as Democrats pursuing moderate Republican policies. Thank Heavens Nancy and her ilk are getting older.
2
I have been asking anyone of my friends and acquaintances who is a San Francisco resident and a constituent of Speaker Pelosi to contact her, asking her to invite Congressperson Ocasio-Cortez to lunch. Just the two of them. No staff; no media.
I suggest that she acknowledge that Ms Ocasio-Cortez has said that it will take time to implement the Green New Deal.
That she then ask what specific steps Congressperson Ocasio-Cortez would support during the first year of a Democratic administration to get the Green New Deal going.
This would be the beginning of dialogue between both branches of the Democratic Party.
Any San Franciscans reading this? Please contact your Representative!
2
It is not solely Pelosi’s responsibility to bring the party together. She can’t do it alone. The gang of four also have a responsibility. So far they have behaved as if they were morally superior to the rest of the party and thus under no obligation to it whatsoever. I hope that changes but I don’t think it will.
3
One could paraphrase the columnist by saying: Please (fill in a name of one or more of the squad), fight Trump and not Pelosi. Although some members of "the squad" have some good ideas, they are not in the position of party leadership. Whether or not they even speak for a majority of the party depends upon which squad member you quote and on what issue. They should express their opinions but within the framework of the party. pick an issue (there are many of them), attack Trump and try and convince the majority of your caucus that your position is right.Belligerency may be fine if you are trying to be a martyr, but but not if you want to be a successful legislator.
2
Nancy Pelosi and AOC should stand side by side, presenting a united front that crosses the generations and unites the Dems. Learn from each other. They don't have to agree on every issue and can cordially say when they don't agree, but they should never attack each other publicly. And AOC needs to get her Chief of Staff in line.
Now is the time for a joint news conference in which they show how much they like each other.
1
Can I ask about the AOC aide and his motivations? He is a Harvard graduate with a tech background. The Trump-Republican economy is serving him well. Does he really want that to change? Or are his attacks about excitement, and knocking down the old people (especially older women, we all now how our culture feels about them)? Diversity does not automatically equal progressivism.
2
Nancy and the Squad need to use a little moderation when dealing with one another because goal one is to get the President and his enablers out of power. Along with that main focus, secondary goals are; maintaining the majority in the House, and winning a majority in the Senate. Work on those things, don't get distracted with the relative level of liberal/progressive passion within the House majority.
2
Ms. Goldberg. I know people under the age of 40 have an indefatigable belief towards their positions in life are always right. As a 20 year old with a progressive mindset in 1972, I had high hopes for the progressive Democratic candidate George McGovern against the undeniably evil of Richard Nixon. The likes of Hubert Humphrey and Edmund Muskie were too far imbedded to the Kennedy/Johnson era. You might want to look how that primary and subsequent general election played out. Bet Ms Pelosi knows.
6
Please, Michelle, I wish you had been right about Trump, these last few years; time and again you have declared his latest folly is his inevitable downfall. I wish. But you have been wrong on Trump time and time again. Please read Maureen Dowd's article on Pelosi and the freshman Congresswomen. A little humility from them -who have much to learn about getting things accomplished; a little from you who have the right righteous sentiments but the wrong grasp of the political realities. You are right also to call us to get on the same track -let's give a little credit to those with the track record
5
The Squad might just help Trump win by dividing the Democrats. Why can't the Democrats work together and support each other. The Squad don't know the ropes and their youthful arrogance is energetic but needs to focus on winning the big election, not pushing their agendas before there's a win.
6
I'm not a fan of the Squad's extremist and sometime naive policy aspirations. To execute some of what they want to do as law would require a near-facist ability and inclination to smother dissent and good faith opposition. But as a lifetime Democratic voter, I am completely demoralized by the way the Democratic Party leadership has treated them And implicitly those they represent. And not just constituents in their districts.
It seems damningly telling that Pelosi's treatment of them foreshadowed the tone and dismissiveness of the Presidents. It seems damningly telling that the President was motivated in part out of a desire to defend Pelosi. What does it say about the rightward tack of the "centrist" part of the party when it is so aligned with the interests of the President, whom we know to be hostile to minorities?
I've sat out voting in previous elections before Obama because my vote didn't seem to matter at the time. I feel that same demoralized sentiment brewing in my heart today. What incentive is there for me to vote when my only choices are a party that is aggressively hostile to my existence and one that's opportunstically hostile, willing to turn on me at a moment's notice to court the elusive and disloyal blue-collar white voter?
I am exhausted with disappointment since the midterms. First the failure to defend rule of law, now the turning on POC members when people are supposed to be allies. If this keeps up, I may end up voting third party or not at all.
3
The democratic party failed to capitalize on the "Occupy Wall Street" movement. Compare this with the republican party used the Tea Party movement. In fact, the democratic establishment systematically killed the OWS. I sense a repeat of that strategy by Pelosi. Instead of harnessing the energized base in the left, the establishment wants to undermine it. Why? Probably because the energized left threatens the establishment's marriage with the wealthy Democratic donors and, hence, their power. The liberal elite want to view themselves as rescuers of the working class and, as such, want to be in control. They don't want to the working class to be fully in charge of their affair because that leaves the elite with no power. The political accent of the "squad" implies a decline in the power of the liberal elite.
10
All Democrats need to be wise now. It's facts on the ground that matter. If infighting means that Donald Trump is reelected, all factions of Democrats will be responsible. Yes, there are important debates on important issues that need to happen, but it's crucial for them to happen in a civil enough environment that everyone can come together to achieve the single most necessary goal. This absolutely is not the time for "I'm right, and you need to admit it". I'm not asking for anyone to let themselves be disrespected, I'm just begging everyone to act strategically, so that responses and actions don't prevent the effective cooperation of people who want to avoid the sort of authoritarian government that we see in some places and that we don't yet have here (and yes, I accept that for much of our society, things don't feel free and safe, but even so, it ought to be clear now how easily things can get so much worse if we let them). I'm addressing this to Nancy Pelosi as well as the Squad, to Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, to supporters of Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren (candidates who appear to understand what I'm saying, probably better than I do), to everyone. I'm not claiming to know more about everything than you do, but, please, doesn't this make sense?
6
The President knew that his tweet would cause Pelosi to defend the squad and tie her to this radical four. Pelosi's predicable reaction gave Trump an opportunity to remind Americans of the previous tweets and public comments from the squad that degraded the founding of America, demonized our support of Israel and compared border patrol officers to Nazis.
The leftist media are unified in a chorus screaming that Trump is a misogynist, racist, even though his latest tweets about the squad never mention race or gender. But context never matters to the mass media who are determined to follow Hilary's 2016 playbook to a tee. So Pelosi is forced to defend these four freshmen congresswomen who have shown contempt for this country. Once again, the mass media, the Dems and SJWs have taken the bait as they play right into Trump's hands. Winning!
2
Liberty to enslave is still the raison d’etre of the US.
The dems have to learn the lesson of 2016, it seems as they just don’t get it. You can not possibly win the WH by alienating the blue collar white person. And let me say right here, white is a color so for Gods sake stop using that term to describe anyone other the a white person we all have color. And your not going to win us by all the far left strange math. I like my private insurance I don’t believe reparations as appropriate I want boarder security. These are things we care about too. Just as Hillary arrogantly tossed us aside so it would seem the latest flock of democrats are as well. So get used to Trump and his kind he’s going to be sticking around for awhile, at least till these pig headed democrats grow a spin and stand up for ALL the people and not just people of “color” and of course come back to the center.
3
What perhaps you haven’t noticed is that Trump isn’t standing up for anyone except Trump. Better have Democrats standing up for everyone than Republicans who care about nothing but money and power.
1
Please, NYT Columnists, Fight Trump, Not the Democrats.
11
Please, Squad, Fight Trump, Not Pelosi
11
Another example of what the Democrats do best: forming circular firing squads.
11
Divide and Conquer. And it’s working.
Snap out of it, All of you.
9
Dowd had an insightful article on the matter this weekend.
3
Michelle Goldberg: the Squad and people like you who enable them and egg them on are demoralizing people the Democratic Party needs.
9
Of note: Saikat Chakrabarti (AOC's Chief of Staff) is an ex-Wall Street huckster. Tell me again about how the "Progressives" are against Wall Street....
8
Oh gosh, Ms. Goldberg. What to say?
I have always remembered a statement made by Jon Meacham--
"The American people have always come to rest a little to the right of center."
And I probably sound like a broken record--remember LP records, by the way? Cutting edge technology of yesteryear--
--when I cry out in perpetual alarm, "Remember George McGovern! Remember the presidential race of 1972!"
The GOP's gonna make HAY of this "socialist" moniker. They gonna make HAY of "America-hating liberals." They gonna make HAY of "Venezuela, the failed socialist state."
Lies. All lies. But still . . .
My profound belief is: the USA has always--for the last hundred years or so--been tilting leftwards. But slowly. Gradually. The electorate's gonna BALK if they feel they're being yanked too fast--too hard--too hastily.
And this internecine fighting among Democrats!
For God's sake, STOP IT, you guys!
Leave that to the ultra-conservatives. All those little Torquemada's and would-be Grand Inquisitors. Noses pressed to the ground, snuffling and barking as they discern the slightest whiff of--
--HERESY!
Departure from those pristine conservative norms established by Barry Goldwater. And Ronald Reagan. And--heaven save the mark!--
--Newt Gingrich.
And others. Many others.
You got that ogre in the White House to dispose of. You got swarms of mini-ogres in the Senate and--yes!--even in the House.
Save your wrath for THESE.
Not for each other.
7
This column is already hopelessly outdated. Pelosi has already called for condemnation of Trump's remarks. I cannot even understand why this has been published. Yes, those of us who don't like AOC saying 'singling out 4 women of colour' still don't like it. Trump's stupid remarks have made it easier for Dems to come together, but this article is amazingly dull-witted. You didn't mention the your 'colleague' Maureen Dowd of the NYTimes is one of the ones who is not letting the Squad off the hook like you are in this small-minded piece.
7
"And some of the newcomers’ rhetoric has been stupid and irresponsible." ? Stupid? Please tell us what rhetoric and why it's stupid. Define your terms.
I agree that Pelosi shouldn’t reject the idealists "in order to cultivate voters who are susceptible to right-wing demagogy."'
Otherwise the rw is really running our politics.
If Pelosi and Dems do this, they will give Trump and the GOP more of what they want---even if it is't ALL of what they want.
Let's start defining left and moderate in realistic terms, in the public interest, not according to how the powers- that- be want them defined, for the private interests.
3
Poke and stab at each other - just what the Democrats need right now. Every stupid spat is a victory for Trump. It is what he is trying to get you to do. Don't be fools and STOP!
7
Please, Squad, Fight Trump, Not Pelosi
4
Michelle,
The Squad need to be the change they're waiting for. If they can't get along with Nancy Pelosi, where are they going to get the other 214 votes they need to pass anything in the House?
It takes a majority to pass anything, in both Houses of Congress. 2/3 + 1 to override a Presidential veto. While the Squad are high-fiving for their brave takedowns of those awful Liberals, nothing gets through Mitch McDonnald's Senate, and Cadet Bone Spurs gets to appoint anyone he wants as a Federal Judge. For life.
Conservative judges redefined the 2nd Ammendment, gutted the Voting Rights Act, made the sick irony called "Citizens United", and washed their hands of gerrymandering. President Trump is a blatant racist who "loves" Kim Jung Un, jokes with Valdamir Putin and scorns democracy at home and abroad. But hey, if the Squad can "pants" Peloisi, she'll sure look dumb. Right?
Grow up. Money makes bad politics, and so does the Republican Party of Trump. We've got to fix the money thing. But we can't, with Party of Trump controling of the Senate and Presidency. Fixing the 2nd Ammendment is far off. Voter suppression, "Citizens United" and gerrymandering may take decades. We'd better start. Not symbolicaly.
Comparisons the Squad and the Freedom Caucus is instructive. Ideological purity was bad for them, and us. Why should a leftist version work better?
Bill Abbott
5827 Moraga Avenue Oakland, CA 94611-3151
510 594 1567 (home) 510 502 1567 (mobile) [email protected]
6
Pelosi is a republican. It's not a generational divide. It's a divide between those who expect honesty and justice in government, and those, like her, are more interested in protecting their own behinds. Pelosi & trump are the reason I no longer vote. There's nothing to gain by such a vacant exercise. (BTW: I am a senior citizen, not a college freshman.).
3
@Sang Ze
Read the terms of HR-1 before accusing Pelosi of being a Republican.
https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/1/text
"To expand Americans' access to the ballot box, reduce the influence of big money in politics, and strengthen ethics rules for public servants, and for other purposes."
Those who see no difference between Republicans and Democrats help McConnell to hide behind their comments.
(McConnell is blocking the very important legislation )
1
Let me amend your headline:
Please, Squad, fight Trump, Not Speaker Pelosi
8
Instead of just "fighting Trump", Pelosi and every other Democratic politician should be saying: "Trump and the Republicans" !
It's "Trump and the Republicans" who are enabling Putin and the Russians! It's "Trump and the Republicans" who are supporting and encouraging racists and white supremacists!
It's "Trump and the Republicans" who are ignoring sexual abuse of women and children !
It's "Trump and the Republicans" who are destroying the fabric of America!
It's "Trump and the Republicans"!
8
Circular firing ‘squad’
3
Trump now supports the right of return for Palestinians if he wants to send Representative Tlaib back to where she came from.
3
Please, Squad, Fight Trump, Not Pelosi. There, fixed your headline for you.
5
Spot. On.
Please, Squad, Fight Trump, Not Pelosi
5
No, Nancy....fight this girlie squad of whiners, with "its all about MEEEE, AOC". They've been in the House all of what, minutes?, and they're disrespectful of Pelosi and all she brings to the table for moderate Dems like myself and my state. Calling everyone in the House, including other Dems! racists, who disagree with them, or using "women of color" as the new whining mantra for "it's all about them now" is ridiculous.
8
Is there any evidence that the 'squad' - among them a narcissistic firestarter and two radical muslim anti-semites - has any particular appeal to African-Americans or any other significant minority? If so, I have not seen it. They seem to mostly be popular with the Twitter mob, a demographic that is overwhelmingly white liberal.
Last I heard, by far the most popular candidate with black voters is Joe Biden.
1
Wow Michele, you're getting better and better. This is one of your all-time best. You hit on all cylinders, thank you. (Disclosure: 62 yr. old white guy)
3
Accusing Pelosi of being disrespectful to women of color, as AOC did--tantamount to an accusation of racism--crossed a line. Pelosi's job is to count house votes, hammer out compromises, get Democrats elected, and keep her own job. To accuse her of racism for doing her job is idiotic, and, not incidentally, helpful to Trump. If the squad can't take some mild criticism, they're in the wrong business. And lumping compromise-seeking Democrats with southern segregationists? Worse than idiotic.
12
Pelosi has to go. This is not what all of you OpEd people of the Times said when you welcomed her to the job.
The President is officially a racist. He is attacking four Congresswomen today, he will attack any of us tomorrow with racist tropes more appropriate for the Third Reich rather than the civilized world in 2019.
She has to start impeachment proceeding or resign. The complacency of the Democratic leadership again brings to mind the opposition weaklings if 1930’s Germany. It does not end well that story!
3
Think you got it backwards.. The 'Squad' has been fighting Pelosi..and just about everyone else, too..
-- Didn't AOC's chief of staff call Pelosi a weak leader.. and say Dems are racist enablers because of how they voted on a border bill.??
.... The squad are just like T-party extremists.. they care only for their own narrow ideology... Compromise is unacceptable; everyone else is just wrong..
10
If you don't get what you want, call it "bullying" and smear your leaders as "racist." What could go wrong?
9
You continue to be the best opinion writer and thinker at The Times and bring a much needed breath of fresh air. Brooks and Douthat and Stephens and Dowd might be relevant to the 60 crowd but the staleness is off-putting to anyone younger.
1
Did you write this last week? Has not aged well....read today’s news....
2
Well, this is, unsurprisingly, unhelpful. Another blathering, hand-wringing column on how sad it is that "the squad" are so stupid and bigoted. Tsk tsk. What have they said that is so wrong? Specify!
1
Let Pelosi deal with this as she sees fit. She is not a moron, and The Dotard is basically generating some great political adds for all Democrats that are running for office in 2020.
2
My biggest problem with Pelosi is her fail to impeach trump.
Epic fail 😕
3
@Chris M.
"Impeachment" is not the same as removal from office.
If Impeached, there will be a trial in Mitch McConnell's Senate.
Pelosi is a master vote counter. Right now she knows that the Republicans will not vote to remove Trump from office---and so he will say that he was "completely exonerated" by the Congress just in time for the 2020 election
3
The paper of record has been spoiling for this intra-Dem battle for far too long. Finally they just resorted to a dowdy agitator and some hot take copy to get stuff started directly. I don’t even care about impeachment for its own sake, but could we just do it maybe to distract the Times from sabotaging all hope for the future? These are those folks who brought us to war in Iraq, please remember. In a crisis, the Times crumples to the Right. Every. Single. Time.
1
Dems can not win without exciting the black, Latino and young base. That’s “ The Squad” not milquetoast Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden. THE CLINTONCRATS MUST GO !
1
Chris Christie summed it up perfectly on This Week, where he basically invited AOC to come to the show as a Republican commentator. The truth is, AOC is the best thing to happen to the Trump re-election campaign and and if she and her ultra-left wing group don't go away, they will be heavily responsible for getting Trump re-elected. Yes, the biggest help for Donald Trump's re-election is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and she's too naive and too self-centered to realize it.
9
Both sides are right; and both sides are wrong in ascribing evil intent to the other in what should be a question of emphasis.
1
Suggestion to the four congresswomen:
If you can't come to terms with Speaker Pelosi, take a walk down the halls of Congress to meet with the long-serving6 iconic, and heroic civil rights member of Congress, Representive John Lewis. He marched with Martin Luther King in Selma against racism in and could surely impart valuable lessons to you in your fight against Trump and his followers. Respect and humbly heed his sage advice. You will surely learn from his historical perspective and experiences about how to respond to Trump in these tulultuous times. Representative Lewis lived through the momentous movement against America's great original sin in 1965. Hear his words and study them to see where they might apply to your movement today in 2019.
6
One need only read this very comments section for about 10 minutes to know why it will very likely be Trump who places his hand on the bible next inauguration day. Here we have coastal progressives welcoming the hatred of moderate middle-countries and saying they "need to get over themselves." We have inter-generational fighting only about who is more at fault for climate change and who has done more to stop it. We have moderates effectively saying they can and will sit this one out.
We aren't a party. The only thing we have in common is that we hate Trump. The very uncomfortable truth is that we may not be able to have it all this time - the whole huge tent seems to be wobbling under its own weight. If it falls, we have the rest of our lives to rue the outcome. The legacies of another term for him won't be relegated to the past with any haste or ease.
4
No one new to a job should be so vocal and certainly not so divisive and name-calling as AOC and the other 3 of the squad. Period. They are too-shrill even to someone who does not use twitter -- just reading what is in the press. Any further harshness from them after these 6 months and they will have likely sealed their fate as non-cooperative ineffective rebels who played into republican plans to divide & conquer, and live to regret shooting themselves in the proverbial foot/feet not to mention the democracy they say they so fight for.
11
@Jo
Oh, please. You cannot refer to people won the votes of the people they are representing as ineffective as long as Mitch McConnell and his dysfunctional party are sitting in the Senate sabotaging every bill that comes out of the House.
What would you prefer, that they sit down and shut up?
That's supposed to be "effective"?
Gimme a break.
The far left proposals will do tarnish the Democratic Party that Trump will be re-elected. If democrats want to win, they will need to gain the support of swing voters in WI, MI, PA, FL, AZ and NC.
4
"Praise in public. Correct in private."
Some time-tested advice on team-building that both Democratic factions -- the old guard and the new squad -- would be wise to follow.
11
The complaints about the squad seem to me to be right wing democrats using trump as their cover. They aren't fighting racism and they're just waiting for the next issue to pull out.
2
If the Republicans succeed in making The Squad the face of our party they will win. There's too many places where their progressive politics will be unpopular. Nothing to do with whether their policies might be good ones. You can't enact policies without winning elections.
8
The "Gang of Four" as I like to call them should be the ones to stop fighting with their own party. They are tearing the party apart and the Republicans are enthusiastically cheering them from the sidelines. They are playing right into Trump's tiny hands.
As long as Trump continues to make outrageous statements, these four feel the need to respond immediately. Neither has any impulse control and it looks like a food fight in a HS cafeteria. The only result is that the Republicans look more unified.
The Gang needs to do less talking and more listening. They need to stop harassing their more moderate colleagues. Do they realize that the Blue Wave was made possible not only by them, but also by Democrats who won by very narrow margins in Republican districts? These districts could very well revert back to Republican which will not do the Progressives any good. Think about that. Better yet, just think!
20
Michelle, it isn't just about math. Everything you say about the impact of a small increase in turnout by a demographic group or decrease in the "syphoning off "of votes to a third-party "no-hoper" ignores a key variable- the quality of the candidate. So far, Democrats seem determined to repeat the errors of 2016.
1
These four ultra-left children are doing more to re-elect the nut job in chief than the could possibly know. Every word they say or tweet gives more oxygen to the conservative base. The fact is that the electoral college isn’t going away and the majority of States are red. Let the adults in the room figure out how to win the Oval Office and then move left. If the ‘squad’ is impatient now just wait to see what another term of Narcissist in Chief does. They’re not the only ones that are impatient but having a political position is very different from governing from that position. Pelosi knows that better than they do.
16
United we win, divided we lose. We are at the most perilous crossroad in our nation's history, and democrats and all decent people must stand together to beat the corrupt right wing fascism that is staring us all in the face. Stay united and keep standing up and most of all, get out the vote in 2020. We will need the biggest wave of voters to defeat the republican cheating and foreign interference.
8
AOC and Omar have their own prejudices and delusions
Trump acts like a buffoon.
But AOC and Omar are buffoons they despise and denounce our country
There is much goodness here
Let’s not follow in the footsteps of Hugo Chavez. The Squad is wackos is truly scary.
6
The rage is coming from the "squad" not from the Speaker. Trump loves them.
15
My guess is that Democrats -- the party that does in fact believe in democracy -- are able to tolerate diversity in their ranks much better than Republicons. Republicons will try to convince you otherwise which is what they are trying to do now.
2
Ms. Goldman argues for the squad on the disingenuous issues of racism and sexism to divert attention from her own and the serious socialist agenda of this small group.
I now live in a country that was brought to its knees by socialism culminating in the late 1970's with the collapse of vital industry and jobs and energy provision, and even the ability to bury the dead. There is nothing progressive in the socialist agenda, it is ultimately illiberal and viciously squashes any dissenters through social ridicule or even imprisonment, it destroys individuality and creative innovation. It is a dead end for a society with many, many victims along the way.
Unfortunately some in the Democratic Party and the media find socialism with its well documented anti-Semitism and for now hidden prejudices against other groups exciting and modern. These views are not based in documented history or common sense. If you consider yourself a Liberal beware, in the well known socialist term you are becoming 'useful idiots'.
4
We tell our young people that if they don't like how things are, to get involved. Then, when they get involved, a racist, holding the highest office in the land, is disrespectful and arrogant. The biggest problem in the United States is that it picks its governing body by rule of the minority because of the electoral college. That is a sick system and is NOT democracy in any way.
5
I don’t know why Democrats love Pelosi so much. She doesn’t do anything. She should have moved yo impeach Trump the minute Dems took the House. There should have been constant hearings. People who refuse subpoenas and perjuring themselves (Mnuchin, Barr) should be in prison. And let’s not forget when she gave Bush and Cheney a pass for all their war crimes. She’s is complicit in Republican crimes.
4
@Kurt
"I don’t know why Democrats love Pelosi so much. She doesn’t do anything."
Um:
https://www.vox.com/2019/5/24/18637163/trump-pelosi-democrats-bills-congress
1
And please, please Squad - stop playing holier than other Democrats. It plays into Trump's hands.
9
Look, I don't consider every tweet ever issued by the four young congresswoman to be ideal. Many have been hilarious, gutsy, pithy and on-point. Others are what might be called "rookie mistakes." What can one expect? They're literal rookies, in their seats for less than a year! Considering that, I'm inclined to give them pretty high marks for trying to move the party towards entirely worthy principles. With a backbone, persuasion and a valid argument minds can change! Pragmatism in the service of nothing is uninspiring, boring, and a proven losing strategy, Hillary.
But let's get a grip, here. They're tweets. Most people don't read them until they're trumpeted in the media or by the Democratic bosses (I won't use the term leadership until some manifests). The Dowd interview was a singular display of contemptuous and dirisive snark. If you're claiming the "adult in the room" chair, you can't throw sand with the kids. For all the "inside" genius Pelosi is reputed to have, we have precious little to show for it. (Yeah, yeah, the ACA was all her, sure.)
If you can't whip your caucus, move the heck over. Don't act like the elected junior members are behaving immoraly by taking a moral stand. Build consensus.
3
The biggest threat to Democratic turnout is a turn to the left. If the lefties are running our party (and running for president), the sensible middle won't vote.
7
Pelosi is doing the GOP a favor by disbaraging these 4 Freshman congress women. Everyone should be "up in arms" that the President of the United States of American is not only making racist comments about dully elected members of an equal branch of government, but continues to embarrass our country by lying about or ignoring the facts where they were born. When will we hit rock bottom w this evil person, when will enough be enough to begin impeachment. Japan has its national treasures. The US has it National Disgrace our current president.
2
The ‘Squad’ plays right into Trump’s hands.
8
Biggest mistake Democrats made was keeping Pelosi as Speaker.
Time to end the death grip that gerontocracy has on the party. Time for new blood and new ideas.
Like Biden, Pelosi’s has been who’ll just reinforce the status quo.
2
Please, Squad, Fight Trump, Not Democrats.
10
How about Pelosi? Don't you think SHE should fight Trump, not Democrats? Why not?
Please squad, fight trump and not Pelosi. (I have seen so many 'lefter than thou' liberals turn their ire on other liberals, as though they were the problem, obviously, weakening us as a whole). Can't we agree that we are not after 'purity' and should acknowledge the pluralism in our ranks. What we should be about is getting rid of this dangerous, racist president.
8
If they continue with their narcissistic self-promotional ways they'll be the death squad for the Democrats vs Trump as most people do not like them and that's especially true in the severals states the Dems need to take in order to win the electoral collage.
8
You can't fix the "squad's" already tarnished image... from their energy came the not brown enough name calling and what about primary threats from their friends, Justice Democrats. Echos of the GOP Tea Party. They are absolutely wrong to say that they have some sort of mandate from anyone other than the people in districts that elected them. I'm fine with their efforts to defend themselves and the voters in their districts, but this racism is old news. ... how about putting some efforts in the fact that Trump is wiping out scientists at the ACL? Too boring a topic for you?
5
Politically I am with the squad, but I’m getting a little weary of their attacks on their fellow Democrats who don’t pass their purity tests. AOC calls Pelosi a racist. Seriously? Moderates are racists and segregationists. Presley attacks the Congressional Black Caucus for what? Not being black enough? AOC’s chief of staff attacks Sharice David’s, a Native American lesbian congresswoman, because she isn’t pure enough. I’m sorry, but they are so out of control that it’s embarrassing. I like their passion, but to be effective, they need to grow up.
10
No, Pelosi isn't demoralizing the people the Dems need. The Squad is alienating the moderates the Dems need to take the presidency and the Senate from Trump and the Repubs.
Pelosi has a long track record. The Squad hasn't accomplished anything -- yet. Its members need to take the foot off the pedal, button it and learn some judiciousness.
At the same time, Pelosi should harness and channel some of the Squad's (modulated) fire.
Time to circle the wagons, respect and use one another's strengths but get behind the leader. -- thegamesmenplay.com
7
I wish a rational column like this had as much influence as Maureen Dowd’s screeds.
All we want is positive leadership, something to pull together for. This rift is so depressing.
3
The "squad" as it likes to be known constitutes FOUR members. Moderate Democrats constitute FOUR TIMES their number. Regardless of your sex, or your ethnicity, or your political agenda you need to be able to count. And you need to have numbers to back up your demands.
It seems that the squads influence is commensurate with its numbers. That is to say, practically nil.
2
dump pelosi, she is the crypt-keeper of dems..the way our party runs the election, not funding and threatening upstarts, not even allowing them to speak their minds, plus Pelosi's dismissal of climate heating is just not on..good god lets get rid of that over-lifted skeleton and get some live blood in here..
Why is it that asking these women to act like adults is greeted with kabuki like charges including racism,sexism, homophobia? It is so predictable, irritatingly so. So come on Squad, you bought an adult ticket when you ran now act like you meant it.
3
Pelosi and the old bulls she surrounds herself with are the core of what's been wrong with the Democratic Party for years. Always willing to compromise or run away, they have sold the soul of the party to the donor class and to the Republicans. She lost me permanently when she refused to do anything about Bush and the war criminals and helped let the banksters off the hook. She will never get me back....and I'm an old white male liberal.....
I stand with the #squad. They represent the future, not only of the Democratic Party but of the country. And they recognize that there are threats to it not only from Trump, but from the old guard that thrives on the status quo while millions suffer....
3
Women asked women to vote for them, because they are women (break the glass ceiling).
Now women ask women to vote for them because of color!!!
why?
Vote for the ones that will make the life of all USA citizens better, regardless of color, gender faith and background.
"The Squad" will lead us to destruction!
USA is a great country when it's strong and holds up it's constitution up in Pride!
1
We just saw the squad giving a totally pathetic news conference. They were unable to answer questions. They were unable to note anything they have accomplished. Their Green New Deal got zero votes. They vote against humanitarian aid. What a pathetic group. It’s easy to see why AOC has only a 21% approval rating.
4
Hmm. "And some of the newcomers' rhetoric has been stupid and irresponsible," is a stupid and irresponsible thing to say. And yet it has become received wisdom in the punditry surrounding the newcomers. There is nothing those patriotic women have said that isn't true and an accurate representation of many liberals' beliefs.
Starting with the incendiary Liar-in-Chief, and moving down through the Republican ranks, there is a ton of actual stupidity and irresponsibility on display every day.
Republicans have grasped that, in accord with Danton's principals, "we must do the audacious, again the audacious, always the audacious" to capture the hearts and minds of the people.
Perhaps, after the Terror (the current Republican Regime, not that of the 1790s), plodding centrism will be the rage and centrist Democrats will win big, but I'm not so sure.
Democrats must learn that caution does not win fanatics, and the only way to win this culture war is to have more Democratic fanatics than Republican fanatics.
But we are simply retreading the same passions and arguments Americans fought for in the Civil War. The forces of ignorance, pride, and racism like to start wars. But when countered by implacable intellectualism, justice and tolerance the wars always end the same way. Trump and his followers should think very carefully about what they want.
"Some of the newcomers’ rhetoric has been stupid and irresponsible." And destructive. I'm thinking in particular of the tweet by Ocasio-Cortez's Chief of Staff, comparing some of today's centrist Democrats to old-time segregationists. Do we really need a leftist Trump in our midst?
5
Pelosi should not have spoken of the four congresswomen so dismissively. It was surprising, and one imagines done without thinking through the fact that Ms Dowd would write that down and publish it. Stupid move, Ms Pelosi. You are the person we look to, so now what? Trump saved you, a little bit. But now we really do need to fight louder and harder against the detainment of immigrants. We need to be louder and tougher about the erosion of women’s and LGBTQ rights, and the protection of the environment. These women are speaking truth to power, Ms Pelosi. Don’t turn your back on us. We need you more than ever.
1
Please, Ms. Goldberg, fight Trump, not Pelosi.
5
Wake up! STOP the petty brawls and self-indulgences. Fight to beat Trump and his crooks.
STICK TOGETHER, because your lives and others' depend on it.
Sigh.
Speaker Pelosi spoke to "The Squad" at the request of Congressional Democrats, specifically black women and men from the South livid at being publicly vilified via twitter rants as white supremacists by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a newly elected Congresswomen from the bluest district.
Members of the CBC came to Pelosi's defense saying they'd asked her to speak to the Squad. Nancy Pelosi was doing her job as Speaker in telling the Squad to stop viciously publicly attacking these Democrats. For this, she was herself called a racist by Ocasio-Cortez, who you now defend.
The Justice Democrats you so admire, like their Squad, don't care for justice, or due process of law, or speech they don't agree with. They're totally intolerant and vilify anyone who dares disagree with them.
When Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Ayanna Pressley found out Pelosi spoke on behalf of the CBC they then started a war with CBC.
Ayanna Pressley attacked the CBC calling it an "old table" she wouldn't bring her chair to. With The Squad she'd "redefine" (meaning destroy) it. No one currently from the CBC would be allowed at their new table. "We don’t need (your) black faces that don’t want to be a black voice".
Everything Pressley said on behalf of the Squad was a refutation of the basic tenets of liberal democracy, as well as everything President Obama stood for as president of all Americans of all races, ethnicities, and religions.
In fighting Trump, you should keep it in mind.
11
You are backing the Speaker into the corner of embracing
the views of "The Squad".
4
Please, media, stop referring to these women as the squad. Do you realize this is derogatory, suggesting they are a high school group of girls?
@Tammy T But it's what they call themselves!
1
I prefer the Democrats to fight over ideology, strategy and tactics any day over the deafening silence of the GOP when confronted with a racist, corrupt, inept and completely idiotic president.
Fighting leads to strategy and a clear vision. It will sort itself out before elections come.
This abhorrent president and the silence of the GOP is hurting the soul of the country. It's time the GOP and the president are voted out of office, all of them.
The Republican Party was hijacked when John Boehner gave a platform to the freshman right-wing bigots that were elected as the Tea Party and became the Freedom Party. Boehner should have told them from the start: "Congratulations; now, go take your seat on the back bench and wait your turn in Congress.'' Pelosi, it seems, is resisting making the same mistake with these four freshmen. Bravo.
3
"A senior House Democratic aide", gee, would this be the same Pelosi aid that went to the Med. Insur. Corp. and told them not to worry, because The Speaker wouldn't allow a vote, much less a debate upon Medicare for All?!
Those same Corp. that donate $$$ to Pelosi and the Dems?!
https://maplight.org/story/top-hospital-lobbyist-predicts-pelosi-wont-give-medicare-for-all-a-vote/
https://maplight.org/story/corporate-lobbyists-providing-more-bundled-donations-to-dem-congressional-committee/
Funny (not) how Ms. progressive always manages to back the Blue Dogs and continuously demeans and castigates those to her Left.
Ms. Pelosi, the Dems top fund raiser, the Speaker with hundreds of millions earned while in office, taking care of the ACA/Insur. profit guarantee; taking care of private prisons and concentration camp; voting for each and every MIC bloated budget giveaways. Yes, Ms. Pelosi knows who pays the bills.
It isn't the Left in her mind.
(Yes, but she put her thumb is Trumps eye! Yes, and he is still doing whatever he wants, no bankers we're jailed, no war criminals prosecuted, no impeachment...but yeah, she made Trump look silly one day. That's all that matters.)
1
Sigh.
Speaker Pelosi spoke to "The Squad" at the request of Congressional Democrats, specifically black women and men from the South livid at being publicly vilified via twitter rants as white supremacists by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a newly elected Congresswomen from the bluest district.
Members of the CBC came to Pelosi's defense saying they'd asked her to speak to the Squad. Nancy Pelosi was doing her job as Speaker in telling the Squad to stop viciously publicly attacking these Democrats. For this, she was herself called a racist by Ocasio-Cortez, who you now defend.
The Justice Democrats you so admire, like their Squad, don't care for justice, or due process of law, or speech they don't agree with. They're totally intolerant and vilify anyone who dares disagree with them.
When Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Ayanna Pressley found out Pelosi spoke on behalf of the CBC they then started a war with CBC.
Ayanna Pressley attacked the CBC calling it an "old table" she wouldn't bring her chair to. With The Squad she'd "redefine" (meaning destroy) it. No one currently from the CBC would be allowed at their new table. "We don’t need (your) black faces that don’t want to be a black voice".
Everything Pressley said on behalf of the Squad was a refutation of the basic tenets of liberal democracy, as well as everything President Obama stood for as president of all Americans of all races, ethnicities, and religions.
In fighting Trump, you should keep it in mind.
2
You have it backwards: Please Squad, fight Trump not a Pelosi. In fact learn from Pelosi. You want to change the world Squad, we’ll learn how to get the votes.......
2
Why not admonish the "Squad" while you are at it.
Fight Trump.
1
Trump plays to his base.
The squad plays to their bases.
Trump plays the race card.
The squad plays their race card.
Tit for tat.
Meanwhile, sadly, trump will win this tit for tat conversation.
2
By being themselves and better at getting our message out, they make her feel as incompetent as she is. She's bitter. She needs to step aside. She's a speaker who doesn't represent us and who can't "speak". How can she not use the 100's of crimes, corruption, scandals, etc against Trump and the GOP, yet they were able to use a fake scandal like Benghazi and weaponize it for years? Answer: she's useless.
The Trump (AKA worst person in the world) strategy is to be crazy outrageous and monopolize news cycles. All news is fake news is good news if people are talking Trump (AKA really the worst person in the world). Can we please impeach crazy now?
Please Squad, fight Trump, not Pelosi.
1
Urgent need for Nancy Pelosi to be removed as Speaker of the House. She is a divisive and arrogant failure in her role
1
I think you have it backwards Michelle, you should say “ Hey Squad fight Trump, not Pelosi!”
BTW many African Americans are centrist Democrats with more traditional values.
3
First, your article is spot on, and I totally agree with it!
As a professional Afro-American man (I use that phrase to refer to the descendants of Africans enslaved in the United States), who is also a baby boomer, I, unfortunately, have many experiences with having disputes with senior Euro-Americans on policy and tactical and strategic positions. So, when I heard about the clash between Speaker Pelosi and the four Congresswomen of color, known affectionately as the “squad”, and the Speaker’s response to them, I immediately translated the Speaker’s response as saying the “squad” should “be quiet,” “do what they are told,” and “stay in their place” like “good colored girls”!
My reflexive reaction became a certainty when I read Ms. Maureen Dowd’s, your colleague, witty hatchet piece on the “squad” in support of her friend Speaker Pelosi.
Thanks for rebalancing the NYT’s publicity scale!
1
Mod squad, please, please fight Trump, not Nancy Pelosi.
1
Now that Trump has tweeted Lindsey Graham's unhinged words: AOC & 'Squad' " ...hate Israel, America- are Communists", perhaps the Democratic leadership will direct its chastisement at the real bully.
In-the-mean-time, Trump's minions have decided to draw up "suggestions" for states to Count "voter-age citizens" only in drawing up districts.
The following was filed on Friday (of course):
“Accordingly, the Secretary [Wilbur Ross] has directed the Census Bureau to proceed with the 2020 Census without a citizenship question on the questionnaire, and rather to produce Citizenship Voting Age Population (CVAP) information prior to April 1, 2021 that states may use in redistricting...” (TPM- July 15,2019)
Listen to what's being said- but pay more attention to what's being done.
1
The quad (firing) squad ought to listen more and talk less. This is not the time to sow division among Democrats. The #1 task for America is to make sure Trump does not win a second term. Anything done to defeat this goal is antithetical to that goal and plays right into his hand.
4
I'm with Pelosi on this one.
5
Every single day, Nancy Pelosi illustrates that's she's just an "ankle biter", a little dog that barks a lot over nothing, but when it actually comes to defending against evil, she's worthless.
And why should she care?
In 20 years, it won't matter to her - she'll be dead - but "The Squad" and their generation will inherit the world that Nancy and Trump and bequeathing. Can you blame "The Squad" for complaining?
I am 56 - the generation between Nancy/Trump and "The Squad" and I am __ashamed__ that my generation has done little to nothing in the past 40 years. Instead of solving the obvious problems of the time and since, we partied because it's better to party and avoid problems by drinking the spiked Reagan punch than buckling down and doing the necessary work. We stayed drunk, passing the hangover to the future generations. I don't blame "The Squad" and those generations for their vocal fury.
Burn it all down and take no prisoners!
1
Sorry to break it to you, Michelle, but The Squad is demoralizing people the Democratic Party Needs.
5
Democrats abandoned and even attacked their left wing in 2016 (see the racist, sexist attacks on “Bernie Bros”).
Pelosi is doing it again.
Par for the course for Democratic leadership, but it doesn’t seem very bright.
Pelosi set the field for bully boy trump to pile on in. Which of course he did.
2
Modest proposal- Spend a ton of money to get these four "victimology squad" goofballs defeated in primary contests by mainstream, sensible people who aren't anti-Semitic Socialists (who don't even know what Socialism actually means). It shouldn't be so difficult.
3
Yes, please don't fight the "squad" (idiotic name, btw)
But Pelosi has to fight them off.
Pelosi knows, if the "squad's" agenda moves forward, it will bury the Democratic party for years to come.
3
This is why people like me left the Democratic party. Their incrementalism is crippling. Once again, Democrats miss the point, look weak, and will lose again. Remember the mavericks who took over the right wing a few years ago? The Tea Party wackos? What started as a fringe is now the party. And they win. All they do is win. They get to say who sits on the federal courts. Nothing can get done in Congress without them. Because they go for the jugular and make no apologies. The left needs to learn this lesson: own your beliefs and shout them loud and proud. Enough compromising with these fascist theocrats on the right.
3
Squad: the future
Pelosi: the past
By fighting "the squad", Ms. Pelosi is fighting Trump in the best possible way. I realize that Ms. Goldberg may find this hard to understand, but the fact-free anti-Western rhetoric of these four Congresswomen and their small number of loud followers is deeply disturbing to many liberals. Indeed to some of us it goes beyond disturbing - it is as offensive as Trump's white supremacist bile. If we truly want to rid this nation of Trump and the lawlessness that he embodies, and I believe that we can agree on that, then we need to balance the fraction of the electorate that may be attracted to the historically empty claims of "the squad" against the fraction that is repelled by their positions. Do the math - Ms. Pelosi has.
3
"The Squad" (what a perfect name) has no clue that their antics are playing into Trump's plan to divide and conquer. The goal should be to remove the present occupant from the White House and to win back the senate. OKC and her three followers are even causing dissension among members of the Black and Hispanic Caucuses. That's a roadmap to disaster in 2020. Pelosi knows this and is trying her best to stop this nonsense before it's too late.
4
Excellent piece Michelle Goldberg!
The whole world is confounded.
What does Trump have on Pelosi?
She has made absolutely no attempt to stop, control or even censure this out-of-control tyrant who thinks he's above the law. And impeachment is out of the question for her.
Meanwhile, Trump grows more and more emboldened by her inaction and silence.
Why has Pelosi become another Trump enabler?
Pelosi sees that these well meaning but inexperienced women are playing into Trumps hands. Yes, their ideas are good and we need to listen but by approaching things the way they do (kind of a liberal Tea party ) they are giving Trump a target to get his base worked up. They represent everything wrong with the Dems as far as the angry ,fearful Trump supporters see. They are perfect for Trump to attack and create more fear and anger.
They need to listen to grandma as to how to behave and keep their ideas and policies but do not play into The trump reality show.
1
Please, can we just begin at the beginning? If we don’t win this election - it’s all for naught. Have your differences but UNITE behind the number one agenda item...win. Figure it out. Get it together. If we don’t, you can be sure they will. Just keep images of Trump in the foreground if you need inspiration for a path to a Democratic win. It’s really that simple.
1
She's not fighting them. They are fighting her. And the rest of us pragmatic Dems.
3
To Michelle Goldberg. One of your very well-known columnists published a piece this morning sizing up the internal conflicts. Did you read it? David Brooks' analysis is based upon solid logic and philosophy, working within the system, and playing by the rules. Thankfully both of you have reached similar conclusions about what needs to be done in order to put an end to the current administration and all of the division it causes.
1
I support the broad strokes of the progressive agenda. And if we had a popular vote for president, a Senate with seats based on population, a House without districts gerrymandered by Republicans (who caught Democrats sleeping in 2010 and before - no Constitution to blame there), I would be more impressed with their millions of Twitter followers. But in the real world we have to ask where are they distributed, and most or possibly almost all of them make absolutely no difference once location, location, location is taken into account.
Justice Democrats, founded and run by AOC COS Saikat Chakrabarti is supporting 4 new House candidates. All are running against Democrats who are to the right of the "moderate" mainstream. Fine with me if they win - I even donated to one of them. But please point out the districts where viable progressive candidates have a chance of flipping Republican seats. Hmm... I'd like to see a progressive wave in 2020, but flipping seats in Purple Districts and states (Senate is critical!) with moderates is a more realistic goal, and more important at this point in history. Pelosi understands that last point. Attack Sharice Davids! Are you serious? Could a Justice Democrat flip that seat?
2
During the tumultuous 2016 Democratic Primary I was labeled a sexist , privileged, selfish borderline racist Berniebro because I was less than enthralled and excited by Hillary Clinton’s dispassionate campaign . There was no fire , no urgency and a palpable disconnect from the zeitgeist of desperation and disenfranchisement that’s the day to day lived existence of the overwhelming majority of Americans . Our lives are grinding struggles experienced at the knifes edge of collapse and ruin . We’re one paycheck , one illness from catastrophe and I believe the Clinton campaign was far too aloof and removed from the pulse of the nation to grasp and tap into this sentiment .
But I digress . Much of the conflict between myself and , frankly , white Hillary Clinton supporters was their contention that I was a privileged white male whose purity was threatening the voiceless and vulnerable , particularly WOC who are the backbone of the Democratic Party .
Imagine my bemusement now that precisely those women are being singled out and abused because Nancy Pelosi effectively told them to know their place .
Imagine my shock that they were merely convenient props for Democratic Leadership to shield themselves from criticism only to turn on them when they dared assert themselves .
Turns out we had them pegged as the phonies and hypocrites they truly are .
Someone needs to explain to the "Squad" that they are falling into a "Trump Trap." Their strident squalling and tantrums won't win over Independents and anti-Trump conservatives. Nancy Pelosi understands the reality of the situation. Dems need these voters to defeat Trump. This is not the 1960's. Stop listening to other "flower children." If you want to get rid of Trump and return America to sanity, nominate a responsible Democrat who doesn't sound like a Woodstock revival. America wants a GROWN-UP. Save the ideological discussion for cocktail parties. Give the voters an alternative to lunacy. If you don't, moderates will stay home and you will lose again. Remember that you thought it couldn't happen last time. Clean up your act before it happens again!
2
Passionate young idealists or four Congresswomen who simply lack both common sense and the ability to respect the views of others.
AOC and the "Squad" brought this on themselves when they consistently refused to recognize that perhaps, just perhaps, the fact that every other Democrat who voted contrary to their beliefs might just be right.
Think about it-the arrogance.
3
Trump and Fox News will do everything they can to make the Squad and particularly AOC the face of the Democratic Party. No one is better than Trump at demonizing anyone he chooses to demonize.
Exhibit 1: Hillary Clinton. His base at rallies is still screaming "Lock her up!"
If he succeeds, we are sunk.
2
Pelosi and the Squad have to work this out together. Nancy should stop goading them. The Squad (and their cut outs including AOC’s chief of staff) should stop slandering moderate Dems by name. The Squad didn’t give the Democrats control of the House. The moderates did. Maybe a few years in the House minority would give the Squad an appreciation for how important that is.
1
Don't assume "The Squad" is going to generate African American and Hispanic turnout simply because of their skin color. Educated white upper middle class liberals are leading the charge to the left on social issues, not minorities. Minorities and the poor will vote for health care, jobs, and better pay, not climate change and LGBTQ issues. Biden gets plenty of minority support; an AOC or a Bernie rally is fully of white people with college degrees.
2
I'd suggest that "the squad" learn to be more strategic in their comments, as well. It's not as though all the slamming is coming from Pelosi; she has quite noticeably bitten her tongue when faced with over-the-top accusations from "the squad."
It's disheartening to see "the squad" becoming a key piece of a circular firing squad.
1
Please, “Squad,” fight *Trump and his enablers*, not Pelosi and more moderate Democrats.
The big struggle should be over the election, not ideological and “generational” control of the Democratic Party.
Well...these women threat the Big Pharma, Fuel and armament companies...favoring the interests of we the people. Neither Trump nor Pelosi threat them. In fact they do not mind getting money from them in their campaigns. It is understandable that Pelosi have problems about who she has to back and who she has to stand with.
Sorry Ms. Goldberg but you are on the wrong side of this one.
Mark Shields noted that in congresses past the speaker wouldn't even bother to learn a congressman's name until he or she had been elected to a second term. These women are demanding the keys to the kingdom before they've even found their offices let alone figured out how to do their jobs effectively.
Airing ones grievances in public is not legislating, it's just acting out.
2
Let's keep in mind that this "controversy" may be abetted by foreign hackers, who want to fan the flames -- or even ignite them.
I agree absolutely that The Squad's actions have become counter-productive. What I want to know is, are any of them and their COSs paying attention? Are there any signs that they're going to change their ways? Because otherwise, all the cogent comments here are just so much hot air.
The squad has demonstrated more courage than Pelosi.
1
The problem is this: Speaker Pelosi adamantly refuses to go after President Trump. This is a problem - a major problem. Her ineptitude makes the entire Democratic Party look pathetically weak and incompetent. We need to see strong leaders moving forward with impeachment proceedings on every single person who is in contempt of Congress. But Speaker Pelosi does nothing. She expects the voters in the 2020 election to do what we the voters put her and her colleagues in office to do, and that is a shame.
1
Please, Squad, fight Trump and not Pelosi. She's playing the long game and so should you if you really want change. Sheesh.
1
I strongly object to your premise, Michelle.
First of all, nothing the left wing of the party want can be accomplished if Dems don't have the Senate!
It is a known fact that the country is a centered one...there are the extremes but the extremes wouldn't be ascendant if the Russians hadn't interfered and James Comey hadn't acted in the truly nauseating way he did and, apparently, if Jill Stein hadn't been there.
Nancy Pelosi is a brilliant gem and the only Democrat who seems to have any sense of strategy among Democrats!
It is so unfair to tar Pelosi for the escalation of this intraparty insurrection!
Trump has pretty much outdone himself and this country is in such a bad way but the Squad has to stop!!
They may feel an obligation to their constituents but they are totally blowing it!
I am so sick over seeing this fight while the Trump administration with Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham and so many others are presiding over one of the worst chapters of our history...and there have been plenty of horrendous ones!
Squad, please stand down! Work with Pelosi! You will make great things happen together but not unless we conquer the Russians, trolls, bots, Trump!
We can't fight each other!!
The bottom line is it's time for younger leadership and representation in the Democratic Party. I am really sick of seeing the same old career politicians, black and white, liberal and moderate, running indefinitely. They all intend to die in office.
In this battle between these women of color vs the colorless politicians, Pelosi shot the Democratic Party in the foot, and now, they're hopping mad. Trump took advantage of Pelosi's misstep to advance his agenda to the delight of his followers.
Michelle Goldberg has highlighted dramatically the phenomenal importance of the Green Party voters, that Clinton's incapacity to win them over cost her the Oval Office.
The Democrats should consider whether they can ethically nominate someone who is more or less a Clinton Clone.
AOC's green deal has attracted considerable support.
Trump has been taking advantage of Pelosi's missteps. While Pelosi fiddles, Trump is going for the jugular in his assault on press freedom. This isn't about Trump's 'fake news' blather. https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/15/politics/assange-embassy-exclusive-documents/index.html
Here is what Clinton said about the greatest journalist of his generation, "Julian Assange must answer for what he has done". Clinton and the Democratic Party are complicit.
Can Democrats afford to condone more of Pelosi's divisiveness with press freedom under attack?
3
Some see the Squad as too radical and too loud and brash and want to lay the guilt of trump winning on them. Anyone who votes for trump at this point is voting for racism, voting for misogyny, voting for a wanna be dictator and voting for all the Republicans who prop him up has no business calling themselves a moderate. Voting for trump now is saying I approve of all he represents. If there are more people ready to vote for trump rather than put up with four unruly cats then may God have mercy on our country.
Good for Pelosi in making clear that AOC and her mates do not speak for the Democratic Party. AOC did not flip a seat in getting to Congress. Instead, she pushed out a dedicated and experienced liberal Democrat - and then has gone around threatening to primary any Democrat she doesn't find "progressive" enough.
AOC is smart - and has some good ideas, along with the non-starters she throws out from time to time. But she is an absolute godsend to the Trumpistas. Though taken aback by the overt racism of the Orange Idiot's recent tirade directed at "The Squad", I'm not at all surprised that he (and his new little spear carrier, Lindsey Graham) have realized that their best hope in 2020 is to turn the election into a referendum on a Democratic party defined by a small cadre of freshman Congresswomen who constitute less than 2% of congressional Democrats.
I wake up deeply depressed each day by the inescapable and unspeakable reality of the Trumpian nightmare. And now I have to add to that my depression over the political stupidity and self-indulgence of Democrats who may say that Trump and his Republican lackeys represent an existential threat to our democracy - but who seem unwilling to act like it.
1
... and, Squad, please fight Trump, not Pelosi.
193
@Beth
Agree. The Squad is sabotaging us. They are demanding a choice between Trumpism and socialism. I do not accept that.
America is against Trumpism and but not for socialism.
Go Nancy!
10
@Beth They're trying to fight Trump. Pelosi keeps standing in the way. Ergo, to fight Trump, they have to fight Pelosi.
2
@Beth The Squad members are clueless that what they are doing is ensuring Trump’s re-election and the loss of the House to Republicans. As a lifelong Democrat I don’t like that The Squad is trashing Speaker Pelosi, not the reverse.
12
The Squad just because they are women of color do not represent women of color; they represent the left wing of the Democratic Party. Your comment, Michelle, about the depressed African-American turnout of 2016 seems to support that error in reasoning. While I agree strongly that an ugly internecine fight among the Democrats is a huge strategic mistake, it is not true that a lurch to the left is what will unite the party or appeal to the amorphous needs of the broad mass of people of color. It is the Squad that needs to conform their tactics to the central goal of defeating the racist in the White House.
113
@Tim Nelson According to the Black Census project, "Economic issues rank among the most pressing problems that Black Census respondents identified in Black communities. The experience of economic insecurity is personal for many respondents: Nearly half (48 percent) report living in a household that lacked enough funds to pay a monthly bill in the last 12 months, and 31 percent personally cut back on food to save money. Respondents strongly support policies that would make Black people more economically secure, including guaranteeing higher wages and increasing the affordability of housing, health care, and college. Additionally, respondents favor increasing taxes on the rich as a means of raising revenue to address these policy priorities."
That is the progressives' economic platform.
https://blackcensus.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Digital-More-Black-Than-Blue.pdf
6
@Tim Nelson I hope the Squad will learn what Pelosi was trying to tell them when she said they were only four votes. They can't expect the "old guard" to GIVE them power; they have to earn it. That has never meant getting votes simply because your ideas are good, or America would be in a much better place right now than it is. It means working to persuade enough other Congresspersons to vote their way to get their way. Pelosi is a vote counter: her super power. She's not a revolutionary. Expecting her to become one is a waste of time.
Now, in one important way, the Squad DOES represent women of color. Racists don't like them, even more than men of color, when they get "uppity". Those suffering from implicit bias feel uneasy about them, and will attribute that to their ideas even when those ideas would help them more than those of their opponents. The problem is, people tend to conflate things. In this case, the Squads color and/or ethnicity is conflated with their politics.
Oh, and about the depressed African-American turnout in 2016: Republicans successfully made enough of them, and young people in general, distrust Hillary Clinton. They for sure weren't going to vote for Trump. So many either stayed home, or a few voted third party. There only needed to be enough of that in a handful of states for Trump to squeak in.
Democrats have to counter the GOP's branding of the Dems as communists, which is what many Americans hear when you say "socialist". Just ask Lindsay Graham.
11
@Tim Nelson
They need to be fighting trump by supporting all Democrats in the House not fighting to get attention. All this infighting may cost them the election next time & the republicans will win back the House & the White House.
7
Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib identify as democratic socialists. This has important implications. See, e.g., a 2018 WAPO column on democratic socialism (vs. social democracy) by political scientist Sheri Berman:
https://wapo.st/2AV1S93?tid=ss_mail&utm_term=.7b87447706a
Takeaway: Democratic socialists are a handful of trouble.
In contrast to social democrats (who are pragmatic moderates who favor a democratic capitalist system that serves the common good) democratic socialists hew dogmatically to an extreme policy program and use extreme tactics to pursue it.
They disdain compromise and coalition politics.
They read a journal called “Jacobin.”
Their programmatic extremism extends back to the 1920s, and caused much trouble over the years. E.g., their tactical extremism helped allow both Mussolini and Hitler to rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s.
Democratic socialists do not play well with other progressives. Some believe that the first task of a rightly guided socialist party is to destroy all moderate leftist movements before combating the right. Thus we see that AOC, Tlaib and affiliates spend more time and energy fighting (including primarying) their fellow Democrats than fighting Republicans.
AOC, Tlaib and their allies are a gift to Trump and the Right.
Pelosi blundered by speaking disrespectfully of AOC et al's influence and ideas. But they do pose a grave danger to Democratic unity and prospects for Democratic victory in 2020.
2
These four have put themselves out there with some pretty incendiary remarks themselves. They are now fair game. You are running with the big dogs now girls !
2
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib speak for me. I see in them the future of the Democratic Party and the future of the country.
As for Pelosi, I only see the past, trying to cling to power no matter what the cost. Pelosi fiddles while the Constitution burns.
POC are always asked to compromise. MLK Jr. was asked to compromise. Clinton asked us to compromise as he triangulated. And now Pelosi is telling to compromise as well. But what were the squad being asked to compromise on? Safeguards on how the monies being sent to the border would be used! Latino children are being tortured and will deal with the pain for years. Women and young girls have been sexually assaulted. And we're asked to compromise when we see ourselves in these children?
White liberals are content to not take on Trump too harshly on immigration for a utilitarian moral philosophy that says we need to win in 2020! The squad and others (including me) have adopted a categorical moral philosophy that says we need to impeach Trump now and we need to confront him on immigration. Otherwise our democracy will suffer perhaps mortally.
I for one am done with compromising, at least when it comes to the torture of Latinos in what amounts to concentration camps. Those of us who grew up in working class neighborhoods know that the only way to beat a bully is by confronting him head on. White liberal privilege, which is a real thing, could learn from us.
What genius, Trump has forced Pelosi to defend the Squad and so the whole Democratic Party looks un-American.
1
If you don't think the Squad, defiantly and arrogantly calling out Pelosi for being a racist, didn't embolden Trump to double down on real racism, you're simply not paying attention.
Pelosi has no choice but to fight a two front war.
1
When the Dems ran in 2018 in part on keeping DT in check - I believed them.
Pelosi fooled me.
Democrats will embrace the circular firing squad and so will the 4th estate. Trump will get all the propaganda coverage he wants, while democrats will get the circular firing squad.
PLEASE, Speaker Pelosi, with all due and great respect, do not fight the Squad -- listen to them. Fight Trump, fight McConnell but do not fight the Squad.
You are wrong to ignore Trump's many unlawful activities because you are A F R A I D to lose in 2020. That puts you in a very vulnerable and weak position from which to win anything. Please do not be a nice proper elderly lady who wants the young'uns to sit at the feet of wise old crones and "listen up." Now is not the time!
Defend the constitution, fight the nonsense foisted upon us by McConnell and Co., Ivanka, Jared, and Pompeo, Bolton and the lot who are happy to see you "hold back" so you can win in the election. Guess what? That's exactly what you must not continue to do. With all your years of experience, you are still blind to what is next down the pike. Listen to the Squad and support them. They are the future and the future is now. Support the women candidates and the women in Congress. Be bold -- it has greatness in it. Be brave, walk away from what you think you know and take a risk. Listen to the next generation as they have something of value to share. And this is from a self-employed white, female, educated, life-long Dem who is a baby boomer just like you.
1
Nancy Pelosi is a privileged powerful white Italian American Roman Catholic supremacist by nature and nurture.
Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley and Alexandra Ocasio- Cortez are not members of Pelosi's tribe. Nor are they members of Donald Trump's clan.
But black African American women are the most loyal and long suffering base of the Democratic Party. They are expected to be grateful, invisible and silent.
Instead of focusing on Donald Trump,Sr. as an existential threat to preserving. protecting and defending the Constitution, Nancy Pelosi foolishly made this own goal unforced error.
1
I get the angst, but some perspective. Pelosi has no beef with most women of color in her caucus - Jahana Hayes, Lucy McBath, Lauren Underwood, etc. She is not singling out this demographic for criticism. (It's not age either as Underwood for example is younger than Omar.) She is trying to keep the Congressional team together, on the same page. Maybe she should have said what she said in private and not in public. But Trump's unshakeable base represents about the same percentage of votes as Hitler received in the German election of 1932 (37%). One reason he parlayed that vote into a dictatorship was that the left (socialists etc.) and moderate left were split. Every time a young and/or minority Democrat says "these out of touch boomers are just as bad as Trump" they take another step toward this kind of outcome here and now. Please, please don't do that. The stakes could not be higher.
1
Maybe the "Gang of Four" as I like to call them should be the ones to fighting with member of their own party.
I'm a Progressive, but these women are tearing the party apart. They are stupidly play Trump's game and are being cheered on the sidelines by Republicans. They can't resist his bait.
They should stop listening to him and try to work with their colleagues. They should produce something to show their constituents.
1
Squad - don’t fight Pelosi - fight Trump.
That "difference in morality" Michelle, was the lives of children. The inhumane conditions upon which they were held and the time frames. The criminality being committed.
THOSE Michelle were what the "squad" was trying to get written into the funding.
Those children were what Ms. Pelosi and the Center condemned.
But yeah, just a "difference in morality".
Meh...brown kids; right Michelle, right Centrists?~!
1
I'm an aged white Texan male in a blood-red state that is tormenting and killing what our purported savior Jesus would call "the least of these." The Liar and the People of the Lie are turning innocent children into orphans and traumatizing their parents. I consider "The Squad" champions for human rights, human decency and the truth. The represent a slender golden thread of hope for a better future. God BLESS THEM! Meanwhile, Nancy Pelosi is the leading candidate for the Neville Chamberlain Award for Political Courage. "The Squad" deserves the Nobel Peace Prize and the thanks of a suffering nation. My GOD, people! Aren't we better than this?
What? Please, far-left rabble rousers who may cost us House seats, calm down and stop attacking Nancy and ruining our electoral chances. That should've been your headline. Trump's assault on these women is gross and insane, but Nancy Pelosi is far from the problem here.
Come down off of Wokeback Mountain, Michelle. I know it's hard to see the problems those four may cause the Party from your perch in NYC. But out here, they're a problem.
Enough already with 'the women fighting' columns. This one is built on a mountain of assumptions, and indeed makes a mountain out of a molehill. I'm sure Pelosi & Co. will make amends and will start firing on all cylinders. If Ms. Goldberg had any skin in the game, she might want to address the most corrupt, vile and pathetic presidency in our nation's history. More Monday morning punditry of Dem infighting is a distraction and not needed.
The idiotLeft doesn't understand what the Right has understood for decades. If you don't win elections you don't have the power to do anything but whine, which is what the idiotLeft excels at. On the right, they build power and the local and state levels influencing the lives of people much more than the President can. Does the left care? Only every 4 years when the Presidency is up for grabs. Senate decisions on the Supreme and Federal Courts will influence this country for decades. I doubt that the 'Squad' and their hangers on even know what impact the Federal Courts have on peoples lives. Grabbing the spotlight and calling people who don't agree with them racist is about all they're good at so far
1
"Please, Pelosi, Fight Trump, Not the Squad"
Please Squad, Fight the Republicans in the Senate who are blocking the progressive, important legislation the House has passed, not Pelosi.
And tell your twitter followers about these bills rather than insulting centrist Democrats who, as you know, voted for them:
https://www.vox.com/2019/5/24/18637163/trump-pelosi-democrats-bills-congress
Every election is "It's not a good time for principled policy, X, Y or Z. We have to beat the other guy!". Yet here we are in 2019 with this creature as President. Full steam ahead! Let's keep this moral cowardice going! Blue no matter who?
Where else are they going to go?
Trump has cleverly laid a trap.
Will Pelosi fall into it?
She was taking on the ‘squad’.
Now will she defend them?
Impossible to defend their anti-semitism.
If she does, Trump has succeeded.
2
Nancy is waiting for Trump to storm the halls of congress with a wrecking ball before she does anything. Weak leadership.
One of the myths about the Squad is that they are all style and bombast lacking substance. Having seen clips of them questioning in committee sessions, considering their legislative proposals and listening to interviews, it's evident that they are prepared and qualified for the positions they hold. There are several other freshman women who also fit this description. Pelosi (and many of the commenters here) should stop treating them as children who should be seen and not heard.
Thomas Frank, the journalist who was lauded when he analyzed Republicans in his book about Kansas but who has been blackballed and silenced after his damning book Listen Liberal, exposed the problem with the so-called centerist Democratic position. Democrats have to speak not only to the moderate swing voters and to the African Americans who stayed home in 2016. Democrats have to continue involving the young voters who have felt the energy that these new fresh voices bring. Democrats also have to speak to the roughly 50% of the electorate that doesn't vote because they feel neither party addresses their concerns or truly acts in their interests.
It's horrible that the Republican party has become the party of Trump. It would be equally horrible if the Democratic party only reflected the likes of Pelosi, Biden, and the other center-rightists who claim to be moderates.
Incrementalism has failed and constantly caving to interests which benefit from the status quo is the losing strategy. Listen, Liberal!
I'd have preferred this column: "Please, Pelosi, Fight Trump AND the Squad"
Pelosi has shown that whether its democrats or republicans, its white who bully and that is what she is doing with the squad. She is distorting the image of democrats
1
Michelle...please study 1972
Certainly if you do not take that lesson into consideration the country is doomed to repeat it. 4 more years would challenge our experiment in democracy. Out in our provinces people love djt and do not love socialism...a clever base strategy again djt uses in his reality show...please do not play into it.
The NYT has too many extreme left voices. I now only read the light pieces, about dogs’ eyebrows and the like.
1
You have contributed a great deal in increasing the rancor among and between Democrats. Your criticism of Democrats not liberal enough for you literally erases any difference between a Biden and a Trump.
The Revolution always eats it's own in the end. It is inevitable. Pelosi will be ousted and everybody will tow the new Party line.
Who is Michelle Goldberg to assume that her opinion is worth peanuts. Her comments will reelect Trump as surely as they antagonize me about the "squad" being Democrats of my party.
1
One could easily read in this that the young upstarts should be coddled like young children. Sure they say stupid things sometimes and drive away centrists, but there there we must let the children express themselves. It's going to be harder to defend them when Trump is re-elected.
1
Please Michelle fight trump not pelosi or Biden or any other dem. The gop keeps winning because in public they all agree. While the dems and columnists play circular firing squad.
Both sides are being foolish. We need to focus on winning 2020 and not bickering with each other.
Odd that there is no mention of the remarks by Representative Omar about Israel and American Jews, remarks which were prejudiced, dishonest and mendacious, and which helped Trump and the Republican Party.
2
Dear Speaker Pelosi, read this:
Never in my life, especially as an adult, had I imagined, let alone seriously feared, that I might one day be living in a formerly free, democratic United States that had suddenly and successfully been hijacked by a perverted, autocratic fiend.
And never in my life, especially as an adult, had I imagined, let alone seriously feared, that I might one day be living in a formerly free, democratic United States in which nearly half (presently more than 40%) of my adult peers would fall under the spell of a perverted, autocratic fiend.
Our democratic foundation hasn't just cracked. A frightful number of our citizens also has.
Speaker Pelosi, our fair nation is imploding before your, my -- every sane, freedom-loving American's eyes. What, pray tell, Madam Speaker, are you and your congressional colleagues waiting for? IMPEACH, Madam Speaker, IMPEACH!
1
I’m a left wing neo hippy type from Northern CA. I’m a solid Dem who is appalled by Trump and his hench-people running the federal government. But Ilhan Omar, AOC et al do not represent me. Having four self-promoting, inexperienced, disrespectful and unlikable “squad” members as the face of the Dem party is playing right into the Republican trap. Please let’s ignore the squad for a while. Can anyone name 4 other members of the House? That’s sad.
2
Yes, Democrats, please do not pick each other apart. Be a team, stay focused, and message strategically smart. If you want to convince voters in the center why don’t you say (and mean):
1: I am against abortions. We have a 10 Point plan to avoid abortions.....criminalizing and restricting access does not need to be one of the points!!!
2. let’s fix the borders and the immigration problem. Having millions of people with illegal status is a joke. We have to fix it. Point out that the Republicans have blocked attempts to fix immigration over the years multiple times....
3. let’s help blue collar rural areas. Not by bringing coal back but by bringing tech and solar in.
All these are wining propositions.
Also, People are so sick of arguments....why don’t present the whole field of candidates as a team of the „best people“ ( but really).
All of them could message:
Here is my team of great people in my future cabinet fully stacked with my corunners because we all would be great choices.
What is wrong with the Democrats ? If you cannot win against this president and party.....OMG
32 years in Congress is too long.
Oh please, Michelle you should be spending your time getting "the squad" to act like they've been in Congress for more than 15 minutes. They are running out of excuses.
Pelosi loves "punching left," and down, but whines when the her victims fight back. Nancy is not qualified for this position. She doesn't legislate, she raises money from the fat cats, and attacks members of her own party. Same goes for the corrupt DCCC.
The house leadership and the squad must meet immediately, first in private, then in public. The outcome should be straightforward along the lines of we have and respect our differences, however we are united against the racist in chief and those that continue to empower his unabated and despicable messaging.
You are wrong! Nancy Pelosi has to fight the rebellion of the Squad that will destroy her party.
1
Ms. Goldberg, normally I’m right with you in your thinking. Not this time. I think Speaker Pelosi is doing a great job. In her interview with Maureen Dowd, what struck me was her comment about the press, that they were focusing on the “squad” while giving short shrift to what Pres. Trumps’ policies were doing to children at the border at that very moment. I could feel her anger coming off the page as I read it. And it’s true! Our president is succeeding at distracting us, again! And the press, even the NYT is helping him!
2
It is absurd to blame Nancy Pelosi for the upheaval that so-called "progressives" , epitomized by "The Squad", as well as Bernie and Liz, have brought to the Democratic Party. They've attacked her and the values of all moderate and conservative Democrats repeatedly, In so doing they have provided great ammunition to our racist, criminal "President", who has rewarded them in his usual vile fashion. If we are afflicted with another 4 years of the orange menace The Squad, Bernie and Liz will be to blame.
1
Please Goldberg, go after Trump and McConnell, not Biden and Pelosi.
The condescension towards progressives like these 4 congress members here is appalling. Do you own the party? Are you certified to define the goals of the party and give the progressives a pat on the head and give them the "Maybe later, dear, when you're a little older and your dad says it's ok.
Insufferable. Really turns me off.
The frustration of the Democrats comes from how frequently we shoot ourselves in the foot. Note, please, that the Republicans will not break rank, even when faced with the fool in the White House spewing hate. We need a wee bit of discipline in our liberal flank, but also Pelosi needs to respond to the Dem's desire to go after Trump.
1
Squad is destroying Dem party, you need to understand this. If you want to resonate with middle class voters - you should to push them away immediately. If you want to turn into marginal party representing aggrieved and opressed, so follow the squad
Remarkable. Virtually no reader acknowledges the unspoken dynamic. "The Squad" is comprised of women. Women of color.
If they were white men they would be visionary, not strident. They would be courageous, not imprudent.
Trump is a racist, misogynist, vile man.
These visionary, courageous women should be supported, not criticized for being "too progressive."
Trump's recent racist xenophobic rants are beyond the pale, and a stain on all Americans.
Pelosi said nothing of the kind; anyone calling her a racist based on her criticism of the group is absurd. She criticized them as small group with little political power, who do not speak for all of the electorate. She is correct about this. She did not attack their family origins, ethnicity or religion. BIG difference.
The depth of Trump's disgusting racism knows no bounds.
At the same time I do reserve the right to have my opinion/questions, just as I do defend the rights of the 4 to say what they wish even if I do not agree with them. Free speech, democracy.
-AOC lives off the beauty privilege, acting like she is "of color" is sort of amusing as she clearly moves through life looking white, and thus accessing white privilege her surname notwithstanding. Before she was well known , anyone who did not know her name would assume she is white, thus accessing that privilege. Not sure a Spanish surname makes you "of color" anyway. Are all Spaniards "of color" because they have a Spanish name?
-Omar came to this country from Somalia and a refugee camp in Kenya. She is right that there is much wrong with the US that must be corrected, but it still remains puzzling that she has said so many very very disparaging things about life here; I have never once herd a quote from her being positive about the US: given the heights she has attained, it is odd, isn't it?
The "squad" is the Democratic version of the the slash and burn Tea Party, ideologues out of step with their own party, to say nothing of the country as a whole. Rather than sticking to the issues, their style is ad hominem in the extreme. Democrats who disagree with them are akin to Jim Crow segregationists. Having failed to win over their colleagues with the strength of their arguments, they take refugee in identity politics, suggesting that sex and race should shield their tactics and views from criticism. Then our racist President joins in. He is an arsonist who loves a good conflagration. Someone else can sweep up the ashes.
And the press is enthralled. So four obscure Congressman who have no legislative achievements to their names dominate the news, but it makes for such good copy. It is telling that this opinion piece, like so much of the coverage, does not mention a single policy position the "squad" has taken. That would be boring.
Nancy Pelosi need to realize that she will not attract voters like me (non-affiliated, 70 years old) by moving closer to the Republicans to attract their least racist followers.
Here's a suggestion for "the squad." Please read the memoirs of both Justice Sonia Sotomayor and former First Lady Michele Obama, both brilliant, accomplished minority women. You may learn how effective civility, restraint, and respect for the feelings and opinions of others can be.
Best strategy is to let the disaffected Republicans stay home or vote third party, and bring the Bernie/Progressive branch back into the Democratic party. Many of them stayed home in 2016, and their votes could have given Hillary the win. What do you think the whole hacked e-mail leak was about. It was about tying Hillary to Wall Street and inflaming the Bernie supporters for her shenanigans. And then there is the added fact that centrist Democratic economic policy for the last 30 years has turned out to be a huge failure, Regeanomics light, and too many people know this.
1
So well said Michelle Goldberg, thank you!
The Democrats are running on de facto single issue platform of Trump being a racist. Yes, there is plenty of free this and free that, but the campaign is about Trump’s racism front and center. Trump unlike all other Republicans in history welcomes this and encourages it.
At this stage this theme evolved to Republicans that do not abandon Trump being racists on those basis.
We see the first signs, with Pelosi of all the people first target, of the inevitable evolution to “just being against us is racist.”
In terms of raw win/loose terms Trump maybe the most gifted politician ever. If he has his way it will be the party of Omar versus Trump. And if you don’t sign on with Omar you are a racist. Binary choice. Black and White choice. Sophomoric pun intended.
1
Here's the pure and simple fact of it. We ALL have to accept that whoever is elected to Congress is elected because the majority of their voting constituents want them there. Those elected officials now have a right and obligation to represent the interests of those constituents to the best of their ability. We simply must start accepting that different people in different parts of the country have different views, or we might as well become fifty separate nations. Because, in truth, it might be easier to negotiate trade and military agreements between fifty different governments than to elect one leader to represent such an enormous expanse of land with so many varied interests and beliefs, many of which are directly influenced by geographic location. Realistically, we need leaders with a far greater vision than just one party can provide. Realistically, we need a miracle.
Nothing suppresses voter turnout like Democratic leadership. Remember Obama, although more conventionally Party orthodox than leftists today, was originally an outsider in the 2008 primary. He managed to thread the needle. Pulling enough base enthusiasm without alienating the center. His presidency was ultimately underwhelming.
However, his disappointment had more to do with Congress, including and even especially Nancy Pelosi, than any personal failure. How can you turn the first popularly elected Democrat in a generation into a dead letter in 2 years? Democrats found a way.
I might add Bill Clinton, the failed moderate liberal, only won his Office thanks to a third party candidate. Recently deceased Ross Perot. A point Democrats of the 1980s and 90s conveniently ignore even as they hurl insults at Jill Stein. Like it or not, Perot shaped the narrative concerning globalization in way Democrats are still defending against today. That's not his fault. Democrats handed him the argument to make.
Pelosi is ultimately wrong and will be judged as such. Be the lesser mistake of an entire generation does not equate to historical vindication. It's like celebrating Francis II for finally and weakly opposing Napoleon. Yes, Napoleon was eventually defeated but you won't find the Holy Roman Empire anywhere on a map.
Democrats have a problem and starts at the top, not on the fringe.
1
Yeah, I don’t think it’s Nancy’s job to make sure the “squad.’ Is placated. And I’m a big, fat liberal. If you think they are being annoying, chances are many others do too. I wish the the title of your piece was, “Please squad, don’t pick fights with your party.” That said, your still my favorite New York Times columnist!
The squad emphasizes ideological purity over practical politics. Ms. Pelosi looks to politics as the art of the possible. While i disagree with many of her policies, I have to respect her keeping both feet firmly on the ground in her fight against Mr. Trump.
3
I'm 65 years old. I was an AOC once. And as a passionate, hard working, and scrupulous manager, I made certain I jammed my values down everyone's throat. Whereas I was extremely successful at meeting corporate objectives, I failed miserably at making friends and forming alliances. After two years of fighting the good fight, I was fired.
Hmm... I wonder what went wrong.
3
I'm afraid you've got it backwards. Please read Maureen Dowd's most recent excellent piece.
3
Liberals who swoon over “the squad”—is that seriously the name we’ve settled on?—feed an ahistorical narrative that erases the real work (as opposed to Twitter activism) of non-white women who came before them in favor of a bizarre romanticization of living women of color as uniquely capable of “saving” America. You want a hero? Take a look at Barbara Jordan, a bipartisan black lesbian from Texas who didn’t kowtow to her party’s far left bullies when she was tasked with assessing and offering solutions for America’s immigration woes.
Democrats must quash the nascent mythology surrounding “the squad” even as they fight Trump. These four women were the exception to the midterm’s moderate Democrat sweep, not the rule, and their districts will vote blue whether or not they’re on the ticket.
3
There should be a well worked out campaign platform that goes through a process in which all elected members participate and through a public process. The problem is that the caucus is not united behind reasonable policies.
For example, the health care for all policy could have a transitional approach which allows those Americans who have private health insurance to keep their insurance and deduct the expense on their taxes while others can opt for Medicare.
Drug policy could include a regulatory approach that ensures rational pricing and tax deductions for middle income and subsidy for low income.
Similarly the Green plan should be modified and planned with the whole caucus and public input.
On immigration people who want to join their relatives in the US have no legal means of immigrating legally so they are attempting to come as refugees as your family sponsorship program is backlogged and too expensive for some. Similarly low income migrants don't have legal means of gaining entry that an expanded temporary immigrant worker program would provide.
Real refugees who meet the UN criteria face an overburdened and quixotic determination system.
The Democratic party needs to have a platform all the members can get behind instead of individual members and presidential candidates announcing their personal platforms. A united party platform that voters and candidates for election can support would win the election against Mr Confusion, Obfuscation, and Lies.
1
While the Democratic Party's geriatric leadership have been taking their afternoon naps, America has become a progressive, center-left, nation.
The pain of the 2018 great recession, the enormous income inequality, the predatory nature of our current economy, and other factors have lead here.
On issue after issue, progressive policies are favored by the public. See, http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/06/americas-political-mood-is-now-most-liberal-ever-recorded.html and
https://theprogressivecynic.com/2014/05/02/is-the-usa-center-right-an-issue-by-issue-breakdown/ and
https://www.alternet.org/2019/06/surprise-the-center-in-us-politics-is-very-progressive/ and
https://egbertowillies.com/2015/08/03/elizabeth-warren-proves-factually-that-most-americans-are-progressives-video/
As a Democrat who’s been voting since 1976 I’m sad to say that I’ve lost faith in Speaker Pelosi. I think that she’s lost her way and that her time has passed. Her interview with Maureen Dowd was a disgrace.
2
This is exactly Pelosi's mistake :
"Some on the left think that Democrats can imitate Trump’s base-first strategy, winning by inspiring new and infrequent voters with an uncompromising message. Others, usually farther to the right, point out that there are simply fewer self-described liberals than self-described conservatives in this country, particularly in the states that, however unfairly, decide Electoral College victory. That means Democrats need to appeal to a putative center, even at the cost of marginalizing the left."
She thinks that going after white, middle-class potential voters will swing the democrats to victory. She doesn't care about progressive ideas, just winning even at the cost of selling out.
2
These four bright young Congresswomen will amass huge political capital if they strategically deploy their organizing skills in key districts across the country to provide a win in 2020. By being team players in supporting their party’s nominee, whoever he or she may be, and demonstrating understanding of the long game, they will increase their stature and influence within the party. I sincerely hope they will recognize and seize this golden opportunity. Otherwise, 2016 was just a fluke.
The concern that the so-called "squad" somehow are going to jeopardize more mainstream (moderate, centrist etc.) candidates in other contests, most especially the eventual presidential nominee, is vastly overstated.
As Cass Sunstein pointed out in "Why Societies Need Dissent," one of democracy's greatest threats is a kind of bullying "groupthink" that stifles outlier outlooks & rhetoric that challenge conventional assumptions. The American Revolution itself, like the Civil Rights and Women's Rights struggles, could never have occurred or succeeded if all opinions had to cling toward the mainstream. Whether or not "radical" views ultimately get themselves accepted as the mainline agenda, robust democracy requires this plurality of voices, even if for no other reason than the opportunity for more "practical" players to expose their folly, excess, or futility. Democratic politics is about a robust exchange and contest of ideas.
All mainstream candidates must do if challenged on this by Republicans is respond by saying, "We democrats are not a party of censorship. I want to be elected on the basis of *my* ideas, agenda, policies. Vote for me on that basis. If we silence those who differ, we cease to be a democracy. Be thankful there is a diversity of opinion, for embracing censorship, the next voice to be silenced may be your own. Without dissent, there would never have been the great achievements of the past, & nor could we have the conversation necessary to take us forward."
1
Goldberg says, "That means Democrats need to appeal to a putative center, even at the cost of marginalizing the left."
This is a huge conceptual mistake. The left should not feel marginalized in a coalition. They (especially AOC's chief of staff) need to realize that coalitions are the only way to power, except in a dictatorship.
2
@Darth Vader "They (especially AOC's chief of staff) need to realize that coalitions are the only way to power, except in a dictatorship."
Tell that to Nancy Pelosi, who appears to be doing everything in her power to marginalize further the left.
@TommyTuna As in marriage, there are always two sides.
1
@TommyTuna: Pelosi is not marginalizing the squad. She is simply providing a reality check: The progressive wing is, at least for now, a minority in the party, and in the country.
1
« The number of votes cast for the left-wing spoiler Jill Stein exceeded Trump’s margin of victory in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. »
Not only was Michael Flynn at Putin’s table—it was Jill Stein at the same table on that infamous evening. I don’t believe she neccessarily colluded with the Russians—but was clearly an asset (the term useful idiot comes to mind) of the Russian campaign to destabilize the U.S.
The election of Trump was merely a bonus for the Russians. They now have a spectacularly useful idiot in Trump, now batting lead-off on their roster that includes Nigel Farage, Victor Orban and Marine Le Pen.
The goal of the Russians is to start a civil war in the U.S. by trolling consensus reality into submission, where there is no voice that can’t be brought down by highly emotional weaponized memes of conspiracy, scandal, bullying and lies.
The current skirmishes between Nancy and the Squad serve no one but the master troller himself—who either by cynical design or psychopathic delusion is making great progress in his re-election campaign. There has to be an immediate and continuing show of genuine unity and mutual appreciation between Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and between Nancy and the Squad. One wishes Obama could get them in a room and read them the riot act.
Michelle is spot on in her analysis.
I’m a pretty standard-issue Democrat, not that interested in ideological purity. But yeah, I’m demoralized. I have knocked on a zillion doors in dozens of Democratic campaigns, only to find that our Speaker is unwilling to even consider impeachment of the most repulsive, barbaric, criminal, antidemocratic creature ever to occupy the White House. As Andrew Sullivan said of Pelosi, “There is nothing she won’t not do.”
1
Why aren’t we talking about health care!!!?!
2
Maybe the house speaker is simply telling these passionate and talented women that they got their seat at the big table, now its time to go to work. Work requires working with other people, and the squad may undermine any hope of displacing Trump and the Republican controlled Senate they so object to if they can't realize that passion must be controlled and focused to a purpose to be effective.
None of our big problems were created in a moment, and none of them will be solved in a moment. Choose your priorities, do what you can, pass the torch to the next generation. Don't throw the torch away.
Hear, hear.
What are you people so afraid of? Young women who defend themselves? You’d rather have them shut up?
Think if our forefathers had just shut up. Now is the time to change a few things. We allowed the status quo and got Donald Trump.
Someone has to wake us up. Let it be them and join them. Enough of this racist, lying, cruel and corrupt leader and lot that has taken over.
Youth has strength. Give them a chance. They need to be heard, because the rights of this country need to be heard. Wake up, people.
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@MIMA
Nobody is afraid of anything except four more years of Donald Trump. Youth is being heard and that's how these women got elected in their districts.
But if they sulk and stay on the sidelines for the national election yet again, we will have at least four more years of Trump and perhaps even more.
You're being baited by the Trump Mob and you're falling for it. Pelosi is not your enemy, he is. I think you're the ones that need to wake up, grow up and learn how to count.
17
@MIMA
When they start doing some listening themselves and stop shouting people down. When they stop being so rigid and tone deaf.
15
@MIMA I'm not afraid of them defending themselves, I'm afraid of them attacking other people. Nancy Pelosi didn't attack them, she stated a fact. Four people, four votes.
Yes they have passion, they have some important dreams, the question is can they contribute or can they only serve as a voice of disruption?
The rights of this country are under assault from the woke left as well as from the evangelical right.
18
Your article is the answer...
Pelosi's time has passed. She has been a part of the most centrist regressive Democratic party in her life time. by most measures, a party of spectacular failure... who's only victories have come at the expense of the poor.
Trump understands this and is exploiting the rift between Pelosi and anyone born after 1979 expertly.
He may be an idiot, but he knows discord when he sees it and is expert at opening fissures.
3
Please Squad Fight Trump Not Democrats
2
“...And some of the newcomers’ rhetoric has been stupid and irresponsible...”
It IS these four freshmen’s stupidity and irresponsibility (among other things) that have played into the hands of this president’s probable reelection.
Those ‘other things’ include all the republicans who unconscionably remain silent in condemning the inflammatory, hateful words of this POTUS. Because all they care about is not alienating those voters who support this occupant of the White House. If they stood up to POTUS, they might lose their own seat in Congress. “It’s all about staying in power baby.”
1
Thank you Michelle. :)
1
In her summary paragraph, Ms. Goldberg writes "Still, it’s Pelosi’s responsibility — not that of four insurgents who’ve been in Congress for only six months — to bring the party she leads together." Part of me understands her criticism -- it is Nancy Pelosi's responsibility to bring the party together. However, it is not only Ms. Pelosi who has a responsibility in this. Do not downplay the responsibility of the "four insurgents" to start collaborating with their fellow Democrats, instead of acting like spoiled children stamping their feet when they don't get what they want.
1
Nobody needs the squad. They are a bunch of far-left, antisemic. racist, anti-American individuals.
They are pushing the Demos agenda to the far left and making sure that Trump will win re-election in a land slide, the only one who really needs the squad is the president-it is his secret weapon to be re-elected.
2
Maybe they are too easily demoralized
And the squad should not attack other Democrats either.
2
I am a 65 year old retired white woman whose political beliefs coincide with the “squad”. Perhaps because I feel so akin to their ideologies that I also regret they are tone deaf to the criticism they receive from their supporters.
I say this because I was once them. A younger version of me defined my well intentioned opinions as coming from a place of integrity. Every battle I fought was for the betterment of my company. Surely everyone could recognize that and yet....
As right as I often ( but not always) was,I was young and was sucking the oxygen out of the room with my outsized zeal.
In short, and very unintentionally, I was perceived as throwing off the balance of power. If I was right, I was a threat to the order if I was wrong, I was wasting valuable time.
Only with time did I realize that by simply letting my discourse simmer ( not boil) to the top did I receive the respect I thought I deserved.
The establishment wanted to hear from me but they wanted me to learn from them too. They wanted a balance. Until I learned that, I simply was spinning my wheels and alienating coworkers.
Nancy Pelosi is a gifted, party leader with a lifetime of experience. The squad is made up of bright insightful women with tons of ideas but little experience. If they learn to lean on one another they will create a dynamic team that will serve the Democrats for decades. Women might be racing against a biological clock but they don't have to race against an intellectual one.
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@Leslie-Very eloquently stated. I admire "The Squad" for many ideas. But they haven't learned yet that Trump's followers are cohesive because they rally around one thing-big and orange. Without a united front, the Dems will lose and Trump will get a second term. There isn't a philosophy being espoused by The Squad that is worth that.
22
@Leslie: Well said. There is a learning curve for all of us. Being “right” about an issue is nice but it’s ultimately irrelevant if you don’t know how to get there. Righteousness and effectiveness are two different things.
19
@Leslie, I liked your comment as much as I liked Ms. Goldberg's column, which is a lot. Hope for all our sakes that each "wing" of the Democratic Party recognizes the wisdom of appreciating one another even when they disagree. Otherwise, in more ways than one, Trump and his disgusting Party win.
18
Tell that to Saikat Chakrabarti, AOC’s chief of staff.
2
Great advice. I hope she and the squad heeds it.
1
Amen!
Pelosi is being defined by the media. She should say nothing, operate behind the scenes and extend her wings to the fabulous four. We need their voice, we need their diversity, we need their ability to call out the elephant, we need to nurture them, we need to embrace those voices of dissent. Pelosi is not the problem. Neither are the squad members. Trump is the problem and what he has unearthed in the human psyche is dangerous, but also "age old". Circle the Wagons Ms. Pelosi. You are our best hope.
The problem with the democratic party ids their leadership, Pelosi and Schumer. They are center people with a record of supporting compromises on the right. Unfortunately the record of Pelosi is not so good, Under her leadership the democrats lost badly the House and the senate, lost an election with Hilary a centrist candidate part of the party establishment.
Chasing the center at he expenses of a clear political stand will alienate the core democratic votes of Blacks and liberal, with the result of another humiliating defeat.
I certainly hope that this will not happen but with Pelosi at he helm I am very worried.
the democrats can handle diversity of opinion like they can handle diversity in general.
but the media coverage of any rift in the party sounds like the Symplegades -- the crashing rocks of Greek mythology.
after the primary is over, dems will still be united in retaking control of government to undo everything Trump and to prosecute border agents and Trump operatives who are now violating the law.
1
Yes!
Do your job and impeach.
2
Preach!!!
The reason extreme conservatives are in power is that they have banded together irrespective of what they actually believe. They all detest Ted Cruz but stand behind him regardless. They all despise Trump but stand behind him regardless. There is something to be said for finding a way to meld these disparate beliefs by sucking it up and bonding. Extend the fig leaf, Nancy.
Pelosi is an elite. She has been dismissive of the progressive wing of the party since she regained the speakership. Remember the “Green New Dream or whatever”?
Her claim to fame is her ability to raise vast amounts of money - from big donors, whom she serves. She gets way too much credit for Romney-care, aka the ACA, a Heritage Foundation creation that passed when the Dems controlled all three branches, with a super-majority in the Senate.
She shows utter contempt for progressives, but Trump can do and say anything he wants with complete impunity, because she refuses to do her Constitutional duty and initiate impeachment.
Pelosi is the problem.
4
There is one thing that could solve the Democrats' internecine squabble: #ImpeachmentInquiryNow.
6
It's really rather a simple solution. Those who brought the House back to the Democratic party in 2018 do indeed care about health care, employment, wages, and inequality, but they also know that until we remove trump from office along with 30 republican senators, we cannot achieve any of those goals.
Those voters understood impeachment was the route to improving their real concerns and yet Pelosi refuses to move against trump and the GOP. She seems to believe that it's still 1988 and being a progressive means being a good and loyal conservative while trying to convince a bunch of old white men why they should 'allow' women and people of color to be considered fully realized humans. At nearly 80 years old, she's completely out of touch with what it means to be a woman or a person of color in the 21st century. Gone are the days to 'go along to get along' as she has done her entire public career. Today we know all that's achieved has been a hardening of the right wing and nearly a permanent minority rule.
It's time for Mrs. Pelosi to wake up to the fact that all those progressive bills she's passed in the House died immediately upon their passage because of a GOP senate. The GOP will never work with us, so our only course is to defeat them. Completely. Impeachment is her constitutional duty and failure to do so will ensure permanent minority rule by a white republican party that disenfranchises all women and people of color.
3
It doesn’t matter who is the wiser. The Dems need to settle their differences soon and out of sight. 2020 is an election we can’t afford to screw up. But it seems that screwing up is the only skill they have perfected. Can’t you hear the electorate out here screaming at you?
4
I support Pelosi and her efforts to remind everyone "The Squad" represents 4 votes. That's all; that's it. Journalists need to take note that Twitter fame doesn't give them more.
The 2020 election is for the Democrats to lose. The best chance for sending Trump packing is for the Dems to pitch a big tent with left of center and moderate voters. It's that simple.
Trump is trying to rebrand the Dems with these 4 women. I fear that the media will take the bait, just as they did with Trump's 2016 campaign, choosing ratings over responsible journalism. America won't survive another 4 years of Trump.
2
Before the Democratic Party bogs itself down completely in a miasma of recrimination and identity politics, here's a suggestion....every Dem should take an oath that says 'I reject Labels...they oversimplify and weaken healthy debate- let's focus on issues, seek areas of agreement and find consensus for our differences'....if Dems refused to self-identify as anything other than patriotic Americans focused solely on solutions to the country's problems and challenges, we might actually woo enough moderates in swing states to defeat Trump.....
2
"That means Democrats need to appeal to a putative center, even at the cost of marginalizing the left."
Appeal to the center with what? "I'm not Trump," is a pretty low bar and hardly appealing. I am not for Medicare for all? I am not for decriminalizing a first border crossing? I don't want college to be free? I don't have a plan for that?
If moderate Dems really expect to win the election, especially if they think they are going to win it by ignoring the left wing of their own party, they better have something more to run on than, "I'm not Trump."
2
Nancy Pelosi is a queen who wants everyone to kiss her ring. Her diva behavior is a major problem. She should be uniting the party, bringing all the factions together. Instead, she takes alternate points of view from younger women as disloyal. Would she be so offended by junior male Congressman? No. She is not a good speaker. She projects weakness and insecurity. When Trump comes to your defense, as he did hers, you know you’ve lost it.
2
Good grief! Please let us not encourage that "circular firing squad" that seems innate to Dems. Can we please remember that the object of the exercise is to win the next election. If we persist in the infighting and squabbling the Republicans will surely win.
3
Identity politics, as adopted by Democrats, fosters divisiveness, animosity, and prejudice.
Each identity group has interests that differ from other groups which results in conflict.
"Democrats of color" accusing "Democrats of no color" of "racism" is ugly but predictable since some claim all " people of no color" are "racist".
3
There should be more emphasis on what we share rather than on what makes us different.
I don’t think extreme identity politics ends well for the Democrats.
2
"But the advantage of mobilizing new and infrequent voters is that it can be done with less danger of depressing the voters you already have."
Nonsense. Perhaps such mobilization won't depress our present voters, but it definitely has the danger of mobilizing new and infrequent voters for the other side. Witness the effect of Clinton parrying the challenge from Sanders by rallying support from minorities and then having that mobilization of minorities in the primary mobilize white nationalists in the general.
2
How many Democrats running to unseat Republicans in the Senate will be able to embrace the squad in their campaigns and how many will have to distance themselves from AOC et al to compete? My guess is no Democrat trying to unseat a sitting Republican can be strongly associated with these four women’s public profiles (I say public profiles because values they have that I share are lost in the noise of their own self promotion politically). Nancy Pelosi doesn’t need to appease them - they need to understand the difference between celebrity and political power. They are part of a House majority because a bunch of moderates won elections in formerly GOP districts around the country, not because AOC got 15,000 votes in a primary in a district the Democrats could not lose and mi,lions of Twitter followers thereafter. Amy McGrath is running against McConnell in Kentucky - beating big him is doing the Lords work for a better world IMO - and the squad/Sanders et al are helping McConnell’s narrative. As long as the squad wants to primary Democrats and damage the party’s chances in 2020, they deserve whatever Pelosi is dishing out.
174
@John - Totally agree. The squad doesn't seem to understand that to swing for the fences on the left is just as polarizing as those who are far to the right. Both are on the fringe and, as we are seeing now, are unable to muster enough support to get anything passed in congress.
16
@John stop alienating us by calling us the squad. If you don’t acknowledge/accept us as part of the equation we will just make our voice heard by other means. Secondly, roughly 50% of any voting district doesn’t vote. Why fight over the same brain damaged 5% in the middle that always have a hard time differentiating Republicans vs Democrats when you could mobilize a new sector of that 50% that doesn’t vote since they’re currently unmotivated by milquetoast centrists?
10
You are absolutely right! 2020 will not be won in the bronx, Cambridge, Detroit, or Minneapolis. And these four congressman and the Justice Democrats who back them must come to understand that without control of the house and senate they will be whistling in the wind.
14
I agree. They need to look for a diplomatic solution in which constructive criticism is fostered from both sides. I also think the press has created a catfight where there is none and simply women with different worldviews.
5
Nancy needs to embrace the squad and keep them on the reservation. Idealism is what will be the lifeblood of our party. Life long politicians seem to get caught up in the technician part of the job and forget why they are there. The idealism and fire of the four will breathe life into a dying institution.
The Donald will time out, but who will replace him?
Do we want another old white man who has been part of the system(read problem), or do we want new fresh voices?
3
It Is time to start impeachment hearings right now. Impeachment hearings will let the American public know about all of Trump’s misdeeds and will justify all the subpoenas that are necessary to gather the information necessary for impeachment. Pelosi’s calculations are wrong. She is thinking of what happened to Clinton. She should be thinking of what happened to Nixon. It was the impeachment hearings that brought the facts to light that resulted in Nixon’s resignation. Let’s get going! NOW !!
1
Democrats, what better time to explore different perspectives than now? Let’s have the rough examination of views that is so long overdue.
1
Yes, there is a time and place for discussing and "fighting" with your colleagues about issues important to you and your constituents. However, how do we know that they haven't already tried to do so? We are on the outside looking in.
I personally admire individuals who have strong convictions and do not falter because someone may not like it, or for fear of being attacked. There are many people who will easily abandon their principles if it means it will be an advantage for them or that they would have to stand up to those who would ridicule and ostracized them. Not everyone has the strength of character to remain faithful to who they are and what they believe.
We don't have to fear a changing of the guard in the Democrat Party. Change is good. Change is what makes our country better. Change is what helps a person be a better version of themselves. Change will happen whether you are afraid of it or embrace it. Why not embrace the possibility of what could be for our children and our children's children?
Silencing these Congresswomen will not guarantee the outcome of defeating Trump in 2020. Let's say they hide in their offices for the next eighteen months and we never hear from them again. Then November rolls around, we vote, and low and behold Trump wins a second term. Who will you blame?
We need fighters in Congress. Not the "we'll wait and see" politicians we have now. I personally would rather die standing, than live on my knees.
2
I think Goldberg doesn't understand that some of us are fiercely "left" and at the same time very disappointed in "the squad."
For example, Pelosi reminds us that she was an advocate of single payer before AOC was born.
But is single payer an election winner?
The self-righteousness certainty of "the squad" is reminiscent of adolescence - they know they are right.
What they have forgotten is that Clinton "won" the election by almost 3,000,000 votes, and it's Trump who is in the White House.
If that's what "the squad" wants to happen in 2020, they are on the right track.
Winning by losing is just losing.
5
How would such opinion pieces read if the Democratic Speaker of the House going against Trump was a man and the four newcomers not supporting him for a critical bill for immigrant detainees and constantly criticizing him on Social Media were men or men and women? Would this small group of four Congressional newcomers get any attention at all?
Also the writer leaves out the Russian bot social media attacks on Clinton that influenced voters and, as proven by legal researcher and San Diego Sanders Facebook campaign manager. John Mattes, were passed along after the nomination by Sanders supporters.
You and other commentators in the press are the only ones blowing the supposed Pelosi/squad squabble out of proportion. If Trump hasn't done something outrageous that day to report on, you make something up equally as hyperbolic to get clicks/viewership. Let it go. Pelosi is a master at making government work. Let her do her magic. And let's vote Democratic up and down the ticket in 2020.
1
This has been blown out of proportion by the NYTimes as well as on CNN, MSNBC, and Fox. At the end of the day the 4 beautiful, accomplish, and courageous women didn’t have anything more than four votes and Pelosi by saying that to Dowd was just reiterating that if they want to accomplish something they need more than four votes period. We need more women to hold Congressional positions and by running this story into the ground is defeating the whole idea of remaking American for all its citizens.
I'm concerned that Pelosi's caution means business as usual. It's becoming quite clear that there are no consequences for Trump and his White House. Kellyanne Conway ignores a subpoena--so what? Trump stops folks from testifying--so what? Barr has stopped further investigation, including spinoffs of Mueller's--so what? It's no surprise that Trump and the GOP are now openly racist. After all, they appear able to do and say what they want with impunity.
And frankly, I'm proud of the "squad"for highlighting concentration camp conditions on our southern border and appalled that the Democratic leadership in Congress appears to be doing little to change them.
2
“You can rail at the apathy and nihilistic demands for purity of people who hate Trump’s politics but didn’t vote for Clinton — I certainly have.”
While I don’t have much use for the purism and the moralizing, it’s the grotesque of privilege expressed by this element of the white left that disgusts me. They’re are also untrustworthy allies, as their overriding interest is a hostile takeover of the Democratic Party.
Common Dreams recently posted that Joe Biden’s health care plan — which amounts to extending Obamacare — amounted to a conspiracy with insurers to cause the deaths of millions of people. In a display of textbook illogic, they claimed that no true Democrat could support anything other than MFA. Now, one doesn’t have to agree with Biden on health care — I don’t, particularly— to recognize nonsense with the intellectual integrity of the Heritage Foundation.
How can Ms Pelosi unite with a group that openly despises her and will say anything to make its point? It’s not like this is an isolated incident, either. Ms. Goldberg is quite right that — as a leader — Ms Pelosi has a responsibility to unify. But in the end it takes two, and whether the purist left wants to unify under any terms other than its own is an open question.
The Squad needs to knuckle down and learn about legislation, that is what they have been elected to do. The GOP loves every minute that they can paint them as the totality of the Democratic Party. Trump loves to manipulate this.
What the Squad is offering is not what the majority of the American ppl want...
You're smart, Michelle, but can't you see that?
You want 4 more years of Trump?
1
When people see that picture of Jill Stein sitting at the same dinner table in Moscow with Vladimir Putin and Michael Flynn, what do Stein supporters think? Do they think that was a coincidence? There are no coincidences in politics. Stein was the Ralph Nader of the 2016 Election, except she probably wasn't just a narcissist like Nader, she might have been in on the conspiracy.
I would flip that around as well: "Please, Squad, Fight Trump, Not Pelosi". They are freshmen congressmen and being a bit naive. No, you don't get everything you want during your first term in congress. No, your idealistic ideas probably won't become law as is, because comprise - with others in your own party, and with the other party - is how legislation gets done in Washington. And no, Pelosi is not your enemy just because she isn't as liberal as you. One of my big frustrations with very left wing liberals is that they often can't tell their enemies from their friends. Pelosi is your party's leader. *Work* with her. Help her get things done. Otherwise you're just helping the other side!
2
Here we go. Democratic infighting. On the eve of a Presidential race. Wonder what the squad, who sit in safe districts and will probably be re-elected will think when the GOP regain majority in the House and Trump is re-elected? Speaker Kevin’s n McCarthy will reassign them to the bathroom oversight committee and maybe then they will figure out what racism really is.
Such silly prattle, Michelle.
The four newbie congresswomen know exactly what they are doing. They are extreme in their viewpoints, with no experience working at the national or international level, passing legislation, etc. They've screamed far too long already that the sky is falling, while Pelosi has tried to create a pathway to bipartisan legislating, so she can say she tried, and making Trump fold and/or walk away, thus proving that he is beyond redemption. Bravo!
If the four congresswomen ruin our chances of beating Trump, by espousing only legislation that appears to be sop for the ultra tiny socialist crowd and some constituencies that have proven time and time again that they don't vote, and he wins, they will be forever remembered as Trump's enablers. How ironic.
2
The "squad" should acknowledge the fact that they are new and cannot just jump in and change the whole system all at once. They should have respect for Nancy Pelosi for all that she has accomplished in her long career for the causes they themselves support. Squabbling within the Dem party is the greatest gift to D. Trump that he could possibly imagine. And they are handing it to him. Grow up, young women. Learn to work as a team. Have respect for your elders. When you are older you might understand the value of the wisdom that comes with age and experience. Figure out how to vanquish your common enemy, not fight among yourselves.
My greatest concern of late is whether Nancy Pelosi, whom we have trusted and supported through decades is being held hostage by Trump too--along with the stream of pitiful compromised elected officials such as Lindsey Graham. If Bill Clinton could be Impeached for lying about a consensual relationship, shouldn't Trump be summarily impeached for a laundry list of crimes that start with conspiring with enemy Russia and include appalling human rights abuses? If the Rosenbergs deserved the electric chair, should Pelosi not insist on starting Impeachment hearings on DT? Something is very rotten in the state of our House.
5
I turned Democratic in the Watergate era and have never looked back. However, Pelosi and the elder Democratic hacks had best watch their step in vilifying AOC and her fellow members of "the Squad." If they manipulate her out of Queens, I'll become an Independent, and I will not contribute to Perez's solicitations. I can just see the NYT's editorial board positioning themselves to endorse Biden, as they endorsed Hillary last time around. Warren for President! And lets not forget that Biden endorsed the Iraq invasion just as surely as Hillary. I see here a drive to run progressives out of the party and to canonize the Republican-lite corporatists. The real truth is that the progressives’ platform is just what most of America wants and needs.
I think the four members of the squad are doing a good job speaking about issues that have been taboo in Washington D.C. This should not be a matter for Pelosi to become a speech police for democrats who speak their mindsm and may say something that is not in accord with the speaker, but she should not lose focus of who her target of attack should be, if she is distracted fiddling with minutia she will lose the battle, and give the guy in the white house another four years of free rent.
1
The problem with Trump, and the robot Republicans, is that they bring out the worst in us. They play on fear and anger, picturing everyone who may be different as a threat that needs to be destroyed. This approach to their base is for one reason only, to satisfy their greed by building the wealth and power of the oligarchs. Instead of fear, it is important that we, the people of this country, remember that understanding differences and focusing on common interests can achieve great results for a huge number of people, while hatred and fear is only destructive.
The Republicans have convinced their base that their suffering is necessary for the good of the country. The tariffs, supposedly designed to protect us economically, are only making us poorer. The Republicans are literally telling their base that the solution to expensive healthcare is no healthcare at all. They try to convince us that people who are fleeing horrible situations do not deserve our mercy, but somehow are our enemies and should be treated as animals. They have convinced people that assault weapons should be in the hands of anyone who wants them, ignoring mass killings as just the price of freedom.
But their only real achievement is to give a huge tax benefit to the wealthy, taking the money from the pockets of the rest of us. What their base does not understand is that behind closed doors, Donald Trump and the robot Republicans are giving each other high fives and laughing at us.
I think that Ms Pelosi will be able to deal with Trump when the squad learns to behave on social media. I understand their obseesion with behaving like trump and his minions since its so effective at getting his base lathered up, but the problem for the democratic party is not getting their base lathered up but getting enough Trump voters to flip and to figure out how to build the party outside of the urban areas. The squad needs to grow up and learn to behave before they will be let out of the room under the steps. What we dont need is a minority leading the majority around by their noses
Thanks for this excellent, thoughtful analysis!!!
At a critical time when we need a united front to counter republican sedition, what do we get? The democratic “political party” couldn’t organize a successful bake sale.
There once was a sociologist named Talcott Parsons—a very influential sociologist whose theories have had an outsize influence on American political thought. Parsons argued that society maintained its balance through a set of shared values, a "solidarity of the collectivity:" beliefs and rules to which all could tacitly agree.
Unfortunately, when it came to define those values Parsons was clear that they were the values of the white, male Anglo-Saxon “majority.” Explicitly to Parsons, Blacks, Jews, immigrants, career criminals and young people were de facto social outcasts whose only pragmatic task was to fall in line with the dominant value-set.
Reading the comments here, it’s obvious that our well-meaning liberal friends are still stuck in that mind-set. Just a Black, immigrant, minority and millennial voters in every corner of America have nothing worth contributing except their votes every four years to uphold “our shared values,” so, too, the Squad has nothing to contribute except by falling in line behind those who supposedly stand for these “common” values.
Party like it’s 1952?
1
It starts with the tone. The earnest, ever shrill Ms. Goldberg doesn't even deign to use a title for perhaps the most powerful Democratic woman in history. "Please, Pelosi"?
Now, I despise Nancy Pelosi, and yet, I find myself leaping to her defense against the liberal onslaught from the left that is typified by "Goldberg". Possibly my membership in the white patriarchy is to blame.
On a higher level though, articles like this make me happy. As long as the left is fighting itself, it ain't fighting the GOP, and as much as there is to loathe about the GOP, the one thing it has going for it is that it isn't the Democratic party (of free things paid for with my money).
1
I agree totally with Speaker Nancy Pelosi and find the Squad completely irresponsible,
3
Trump is trying to get away with his distractions again and many are falling into his trap. Many does not include me as his latest is quickly becoming frantic. His actions are not working for me and many I hope are seeing him for what he is, an obvious racist . It is time to start raising the similarity of his actions to the worst examples of this behavior to those of the 20th century havoc raining dictators who used exactly the same methods to cause the obliteration of 6 million Jews and the death in the wars of millions more. Do we need top stand by and watch this despicable man as Hilary referred to him and his followers, or do sound the alarm and vocally oppose him by name rather than the horrid term "Trump being Trump". He gets away with his actions by that horrible excuse and award him every time we see it or hear it. Nancy can start to stem the tide by calling him out by name and including his misguided followers before he becomes the new normal.
Enough with making this about Pelosi or the four freshman congress people. It's about Trump. It's like blaming the body for allowing cancer to take root.
1
Fight Income and Wealth Inequality soon.
Fight Climate Change head on very now, very now.
Or, what will take place if we don't?
The Democratic Party’s strength is its diversity in terms of types of people, gender, range of left strategies and experience.The freshman women are not only women of color, they are also women and as such should be representing all women, including white women, who also "represent generations of blood, sweat and tears" in the struggle for representation. Let’s not erase that history. When AOC condones her chief of staff tweeting that Sharice Davids, a Native American woman, enables a “racist system” she is condoning attacking people for voting their conscious. The Party’s “passionate, young idealists” should practice what they preach. They, along with their staff, should stop slinging racialist divisions with statements like, “I don't believe Sharice is a racist person, but her votes are showing her to enable a racist system.” Statements like this undermines our Democracy by avoiding a nuanced understanding of our migrant situation and effective and compassionate strategies to address it. The freshman women and Pelosi are behaving like Trump by making themselves the subject. A Tea-Party-like Democratic Party driven by ideological rigidity that degrades its own members forcing the creation of factions that then can only unite under a problematic leader is not the goal. Democrats have to end the racialist politics in the party and acknowledge the rich diversity of histories, ideas, experiences and viewpoints that lead to progressive thinking.
1
I've been hearing a rumor floating around the city that Albany Democrats are thinking of eliminating Ms. Ocasio-Cortez's district in the next drawing of Congressional boundaries after the census. If this dumb move becomes reality, the Democrats can kiss goodbye to the greatest source of enthusiasm they have going for this traditionally elitist pro-business party. This would be sufficient for me to withdraw from voting for most of their candidates, and I assume it would lead to a large increase in people losing interest in this traditional Wall Street party. If you love the Republicans, support the Democrats in turning against this death of fresh air.
1
Ms. Goldberg, You should have enjoined the the squad to take a similar path: Please squad, fight Trump, not Pelosi and the Democratic party. Please!
This is just the wrong time to have an insurgency. Plus millenials have asleep and did not show up for Obama in 2010 and 2014.
Pelosi fears to engage Trump except thru the media. When confronted he is a wimp. That is not the leadership that is needed. At her age, which is also my age, one no longer possesses the physical and mental capacity to think as quickly and clearly as one 15-20 years younger. Watch Biden answer questions he wasn't even asked because he's so busy scrambling to find the right words. Aging is not necessarily sad if one accepts the inevitable. It's realty.
1
I think this Op-Rd should be re-written as “Please Squad, Fight Trump not Pelosi”.
The neophytes in the “Squad” are essentially grandstanding in an uber exhibitionistic way with total disregard to the risk of ushering in a second term of Trump Presidency. They are recklessly playing with fire and are in the process of deconstructing the party unity. There should be protocol and decorum in terms of conducting intra-party legislative policy debates as opposed to the “scorched earth” approaches that are being adopted by the “Squad”.
By sending out racist tweets against the “Squad”, Trump is deviously trying to use this as an inflammatory distraction to polarize the Democrats by encouraging internecine fighting in the form of highlighting the ongoing skirmishes between the “Squad” and Pelosi. This is a diabolical “Divide and Conquer” strategy to win his second term.
Pelosi is a true LEADER as opposed to the constantly self-aggrandizing “Squad” members. Pelosi indubitably personifies Leadership compared to insecure naïveté of the “Squad” team. Pelosi is a “Brand Ambassador” for probity and comity in today’s turbulent times. Pelosi is also quick witted and can inject “Levity with Brevity” against Trump’s boorishness
We need a firm and principled leader like Pelosi to navigate our way out of the dysfunctional dystopia created by Trump’s demagoguery. To this end, Pelosi needs to firmly contain the selfish bravado by the “Squad”.
The “Squad” must learn LEADERSHIP from Pelosi
Those four girls, and I call them that quite deliberately, need to grow up and act like congresswomen, not petulant teens. You have ideas; great, your ideas will be considered in due time and possibly acted upon. Were you in any other position as a new-hire, would you expect the bosses to do things your way after a mere six months! For heavens sakes, you’re still in the probation period.
Pelosi has been in politics a long time. She is the boss. She knows whereof she speaks. If the girls continue to act out, we will end up with trump for four more years, and it will be largely their fault. (And fire that chief of staff...what a joke he is!)
1
Michelle,
I was once an angry progressive. I worked for McCarthy and McGovern but got Nixon, Reagan and the two Bushes. I protested and held people accountable out in the open and "to their face". l learned that this did not get anything done except get them more angry and dig in their heels.
In my professional and personal life I learned it was better to talk to them one on one or privately to build a relationship and trust.
The Squad needs to grow up and learn about interpersonal relationships...to embarrass the Speaker is not a good idea. She will isolate them and they will become even more frustrated.
This is not about policy it is about maturing and being more adept at relationship building. It is a necessary skill in business, in politics and in any organization.
The Squad should try it.
1
True leaders teach. False leaders scold. Teach The Squad. Bring them in through education and wisdom, don't push them into a corner.
Pelosi didn't start the fight by saying that other Democrats were racist because of their votes. The intolerance of the "squad" is shocking.
4
Listen Miss Goldberg: if your squad triumphs over Nancy and not vice versa they are very likely gonna be big players in keeping Trump in the oval office for 4 more years.
I will absolutely not vote for Trump but I'll vote for Biden but I'd be very reluctant to vote for Pocahontas or comrade Bernie and would feel compelled to go third party if either of them was the Dem nominee.
1
I have been a life long democrat. I am tired of the infighting and the seemingly identity politics of the democratic party. I believe that we do indeed have a trade problem with China and I dream of a manufacturing country rather than a service country. I don't believe Trump is adequately dealing with this problem. I believe we have an immigration problem that is real (look at Europe over last few years) and must be dealt with but not the Trump or liberal way. Climate change is happening and immigration as a problem will increase dramatically. Not everything has to be about race or sex. Our biggest problem is climate change and it is a planet and humanity threat.
3
I ahve people reacting because I write that it was 1970 when Nancy Pelosi was the age of AO Cortez today but it is the truth.
Projection in the future and identification does not happen when you are 79 years old.
You cannot be a mother at 50 . When your children are 70 you are 70 , you cannot be following them ,even less their children. Americans have completely lost the sense of life and humanity./
Someone who is 80 years old, Michel Serres was a professor of philosophy at Stanford for 40 years, At 80 he was still of great advice and knowledge but not an active politician.
if you are still a politician a 80 it is because you cannot let go and that you could not be able to perform the pasaage which is a foundamental process in life You have to cultivate the passage,
but Americans are uneducated philosophically. they have no knowledge and they function with ready made ideas. it is fast food thinking from the 1940's . that is basically who i reigning ideologically, agriculturically, fast food from the 1940's reign over the USA. And that is what your idol loves trump yopu all love Trump even Nancy Pelosi loves Trump. She does. She can't spare him. she cannot share him . She has to have him all for herself. i hope she reads me or someone tells her. She needs to go fishing or watch grannies make pasta in italy.
The sooner we all learn that 'social' media, TED Talks etc. are just verbal garbage the better off we will all be.
I find the hard left positions of 'The Squad' understandable but not productive. I find mushy interview/lunches with columnists and photos of the grand children in a parade, references to thousand dollar shoes and the vineyard in Napa indicative of a lack of reality in our party leader.
What good does the Dowd column do ?
How can one Dem of color not support all Dems of color ?
We must be better than this if we want to take back our country from the forces of hatred.
All this speculation about 'democrat election strategy' has me worried. Worried because moderates don't understand how they lost the last presidential election in the first place.
I'm from Michigan. I've lived, worked and traveled many places since, but I still go home, still talk to people there. Here's why the democrats lost Michigan in 2016:
1) their economy suffers. 2) NAFTA took their jobs and destroyed their way of life. 3) Bill Clinton signed NAFTA and Hillary called them deplorables. 4) When Donald Trump told them NAFTA was horrible, that was the most wisdom in governance they'd heard since Moses came down the mountain with 2 stone tablets.
This isn't about their 'lack of education.' It's about your unappealing platform.
Did you know Bernie won the 2016 Michigan Democratic Primary? If you insist moderate pragmatism is the key to winning the rustbelt, you don't get you why you lost there in the first place. Moderate pragmatism sure didn't get it done in 2016.
Oh and for all the moderates insisting that it was other moderates that made all the gains in the House: Not in the midwest. Omar is from Minnesota. Tlaib is from Michigan.
Yep, half of the 'squad' is from the part of the country you couldn't hold onto with moderate pragmatism the last time. Your platform does not appeal, and if you don't fix it you're going to lose again.
The squad is the result of your mistakes not the cause of them.
1
I get The Squad. When young and inexperienced in politics, you have an idea of what is right that animates you; anything less is a compromise bending the arc of history the wrong way and an excuse for dragging our feet. Then reality intrudes. Turning the narrative of this election toward immigration, ending private health insurance coverage, and reparations is a recipe for a second Trump term with a Senate even more Republican and possibly two more Federalist Society justices on SCOTUS. Nancy Pelosi did not compromise on the money for detention centers because she wanted to give in, but because she wanted to get out of Dodge and turn the narrative of this campaign back toward the argument the system is rigged in favor of those of economic means and we need to make it more fair and equitable. That is a winning message which will motivate the base, the Obama-Trump voters, and those who sat out '16 - enough to color WI, MI and PA blue in '20. Don't let Trump play us or the Squad. All that need have been said in response to Trump's "Go back where you came from!" AOC: "You mean where I was born: the Bronx?" Talib: "Detroit?" Pressley: "Chicago?" Omar: "Like Button Gwinnett, Robert Morris, George Taylor, Matthew Thornton, James Wilson, John Witherspoon, James Smith, and Francis Lewis, all signers of the Declaration of Independence, I was not born here, but chose to be American because I love this country. Then MOVE ON.
If Pelosi wants the black people in Detroit and Milwaukee, who didn't vote for Hillary to vote at all in 2020, I suggest that alienating the squad sends the wrong message.
You say Unite, Nancy, but that means YOU ARE GOING TO HAVE TO ACTIVELY UNITE.
Walk and chew gum. Actively embrace these new members and learn how to sell activist economic policies - like medicare for all - to moderate white voters.
1
Michelle, you got it backwards. We like the young squad, and cheer them on - until THEY turn on the rest of us, without good cause.
There are no spoils to be divided without defeating Trump.
There is no path to electoral victory that doesn't reverse the 2016 needle in some combination of PA, OH, MI, WI, FL. IA. Maybe AZ.
There is no realistic way to get there without centrists - reconverting Obama/Trump voters.
AOC has a rare opportunity - a mulligan, given to her by Trump for both her and her aide's really bad and really cheap shot at - her most powerful ally?!?
I hope she learns to keep her next shot in the fairway. Because - this is a winnable must-win...unless voters see Democrats responding to Trump with "You want crazy? Hold my beer..."
The Squad is the Tea Party of the Left but far more irrelevant. They do not have the votes in the House and are making Trump 2.0 a certainty. Once again, the “Big Tent” is nothing more than the same cacophony we’ve seen with Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter. The R’s are organized, disciplined and will win if the Dems keep ignoring the very large middle that rejects socialism, identity politics and the Squad
Isn’t calling Jill Stein a “left wing spoiler” a bit like what Pelosi is doing to the squad? Rather contradictory to your whole point (which I agree with!).
On the day following the 2018 midterms, Trump tweeted “In all fairness, Nancy Pelosi deserves to be chosen Speaker of the House by the Democrats. If they give her a hard time, perhaps we will add some Republican votes.”
Trump and Pelosi have a lot in common. They're rich, white and privileged. They don't want anyone to challenge their authority. He supports her as Speaker and she agrees not to impeach him.
See, we have bi-partisan agreement in DC. Isn't it wonderful?
The so called "Squad" and its daily apoplectic diatribe is a gift wrapped, gilded, hand delivered invitation to a circular firing squad for Madame Speaker. I actually feel sorry for her. I always thought she was the face of West Coast San Francisco Liberalism which I abhor but now she seems like the adult in the room with these latest additions to Congress.
A recent anonymous Poll leaked by Axios shows swing voters deeply dislike the "Squad" by a huge margin.
With a booming economy on very solid footing by the way despite what you hear from the discredited Krugman and Neo-Lib mouthpieces and historically low unemployment not to mention energy independence Trump has framed the debate going into 2020.
1
So for a centrist like Pelosi, just what WOULD be grounds for impeachment of a president? Has she ever answered that?
1
Michelle-- Rarely disagree with you but you've got this one wrong and have fallen into the trap of giving the four far more attention than they warrant
These four women see everything from the position of race. Nancy Pelosi , a seasoned legislator, not a light weight like all the squad was giving them some good advice on how things get done in Washington, not on Twitter but through compromise. If that's construed as a racial slur, apparently no on can even disagree with them. Reminds me of teenagers
They need to figure out how to do their job and stop chasing sound bites. Ayanna Pressley for one was a Boston City Councillor not exact match for Washington D. C. She should follow the lead of her recent predecessors, Joe Kennedy and Seth Moulton, keep a low profile and learn her job instead of presenting stupid bills to lower the voting age. And the media should pay some attention to the real stars, those Democratic reps who turned red states blue.
Only a couple years left for her to redeem herself in her self avowed “last term”.
House leadership locked in an escalating battle?
The only questionable comment by Pelosi was that "The Squad" ultimately has four votes in congress and a "public whatever." Her follow up was unity.
The remarkable strategist Pelosi, whose primary pursuits are strengthening her party and removing Trump would not choose to start or escalate a fight with any member of congress.
Pelosi saying the "public whatever" was not wise. Ocasio-Cortez accusing Pelosi of targeting women of color was pure stupid. Both are forgiven. Aim at Trump.
Conflating an anonymous quote from a foolish aide to "House Leadership" thereby associating it with Pelosi is not worthy of you.
I think Pelosi was smart to orchestrate a vote for aid to the border even without the desired requirements that she and all Dems would prefer was smart. It gives some help to refugees and absolutely removes the argument from Trump & Repubs that the horrors at the border are caused by Dem inaction. The Squad may disagree. That's not unreasonable.
It is foolish to lambast moderate Dems that, along with progressive candidates, are absolutely required to maintain control of the House. A circular firing squad for Trump's benefit.
The Dem Party needs a left wing to generate ideas. But those ideas are secondary to the goal of defeating Trump. That idea should govern every word by The Squad and by Pelosi– lest The Squad, like The Greens, undermine their deepest goals by becoming an effective tool of the GOP.
1
Please, Ms. Goldberg, fight Trump. not Speaker Pelosi.
Ah! The democrats sometimes are so naive, sometimes I imagine Trump like a celebrity DJ that every time he pumps up the volume all the crowd (Democrats) starts to dance, is like they are saying
Keep playing DJ
They’re going to loose
1
Pelosi has ceded all initiative to Trump with her refusal to not even begin hearings on impeachment. She is a disaster. She doesn’t have a clue about social media and usually winds up feeding whatever Trump is up to. In this case it is getting Jeffrey Epstein and his fizzled immigration raids off the front page while simultaneously helping his digital team data mine how ugly he needs to be in order to re-engage elements of his base who’ve drifted some...like soybean farmers and blue collar white women.
FIGHTING WITH OURSELVES
Please, squad, fight Trump, not Pelosi.
To quote Michelle Goldberg:
“Part of me understands the frustration of Democrats who find the squad maddening. Leftist criticism can be uniquely grating to liberals, especially the kind that treats disagreements over strategy as differences of morality. And some of the newcomers’ rhetoric has been stupid and irresponsible. Still,…”
Now eliminate “Still,…” and all that follows. The real thought ends at "irresponsible." The rest is enablement.
1
Pelosi has seen a lot of MOCs come and go. She is right that to be an effective legislator, you need to convince other members to vote your way.
Pelosi is at heart a far-left progressive but she has thrived in Congress this long because she understands the painful realities of actually getting things done. These freshman Congresswomen should hold on to their ideals, but they still have much to learn. It's great that there is dissension and debate in the party, and that people feel passionately about the issues, but they need to present a united front.
Ms. Goldberg needs to put all of this in a bit of perspective. Just think back to the days when she was lamenting the creation and growth of the Tea Party -- the Squad (I'd prefer the Gang of Four, for historical reasons, but, whatever) is the Dems' Tea Party.
The good news, if you're a radical, is that, when Trump wins again in 2020, the Squad will really come to power in the Dem Party, and we will find out, in 2024, if America is ready for AOC as President.
We have to keep remembering that Hillary Clinton won by 3 million votes. I think all of the women involved need to sit in a room for as long as it takes to work out a plan that supports the Democratic view. This should not be a public battle at this point. Nancy Pelosi needs to dream about the future when she goes to sleep and she needs to question herself. I keep saying I don't know what she knows. I don't know how to be political in DC and she does. But is she denying the change that has taken place in the House? And do the new members of Congress need to work more within the system to get their agenda through? Honestly, I do not know the answer. But the question remains.
The same advice should apply to the Squad. Fight Trump not Pelosi and they should remember, they may not last more than one term in Office.
1
Can't the Squad see that they are playing right into Republican hands, or are they raised in an era where all that matters is the media attention? Do they really not understand that 1.5 million Twitter followers does not mean changed law?
I respect these women, and I think they have bright futures, presidential ones if they want that, but they appear to be more drunk on their own power right now than trying to actually effect change. They don't seem to understand the difference between the immediacy and gratification of social media and the complicated, compromising, long, slow process of governing.
Look, we all want the same things. If I were a newly minted member of Congress, I'd be looking to those more experienced than I as to how to get things done. I hope this occurs to them sooner rather than later.
1
No Michelle, you should be saying Squad, please fight Trump, not Pelosi. Even you have fallen into the trap.
There is a winning center-left constituency to defeat Trumpism. Unfortunately there is no party that represents us. Just as we had Bush instead of Gore because of Ralph Nader, and Trump instead of Hillary Clinton because of Bernie Sanders (and the Russians), it seems the democratic party is again on the path to snatch defeat.
So many of us shared the enthusiasm when AOC came on the scene, brash, smart and more than a match for Trump on twitter.
The bloom is off, the fish has gotten old, the shine is rusted. Blinded by twitter fame, AOC and her squad crusade with moral certainty and strut under adoring attention of their fans.
The only person in the world who has demonstrated ability to stand against Trumpism, where it really matters, in the law, in Congress, is Nancy Pelosi.
The moral smugness of it is rather off putting, but more importantly the Squad has proven to be not that smart. If they toned down the preening and choir preaching and just helped Nancy Pelosi to defeat Trumpism they might find themselves in a position where they can actually make a difference in the country.
If the Squad and Bernie bros and all of the democratic socialists and "political revolutionaries" would only lend a shoulder to the effort in defeating Trump, without the side agenda of defeating Pelosi, we might avoid the probable historical outcome of division, destruction and war.
5
@Wayne
This is akin to a propaganda smear, nothing more.
Two small things.
1. Appealing to self-described conservatives:. If you were a Republican, under what circumstance would you vote for someone "just like a Republican" over an actual Republican? I didn't think so.
2. Treating a difference in strategy as a difference in morality: Every potential Democratic voter voting for a Republican is voting for someone doing exactly that. It works.
Warren 2020.
2
I really like Michelle Goldberg, but I think she has this issue completely backwards. Nancy Pelosi has been in the US Congress since 1987, and she is serving her second stint as Speaker of the House. AOC and the rest of the Squad have been in Congress a total of 2 years combined. I respect their passion and idealism, but they have much to learn about the practicalities of governing. It is they who should be yielding to Madame Speaker, and not the other way around...they can learn much from her. Unite from the center, work assiduously to defeat Trump, McConnell and the other Republican senators, and hold onto the House...and push out to the left from there. There is a chance this way; if this election goes Republican, I fear there may be nothing remaining from which to push left.
2
@hhhman
Sure the Republicans follow the same strategy, right. Love me some moderate center right Republicans. That's how they win, right?
I disagree with Goldberg's assessment. I think Nancy Pelosi is handing this well, in very trying circumstances. Besides the questionable rhetoric coming from half of "the squad", all four would love to start impeachment proceedings yesterday.
Since they rarely if ever talk to anyone outside of their circles, they are unaware that this would bring Trump sympathy, sway attention away from his daily horrors, and the Senate would ultimately give him a pass, with him claiming victory.
The perfect is the enemy of the good. And if "the squad" get their way, the enemy will remain in the White House for four more years__and say goodbye to democracy.
2
The four democratic socialists have the right ideas for changing this country so it works for everybody. Doubts whether this can be achieved in the short term should not allow us to dismiss them in the first place. We must aim high to motivate and get the process of real change going.
1
Spot on once again, Michelle. I've had it with Pelosi giving off the appearance of being more of a corporate Democrat more concerned about corporate America's needs than the overwhelming blue wave that brought her back into power.
4
Nancy Pelosi the great strategist? Perhaps. I concede she gets credit for passing Obama care. But I seem to recall she was speaker in 2010, the election and census year where the Republicans ate our lunch at every level. Doesn’t she bear some responsibility? I cannot forgive her for that.
3
She also did a pretty good job in the 2018 midterms. What have you done for me lately?
What is the interpersonal relationship between Pelosi and AOC? Do they talk one to one? Do they like each other? Do they share experience and common values?
I think it is Pelosi ‘s leadership responsibility to reach out. But I think she doesn’t do it because she doesn’t think they deserve it yet (as newbies.) but reach out she must. That is how to lead, to guide, and to bond them more strongly to common purposes. That is how to build respect within any organization (except Trump’s!).
All these women are proud people, principled people. But they should not put their principles ahead their interests, nor ours.
4
Yes, Pelosi, I would echo the headline here: FIGHT TRUMP and NOT the SQUAD!...Trump deserves all of the grief that he gets, considering all of the grief that he has unleashed upon the world. These are the darkest of times in my lifetime which spans nearly 70 years. We have a man-boy as president who has an ego the size of the Sun and a brain that often seems like the size of a peanut.
2
I'm losing patience with Speaker Pelosi's policy of appeasement.
5
I don’t think Pelosi has “contempt for the squad.” To characterize her position that way is to beg the question. Would it be fair to say that the squad has “contempt for Pelosi’s leadership”? Probably equally unfair. The issue it seems to me is not simply that AOC went public; it is the squad’s resort to stock progressive “tropes” (as we are now using that word) to escalate a small intraparty disagreement and shame the Speaker: Pelosi was condemned in AOC’s tweet for attacking “women of color” and for making them unsafe “knowing the amount of death threats that we get.” These are barbs progressives typically reserve for their Republican opponents. They are dogwhistles that imply that Pelosi is a flat out racist. Remember where this started: a spat over a bill that had overwhelming support, to send funds to the border. Pelosi had to draw a line.
3
The problem isn’t Pelosi. It’s immaturity plus a false sense of entitlement by the squad (small s out of disrespect). In some ways I blame my generation in raising this self centered group. I suppose this is the result of giving everyone a trophy for participating but not earning it.
The goal is to beat Trump plus win the Senate. A united front against and full focus on Trump and his cohorts is required. Pacifying the squad’s childish tantrums distracts from the goal. What part of this is not understood and obvious?
Might I also remind them that social media “friends” may not be real. Get in front of the rest of the country, not just your supporters and you will see how out of step you may be. Every generation before you thought their goals were all that mattered and they were the revolution. First you have to win and then you have to compromise.
Impeachment will not succeed with a Republican Senate. Pelosi knows this as should anyone who has been remotely paying attention these past 10 years. Investigate- fine. Highlight offenses - great. Call Trump out with his lies, racism, etc. - absolutely. Win the Senate - very difficult and even less so with the squad’s antics.
5
If both are wrong, fight both.
Donald Trump, with his racist attacks, has given Nancy Pelosi a Mulligan. She made a mistake upbraiding "the Squad" in an interview. Hubris got the better of her. Trump has given Pelosi an opportunity to do better. The security of the entire world may depend on Pelosi's ability to refocus on the real issue, defeating Trumpism.
3
"House Speaker Nancy Pelosi belittled the squad to my colleague Maureen Dowd...."
I'm note sure Maureen Dowd would agree with that characterization. In her Sunday column Ms, Dowd wrote that what Pelosi said to her "did not merit A.O.C.’s outrageous accusation that Pelosi was targeting 'newly elected women of color.' She slimed the speaker, who has spent her life fighting for the downtrodden and who was instrumental in getting the first African-American president elected and passing his agenda against all odds, as a sexist and a racist."
Dowd went on to say, "A.O.C. should consider the possibility that people who disagree with her do not disagree with her color."
The Squad has been in Congress for a few months and hasn't accomplished much other than issuing attention-grabbing tweets and making outrageous statements, such as Rep. Omar's "It's all about the Benjamins" statement.
The Squad should take the advice of Whoopi Goldberg who said of AOC: "You just got in there and I know you got lots of good ideas, but I would encourage you to sit still for a minute and learn the job."
Accusing Speaker Pelosi of being racist is not a good start.
7
Nancy Pelosi has done nothing to encourage the actual people that make up the party anymore. She seems to really believe her job is to serve "her members" or some PAC, not we the people. You degrade the only leaders you have. Sad.
1
Trump is the real enemy, as his racist and sexist tweets. I am afraid that the Squad loves the limelight as much as Trump and are pushing the envelope in the same way. If they want to achieve anything, they need to help moderate Democrats win races in moderate to conservative districts and step in efforts to bury Trump. Once Democrats control the Presidency and Congress, there is a real chance of passing into law progressive legislation. Duking it out over party doctrine is a waste of time. That said, Pelosi needs to cut out the snippy comments. She is off enough to know better.
1
Maybe the author and the squad shouldn't fight Pelosi? Maybe the democrats shouldn't fight amongst themselves?
3
One could also say, with a good degree of justification, "Please, Squad, fight Trump, not Pelosi!
Did anyone listen to the interview AOC did with David Remnick from the New Yorker? She is coherent and thoughtful and states what she saw at the border detention facility. Listen.
Just as the current business world is ruled by the Disrupters, we need the Squad to disrupt the right-wing Republicans and their appeasers in the Democratic party.
2
Please “squad”, do what your generation has implored the evil, older generation(s) to do: “pivot” away from this nonsense and “collaborate” by targeting the GOP, not each other.
Zero-sum games within the Democratic Party isn’t going to win 2020.
2
Will you, Ms Goldberg, or your NYT colleagues now call on these young women to attack Trump instead of Pelosi and Democratic institutions in general?
1
WOW the 'squad' just put Trump in his correct place! Their news conference was very powerful, NOT 'communist' and puts our concern where it belongs: The cruel words and actions of Trump.
Nancy Pelosi will be proud of them all. They will work out their differences in due time!
2
Pelosi is holding up impeachment. I am sure she has good strategic reason.
However, one doesn't play strategy games with a junkyard dog. He will lose.
1
@Baddy Khan Sorry that should be "she will use"....
You couldn't get this situation more wrong. The posse is acting like pouty children.
2
It is time to stand up for decency. An insult such as Trump delivered is an attack against all. Pelosi, either go after it immediately or you are part of the problem.
Asking Pelosi to fight Trump is like asking a squid fight a cow. Unless one falls in the ocean, it isn’t going to happen. She’s will issue some rebuttals against Trump (please don’t be a racist sir!), but impeachment or something real. Not gonna happen. Easier to scold the young women minorities using her whip. She’s getting her nails done at the Ritz Carlton in San Francisco before meeting billionaire donors over mimosas.
1
I think you meant: "Please "Squad" fight Trump and the Republicans not Pelosi and your fellow Democrats". There, fixed it.
2
Trump is pulling this stunt because---
we are now all talking about this instead of the Mueller Report and all the horrendous acts it reports.
Dem's--don't take the bate. His racism is old news.
For having such sharp elbows - and sharper Twitter fingers - these members of the Squad sure have thin skin. Nancy's quotes to Maureen Dowd were not particularly harsh, and were pretty factual (they got 4 votes people). It's not fair to disparage an entire generation, but boy, could these people please grow up? Michelle Goldberg's pleas to treat them like hothouse flowers are depressing.
2
No one should write the phrases "the squad" or "women of color" ever again. Pelosi has the better of this argument, for what it's worth.
2
The moderate wing of the Democratic Party lost the election with their centrist candidate to an ignorant lunatic who didn't know the first thing about politics, policy, health care, or anything else. He literally knew nothing except for what he saw on TV
Please keep instructing progressives on how to win elections.
It's fairly obvious that Nancy Pelosi (and Chuck Schumer) have struck some sort of deal with Trump. It's hard to tell what it involves but on Pelosi's side it's clearly a promise not to impeach him. On the other side, Trump has probably promised not to go after some friends of theirs or expose some sort of scandalous information. Pelosi has made a deal with the devil, that much is clear. Nothing else can explain her craven behavior. Disgraceful.
1
Please, "Squad," fight Trump and the GOP and not fellow Democrats.
It's past time for Ms. Pelosi to take the gloves off. The overt racist, illegitimate, corrupt and incompetent man-child now occupying the Oval Office should have impeachment proceedings lodged against him. Immediately.
The time for political maneuvering is over. Republicans--at best-- have no spine. It's time for Democrats to display theirs. Let's get this show on the road.
Short answer? You lose. Period. All impeachment does is light a fire under the conservative base to defeat one of the two dozen ‘soon to be loser’ candidates and go nowhere in the Senate. Taking the moral high ground, while intellectually satisfying, only gives the Dems a great view of their impending loss.
Say what you want about Republicans, they know how to rally. And given the multitude of egregious character flaws the person they rally behind possesses, why is it so hard for Democrats to muster support for themselves?
It would do the Democratic leadership well to realize the party is getting younger and has a different take on where they need to go into the future. All of the leadership is older than I am and I am in my 7th decade.
These four young women were elected because of their differences with the prior representatives. Their vision of America was supported by the voters who put them into office. Why should they not advocate for the ideas they floated during their campaigns?
I have been a Democrat for all of my adult life, but have witnessed the downfall of the party, not because of the liberals, but because of the caution put forth by the moderates or Blue Dogs. The House was once dominated by the Dems and they only lost the majority during the Clinton presidency when Clinton chose corporate American dollars over American workers.
Health care is riddled with outdated attempts to rein in the costs and expand coverage. Very few of these concepts have worked. The ACA expanded coverage and would have undoubtably been a better program except for the Republican opposition. Climate change is now and must be addressed if the planet is to survive.
We should be embracing the ideas being put forth by these new members of Congress, not ridiculing them.
1
Could we all stop using the term “The Squad”?
It sounds adolescent and equates the very serious work of these duly elected public servants with The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.
178
@Lynda Read What name would you give them- Dems on the extreme left?
2
@Lynda Read Its a group of young, relatively inexperienced politicians acting like they own the House. I'd say 'squad' fits quite well.
6
@Lynda Read
I prefer "Gang of Four" myself. I will call them Members of the House when they start acting like adults.
BTW: I'm a longtime Progressive.
8
Pelosi and her family have become wealthy and powerful under a system that rewards the wealthy and powerful. Do you really expect her to push for substantial structural change to that system? Dream on.
1
The only reason anyone pays any attention at all to the Squad is because the Democrats are the majority party in the House. The Democrats owe that majority to many razor thin victories last November in congressional districts Trump won in 2016. Pelosi understands all too well that the minority party in the house is powerless. She needs to take these liberal firebrands under her wing and get them under control so that they can work together to defeat Trump rather squabbling in public over minor differences. At 29 years old, AOC has a lot to learn about how to advance a progressive agenda in a politically diverse country. Being a thorn in the side of the Speaker who shares most of her policy goals is not a smart strategy.
3
What's demoralizing me is that "the squad" doesn't understand elections.
Jobs # 1 through 10 for the Democrats are, in order: elect a Democratic President, elect a Democratic President, etc.
If there are members of the House who don't understand that, we are finished.
Signed: Democrat who fears the self-righteous and foolish.
4
"...some of the newcomers’ rhetoric has been stupid and irresponsible. Still, it’s Pelosi’s responsibility — not that of four insurgents who’ve been in Congress for only six months — to bring the party she leads together. "
I believe Speaker Pelosi has done her best. But if the members of "the squad" are old enough to qualify for congress, they are old enough to take responsibility for the fallout of their words and actions. I support them, but they are seriously disappointing me with their disregard for experience...they're not mindful that they have very little experience, and they're not respectful of those who do. They may find themselves out of a job, and we'll find ourselves with four more years of the nightmare that is Trump. Plain and simple, it's time for the members of the Squad to grow up!
5
Pelosi is fighting a 2 front war. One side is Trump and Fox, the other is The Squad and NYT.
As long as NYT enables The Squad, they indirectly help Trump.
3
Nancy Pelosi should have the sense to talk to the "squad" off the record. Her remarks about them came across as condescending and rude. Her "I'm the grandmother and I know a tantrum when I see it" approach is appropriate for responding to the president who has the emotional intelligence of a two year old; not so much for intelligent, thoughtful, young women. They may well appreciate her knowledge and experience and learn a lot from it, but no one appreciates being made to look stupid by your seniors in public.
3
Michelle is consistent; always wrong. The best way to defeat Trump is to punish the children of the so called “squad”. Letting them be seen as the face of the Dem. Party plays right into Trump’s hands.
2
If the members of the Squad can't take the heat, they should get out of the Congressional kitchen.
2
I guess you are not a student of history Ms. Goldberg.
You are 200% wrong.
The democrats already have the squad. Where are they gonna go, vote for Trump?
The democrats need the swing votes in purple states.
Lincoln faced this same problem when he read the riot act to the radical republicans to tone down their rhetoric in order to get union democrat votes to end slavery.
Learn from history Ms. Goldberg or forever be condemned to repeat its worst mistakes.
2
Nancy Pelosi is completely out of touch with the changes in the Democratic party- it is clear that the passion is with the progressives. After the disaster of the 2016 election, it is crystal clear that the Democrats will be crushed like bugs if the party can't stand up and support the issues of the time.
When you have a monster like trump, ignoring and even compromising with his racist and cruel policies.
Pelosi has got to be replaced. She can't (and doesn't seem to want to) unify the party.
1
Oh please. The squad rambles extreme leftist views and we independents and centrists have to go with that? We centrists will decide the election. I am a person of color and voted for Obama twice. Stop telling me that disagreeing with the squad is somehow racist or misogyny. Tired of that nonsense, we voted for Hillary too. But knew she can’t get through. Now, with the squad oozing mostly nonsense, don’t drive me away for good.
5
Bravo, Dave! I am in the Heartland, and everywhere here, people are making fun of "those 4 idiot squawkers". My daughter is Black and yet she has no respect for the "squad". She thinks they're too 'all about me' and their limited revolution mindset to be knowledgeable about bread and butter issues. Our family supports Israel, does not advocate abortion from federal dollars and is conservative I not throwing the 'baby out with the bathwater'. We worked hard for college. Freebies weren't given. These whining girls are not connecting with average people, know that!
It's crystal clear that the DNC old guard learned absolutely nothing from the last presidential election and are doomed to repeat all the same failures that brought about a Trump victory.
Even a Canadian can see that millions of Americans want change, not more of the same old same old. And Pelosi's squad is busy setting up the Democratic Party for another abject failure of their own doing.
And just like last time, the DNC old guard will blame 'purists', 'stupid youth', 3rd parties etc for their own failures. There are millions of votes just sitting there waiting to be gleaned, as people are far more likely to vote for something rather than against something. Yet Pelosi and Biden etc seem determined to run on the 'Trump is bad' ticket. Good luck with that.
3
Pelosi: Fight Trump! He's been a racial arsonist for years. Trump has spent his whole life assaulting people, verbally and physically, from the perch of his inherited money.
The women of the squad are young and have much to learn but Pelosi busting on them in public is wrong. Speak to them privately & encourage them that defeating Trump is an emergency.
But Pelosi messing with these women publicly is offensive. if she really had control of this caucus, she wouldn't be "shaming" these boisterous, independent young women in public. It's gross. Pelosi is alienating people she needs every bit as much as the squad is upsetting people.
5
While Trump's blatant racism is the most disgusting part of this whole ordeal, both Nancy Pelosi and the members of the squad deserve their share of criticism. All this needless infighting is breathing new life into the phony old right-wing talking points that women are too emotional, vindictive, and petty to govern. At a time when the GOP has shown virtually no reluctance to follow Donald Trump down the rabbit holes of racism and misogyny, we cannot afford to let Democrats in Congress prioritize grandstanding and infighting over creating a formidable opposition to Trump.
2
Trump’s telling American congresswomen to “go back where they came from” was of course disgusting and racist. His presidency is a disaster for America and the world and he needs to be impeached or voted out. Those who want to impeach need to be careful, however, to not hurt the effort to vote him out. The Democrats need to avoid working at cross-purposes. They all need to think—if the addressing of a grievance will not definitely NOT occur if Trump is re-elected, does it make sense to complain about your allies for not giving the grievance the attention you would like to see it receive?
Give me a break. The “Squad” are the ones who are taking this public with the outrageous public statements and tweets. It’s sheer stupidity and grandstanding. Pelosi has asked them— if you have a problem come talk to me, so we can work on it, don’t tweet. What do they do? Tweet, and let AOC’s addled bomb-thrower of a chief of staff go after other Democrats in the most destructive terms. The major problem here is the self-righteous and self-promoting nature of the Squad’s behavior, which is feeding directly into Trump’s re-election campaign. I hope that Pelosi can unite the caucus because the stakes here could not be higher.
4
I don't think anything Alexandria Ocasio Cortez has said has been stupid. In fact, many of my democratic millennial counterparts feel that she represents us perfectly when she addresses certain issues in a highly intellectual way.
All of this criticism for these women, especially AOC, feels very much like the Democratic Party trying to squash the diversity of intellectual thought and identity in this country. That pursuit will never be won.
2
The squad is challenging the old guard.
The internal squabble is hard to contain.
In addition to thinking up new ways to claim America is horrible, they have taken to using Democrat tactics against Democrats in a form of fratricide.
Last week, they called Pelosi a racist.
Pelosi responds by calling them essentially cockroaches.
Trump weighs in and tells them to knock it off and try to do something productive for a change.
Pelosi and the squad call Trump racist and blame the whole thing on him.
Democrat logic.
And some of the newcomers’ rhetoric has been stupid and irresponsible. Still, it’s Pelosi’s responsibility — not that of four insurgents who’ve been in Congress for only six months — to bring the party she leads together.
Really think it's the responsibility of all. No matter how safely Democratic their districts are, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Oman, Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib need to learn to work with the rest of the caucus if they want to accomplish their legislative goals.
1
I think we need to tone down the rhetoric or loose.
1
I love these brilliant new Representatives. I'm also 100% behind the brilliant Speaker Pelosi. Let's all exercise a little judgment please. Think before tweeting. Ask yourselves, in Congress or, for that matter, here in these comments, "Will what I'm doing help reelect Trump?" As for these comments, exercise skepticism. Ask yourself, "Could this comment have been written by a Trumpy or somebody else who is not a supporter of the Democrats?" Pelosi made a mistake, as did the new Representatives. We all do that. We're human. Let's move on.
(One does wonder what the heck Ms. Dowd was thinking. She had to know she would ignite a firestorm were she to include that particular Pelosi quote. Perhaps Dowd could just tell us she's a Trumpy, and get that out of the way this time. It would help us avoid all of that Dowd angst, as she lights into the Democratic nominee and gives the demagogue a free pass.)
3
Give me a break. The “squad” tweets out harmful attacks that are “stupid and irresponsible,” yet it’s Pelosi’s fault that she can’t bring the party together?
The squad’s apparent confidence in their moral superiority is the mirror image of the fundamentalist right, minus the invocation of the Bible and “God’s will.”
Oh Michelle, the Democratic Party has been demoralizing its most loyal troops since Woodrow Wilson locked up Eugene Debs. The solution is for The Squad to resign from the Democratic Party and openly declare themselves as Democratic Socialists.
1
It's time to stop squabbling about squabbling, time to treat the differences of opinion among Democrats as a strength, and most of all, time to get out the vote, especially among minority voters. Make Trump's (and the Republican party's) racism pay.
1
I believe that the extreme leftists in the democrat party are more likely to drive moderate democratic voters into the republican camp. I believe that the progressives such as "the Squad" need to put their priorities in perspective. If the ultimate goal is (as it should be) to defeat Trump, they will not accomplish that with their quest for ideological purity.
This may be the perfect time for a two step process: defeat Trump first, and implement a progressive agenda second. I find it hard for me to be sympathetic to these women of color when it was the lack of participation of people of color that gave us Trump. It is better to take the good rather than insist on the perfect.
3
...and visa versa. While I'm more on the side of the squad, if I were Pelosi I'd give each of them a major assignment for each of their major grievances to 1) Show some respect for their positions and 2) Give them a real taste of what being a leader means.
In the end everyone wins and America is better off for it.
3
Michelle Goldberg, quite honestly, it seems as though you yourself are generating much of the controversy. And "The Squad" owes the Democratic Leadership a bit more respect; they are, after all, the leadership, and it's necessary to unite under them in order to win in the upcoming election. If the Squad treats the old guard respectfully, I have no doubt that they'll reciprocate: they're the ones with the experience to behave graciously.
3
I would turn it around and say, please, "squad," fight Trump, not your own party and not Pelosi. This isn't the time for pushing extreme agendas or identity based politics, and if you'd listen to the very wise people, such as the Speaker, who have been around a lot longer than you have, you'd understand why.
3
In fact, it's the Squad that "is alienating and demoralizing people whom the Democratic Party needs." They want and fuel this fight, at a time when there are many more important things to do.
4
I am a fiercely loyal Democrat, always have been. I don't like what "the squad" (a truly awful term!) is doing to my party, one that I've been in much longer than any of them. They are far more liberal than the majority of the party and they very well could cause us to lose to Trump because Middle America does not align themselves with them. Barack Obama would never be so divisive or strident, he was a uniter and he was hopeful, not angry. The squad needs a heart to heart pow wow with Obama and whatever he says they should do. If he agrees with them I will shut up but somehow I think he would tell them to tone it down, work with the party and stop making themselves a target for Trump and the right wing media. The squad is as divisive as the Tea Party and the Freedom Caucus and we don't need more of that in Congress, we need people who can bring people together.
4
Sorry, Michelle, but these four loons, suffering the millennial plague of perceived microaggressions, as well as real grievances, are a problem.
The progressive, socialist mantra just won't fly in America, nor should it. Pelosi was right to call them out on their strident rhetoric. Their voices are like the sound of one hand clapping. No one hears it, except for the scripted sound bites.
Where you are correct is that the issue is defeating Trump. Everything else is secondary. Democratic infighting is counterproductive. Bernie's legacy is that he split the party and got us Trump. Don't we now have the scars of that lesson?
4
Sometimes I regret having children. The climate changed world will be a nightmare impacting everything else. We have wasted so much time not addressing this issue with our plodding government that I agree with the Squad that we need to step on the gas. Give me a GREEN NEW DEAL and give it to me NOW!
6
Pelosi, in my opinion, was not downgrading or denouncing ‘the squad’. She was stating facts: they only have four votes. That’s not enough. And Pelosi knows this better than anyone and has the scars to prove it. The squad has got to be tougher and just persist. I think it is up to the squad to come to Pelosi and find a way to work together. I love the squad and want them to succeed. But the primary objective is to get the good things done for this country we love so much.
7
Ms. Goldberg's headline to this essay hits the nail on the head.
Also, the quote of Ms. Allison's words:“The way that Nancy Pelosi’s words have landed, it’s caused anger, frustration, hurt, and I believe it is damaging to the coalition we have to build in order to win the White House,” is to an important point.
Speaker Pelosi should remember that Republicans made her the villain du decade from 2008 through the 2016 election. Even though she was a far older, experienced, centrist Democrat, they vilified her to no end, using her name as a rallying cry to motivate the Tea Party Republican base.
"The Squad" has become the new Pelosi boogey women. Previously it only had to be a woman (Pelosi/Clinton), not it is the four "Communist Young Women of Color".
Speaker Pelosi, The Squad, stop playing into the hands of the Republicans and the Major Media.
6
Pelosi has the same problems with her middle and left that John Boehner had with his middle and right and we saw what happened to him. Hopefully the Squad realizes that its main accomplishment so far has been to give political ammunition to Trump and the Republicans. While many Democrats are turned on by the Squad many more are turned off
6
You can fight Trump without fighting the Squad - but you can't win.
To beat Trump, Pelosi will have to beat back the Squad and the alternate extremism it is seen to represent by middle America. In dealing with Trump, Democrats will have to ask themselves whether they want to dress him down or take him down.
The distinction is less about policy than it is about personality and tone. The gap between Biden's and Sander's versions of affordable health care isn't that great; the gap between Warren's fervour and the Squad's shrill stridency is.
If AOC and Omar win the battle, almost certainly Democrats will lose the war.
4
One suspects that Ms. Pelosi values her power more than her party. We need term limits--12 years in DC and back to the state that sent you. We also need to index Senatorial and Representative salaries to their constituents' median incomes: median income for the district for Representatives, and median income for the state for Senators. And make it a felony to send money across state lines to support in-state candidates. Only presidential candidates should qualify for interstate financial support, and that should be limited.
3
Just a life-long Democrat here, now in my 60’s. My observation is that somehow, some way, Nancy Pelosi has to reach across this age gulf and be the adult in the room.
The freshmen four bring youthful impatience, intelligence, and a voice to younger voters. They must be acknowledged and included. They also need to respect the fact that they didn’t get there just on their merits. They rode a wave and a backlash. Pelosi and other leaders in the party were crucial in paving their way.
BUT! Every Democrat needs to focus on defeating the tweeter in chief, not each other. I really, really hope they ALL pool their energy and skills to boot that awful occupant out of the White House.
10
What a lot about nothing. It doesn't belittle the squad of four Congress women to note they are only four votes. It is not arrogance to suggest that the Democrats stop insulting themselves with Twitter simplecities. Their is no daylight between the party and the star's opinions except over the feasible.
5
Governance and politics. It's a team sport, and large social organizations to work within. After decades in these kinds of enterprises my recommendation is these young people adopt interpersonal management skills and street smart ways. Lots to learn. Most start ups fail, and there are very few if any twenty year old CEO's of large companies. Ideas and talent are important but working well with your organisation accomplishes things. An ace quarterback is nothing without a team and organization.
6
Supporting the Democratic Party (DP)--and I do--is not for the faint of heart. While I'm twice as old as Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, I do share her frustrations with the DP leadership (which does not mean I agree with everything she says). In my mind, the attitude of the DP's leadership conjures up the image of a boy who, day after day, is being hit, kicked, bitten, and spat on by another (here's looking at you, Rep. Party). All the boy does in return is shove his abuser in the chest, lest actually fighting back will bring horrendous shame and dishonor over his extended family. The notion that Ms. Pelosi would "pull a McConnell"--i.e., preventing a Supreme Court nominee from getting as much of a hearing, as Mr. McConnell did to Pres. Obama's nominee, Judge Merrick Garland,--is inconceivable to me. The DP leadership is much too nice (soft?) for that. I have a message for "my leaders": Perhaps not since the Revolutionary War has our country been on the verge of collapse. The time to fight back is NOW. Because if not now, then when?
96
@steffie They are not the fighting kind. But they better find the will to try harder. There are 2 ways to fight schoolyard bullies: 1) fight back AND 2) bystanders and people in power who are watching from the sidelines MUST stand up to the bullies.
11
@steffie I get the passion, but your close missed the mark. "Perhaps not since the Revolutionary War has our country been on the verge of collapse." We were not a country during the Revolutionary War or immediately thereafter. We were 13 separate British colonies with separate interests that came together in rebellion. We were less near collapse and closer to not yet congealing. The time we were closest to collapse was during the lead up to and the first 3 1/2 years of the Civil War. Yes now is the time to fight, but not by making the perfect the enemy of the good as the Squad has done.
8
@steffie - fighting back is necessary, but first one needs a winning strategy. Fighting back knowing you have a losing strategy is pointless, even if you are "right". This fight needs to be pragmatic - the fight needs to result in a majority vote for Democrats.
1
This is a generational divide that speaker Pelosi just can't seem to grasp. For most of her very long tenure in Congress Nancy Pelosi messages were controlled by leadership.
Members could say what they wanted on the campaign trail, but in the House they lined up behind the leadership.
The speaker controlled the agenda and all the press releases. But suddenly Pelosi finds herself in the world of twitter and doesn't know what to do.
Suddenly a freshman member of congress arrives with 1.5 million twitter followers and it's only grown since then. AOC reaches more people on a given day than the leadership press releases do in a week.
And it's not just twitter followers. All of social media see AOC as a daily news story. "The squad" has that sexy ring to it. Her colleagues, Omar, Tlaib and Pressley represent the very demographic that the Democrats need to win and the Speaker just hasn't grasped the idea of letting a thousand flowers bloom.
But at their core Pelosi's agenda is the same as theirs. Due process for immigrants, universal health care, educational reform, elimination student debt, ending mass incarceration-are all Democratic ideas.
But these were ideas that our former Democratic president did very little to advance, hence the impatience and urge to get things done.
So get used to the new, social media energy and get used to the youthful exuberance. The Democrats can't win without it.
126
@Drspock
I agree this is about a generational divide. While rhetoric and preferred means of communication may differ, the GOALS of both sides are essentially the same (equality, inclusion, human rights). Neither generation should expect the other to express themselves using the same kind of language or the same means of communication. They DO have to recognize that the important thing is that they share the same political objectives. Their debate can be over how to achieve those objectives.
7
@Drspock
Decency has nothing to do with generational anything!
AOC is half my age and I agree with her completely. Bernie is almost 20 years older and I agree with him fully. So does AOC.
14
@Blunt I am slightly older than Blunt and I agree with his statement as well. This has nothing to do with age, but with policy. I agree with the Justice Democrats like AOC and with Senator Sanders policy positions as well. We need bold leadership, especially in regards to climate breakdown, and I do not see it coming from centrist Democrats.
11
This isn’t just about different electoral strategies, although it is also about that. It’s about whether subordinating your politics to the perceived needs of winning elections is the right thing to do; and it is about different ideas of what constitutes leadership. Some - including I think the “squad” - believe that leadership takes a long view and means putting forward ideas and beliefs clearly and uncompromisingly (political compromise is often necessary, but it shouldn’t be done preemptively), and if done right such leadership can move people, or as importantly bring young people new to political participation into a progressive coalition for the long term. The leadership of the Democratic Party by contrast has been defeatist, purely defensive, and technocratic since Reagan and believes leadership means managing - managing caucuses, managing voter blocks, managing constituencies. They haven’t been out in front on pretty much anything since then - same sex marriage is a god example, the Democrats tailed that movement and only embraced it when they perceived it as risk free to do so.
In this way this struggle in the party reaches much deeper than a tactical disagreement, and will not be easy to resolve or paper over. It also is a struggle that has been long overdue.
76
Winning elections is all that matters. There is nothing else. If you lose nothing you hope for will happen.
12
@Christian Haesemeyer
AOC & Co. are not taking the long view at all. They want what they want and the want it now. No subtlety, no strategy, no patience. To paraphrase (I think) Thomas Edison, genius is 10% aspiration, 90% perspiration. The squad has the aspiration, but they seem to think that, have pushed another Democrat from a secure seat, they have completed the perspiration part. It's only just started, and they don't seem to like it.
4
@Christian Haesemeyer
You write:
"The leadership of the Democratic Party by contrast has been defeatist, purely defensive, and technocratic since Reagan . . ."
I guess you were on vacation during the 8 years of the Obama administration.
Wth Pelosi's help, Congress & Obama managed to pass the most
important piece of social legislation passed in over 100 years (since Medicare/Medicaid).
They also joined with Europe on climage change,.
They advanced global trade (recognizing that we are all citizens of the globe: ,
workers in emerging economies also
need jobs, globalization benefit s
workers & consumers everywhere (expecially America's middle-class consumers who can now buy affordable, well made children's clothing, furniture.
During the Obama years we also began instituting the $15 minium wage, & raising taxes to begin closing the gap between the top 10% and the rest by putting more $ into education & social programs.(see California on both counts.)
Those are just a few areas where
Dems made progress.
But perhaps you just didn't like
Obama: too old? too black? too
intelligent & educated. (I've noticed
that some folks seem to equate "educated & intelligent" with "elite."
1
The squad is equivalent to the Tea Party. The Tea Party actually won. So I don't know what to think. What a time we are living in
53
I've had it with Pelosi. These new members of Congress are the future.
Poll all the policies these new members advocate on health care, living wage, climate change, income inequality, college loans, and more. You might find that they are closer to the people's views than you think. It's an odd dichotomy concerning the difference in how people label themselves and what policies they support.
If you ask me Pelosi is a fine vote counter, but as far as leading the party, all she has produced this term is a huge wet blanket to smother the base's enthusiasm with her third way, old way, we're not going after Trump style.
Honestly, what has she done?
We need someone out front who attacks Trump's idiocy relentlessly and someone who wants to use an impeachment inquiry to highlight Trump's incompetence and malfeasance and high crimes and misdemeanors.
90
@LibertyLover
What has she done? Speaker Pelosi was only the architect of the Democratic victory in taking over the House. It was Speaker Pelosi who made health care the winning issue. Ms. Pelosi's job is to keep the House in the hands of the Democrats which means protecting Democrats who won in swing and red districts. I like AOC but she and her Squad have to calm down and work with the Speaker to unite the Party from the battle ahead. Let us not say that youth is wasted on the young.
67
@LibertyLover
I used to dislike pelosi but have come to respect her.
I find "the squad" to be insufferable, although I agree with most of their positions.
My problem with "the squad" is their insistence on the ideological trend du hour and an adherence to an unpopular authoritarian orthodoxy.
AOC has a 20% approval rating. Omar has 9%. I think that's telling
46
@LibertyLover And if we do not achieve the three goals for 2020: (1) replace Trump with a Democrat; (2) retain the Democratic majority in the House, and (3) take back the Senate and end the tyranny of Mitch McConnell, then where are we? To get there, we need votes especially in WI, MI and PA. Frankly, I'll take a vote-counter any day. Your approach is a recipe for standing morally tall in the front yard watching the house burn to the ground, saying "well, I've lost it all but am comforted by being right". You can be right, or be elected, but if you're not elected, you'll never achieve right. Don't make the perfect the enemy of the good.
56
The first internet company to come to the stock market was Netscape. It's valuation soared, mostly because people were desperate to invest in the internet and there wasn't any other way. As it turned out, Netscape wasn't really the best the internet could produce. I feel the same way about the Squad. Young Democrats are craving bold political leaders. Right now the Squad is all they have and their value has soared. As the Progressive Wing increases in size, I believe that these young Democrats will find better Progressives to get behind. The Squad, like Netscape, will be a phenomenon of it's time.
5
Bottom line: if the Democrats don't get their house in order, they will loose the next presidential election to Trump.
AOC and her posse sometimes have valid points, but they need to look at the bigger picture and sometimes need to sideline their own agenda for the "team."
Losing to Trump most likely means 1) Supreme court justice appointments will further skew the bench right 2) Obamacare will die and not be replaced/improved upon. 3) New immigration laws will not be legislated 4) The Fed will be filled with incompetents thereby messing up monetary policy. 5) Anything left of the EPA will be killed off.
7
Pelosi and The Squad better get on the same page fast.
This is spiraling out of control. On our side. On Trumps side, he knows exactly what he is doing.
And he is taking it to a very bad place. Well, there have been other bad places, yes. But this is systematically ratcheting it up to yet another new and virulently toxic level.
One of these four brave women may very well get assassinated.
Then we will see what this country is made of.
3
The current president is corrupt and enormously corruptive. He is a disaster for the environment, for the rule of law, separation of powers, the international standing of the United States, and on and on. Ending his presidency has to be job #1. The Democratic Party is the only party that can accomplish that mission. Its members need to work together and keep their disagreements behind closed doors. Broadcasting their complaints and criticisms of one another is as good as throwing ammunition and red meat to the Republican Party and the Fox News crowd.
5
A third party candidacy by Kasich, or Flake might be enough to bring down Trump. Claire McCaskill for veep to give it a bipartisan flair. Let Trump have the asylum issue. Knock him on his heels over the arms control treaty issues. Play rope a dope with him on the health care issue. KO him on the debt!
2
The "centrist" argument for 2020:
"I'd rather get half of something good than nothing at all come 2020. How's it feel getting nothing in 2016?"
Depends on what you get "half of." Centrists say that beating Ttump is the key; different factions of the Democratic Party can duke it out the morning after. "Progressive" democrats say "later" will be too late, and that key personnel who preach to, and don't try to minimize, "centrist" Democrats are almost as bad as the GOP.
2
When AOC won her seat I was very excited. But it's clear she's an uncompromising, Instagram and game obsessed narcissist.
AOC and the Squad are incredibly unpopular.
Trump's 40% approval rating looks great next to AOCs 20%
I hope the squad cools their jets before they hand Trump victory in 2020
8
If the Democrats don't come up with a viable
Economic campaign, they are in trouble. Identity politics, reparations for slavery and the cultural issues will help Trump. Giving illegal immigrants health care will lose votes. Slam Trump for not releasing his tax forms. Accuse him and his family from profiting from the presidency. Question whether he and his family received money from the Saudíes for favorable treatment. These four Congresswomen will take the Party down a rabbit hole.
4
Weakness of leadership is not new for the Democratic party. Consider how President Obama reacted when confronted with difficult problems and strong opponents.
Instead of doing something to CONTROL the health care industry and its skyrocketing fees, he sponsors a bill that requires everyone to get insurance, or pay a penalty at tax time. What did that accomplish? …The price of health care went up even faster.
One goal he repeated during his first campaign was to close the detention center at Guantanamo. How fast did he drop that...and WHY? He dropped it because the military wanted it and he was afraid to confront the generals and admirals.
As far as the civil war in Syria was concerned, he couldn't even decide which side to support (there were more than two).
Hillary would have been more of the same. Her campaign was SO UNINSPIRED. She also represented a path many Americans did not want his country to follow.
Not all Trump voters are fans of his. They just think the Democrats are trying to lead us down, not just a wrong path, but one that will lead to disaster and change the character of this country so fundamentally, that it will no longer be the United States of America.
There is more than one issue that is important to Trump/Republican voters, and they don't all have the same priorities. To lump them together and label them all as hateful fanatics is foolish.
2
To the Congresswomen,
Chill! Please consider that your platforms will never even see the light of day if the Democrats lose in 2020. Should your party win you will have many more months beyond the mere seven you have served to date in Congress to fight for your ambitious agendas. Now is not the time to pursue them so vociferously. Please don't be the Jill Steins of 2020. The stakes are too high in this election.
In the meantime, you must also consider that you are only adding fuel to the fire of Trump's incendiary playbook. He will continue to exploit your every word with more and more heinous propaganda from now until the election. Please don't give him the chance. His divisive race baiting strategy worked well for him in 2016 and may very well do so again in 2020.
If you can't come to terms with Speaker Pelosi, perhaps you should consider seeking guidance from Representative John Lewis, one of the most highly respected and long-serving members of Congress. He can teach you a wealth of valuable lessons which might serve you well in these tumultuous days.
4
@HMP A fantastic idea! If only the four new Congresswomen (I hate the term "the squad") would read your wise comment about John Lewis and take it to heart. But sadly, they don't seem to have the self-awareness or maturity to even understand that they could benefit from the wisdom of a seasoned mentor who shares their values and ideals.
They need to cut down on the Tweeting and do some listening and learning--and boy do they have a lot to learn.
By the same token, Pelosi could benefit from listening to the four and learning from them how to reach their young constituents--and earn their trust and their VOTES!
1
Or...please squad, fight Trump, not Pelosi. Otherwise you risk alienating a lot of voters the democrats need.
4
Ms. Goldberg seems to miss the fact that Ocasio-Cortez’s posse first attacked centrist Democrats for behaving like segregationists when they voted for border funding. Speaker Pelosi was rising to the defense of most of her members when she pointed out that “the squad” Is four people. They are bright and passionate, but they clearly don’t understand that most Congressional districts aren’t like theirs. Nor is the country.
8
This writer has things backwards. It is Pelosi, not AOG and her group who is trying to hold the Democratic Party and its majority in the House together. The 4 Squad members are trying, with some success, to splinter it, to remake it in their preferred shape. That some of them shout "socialist" makes many eyes open wide. Focus groups in the Middle West battle ground states of 2016 convey that the Democratic Party is now, in the minds of swing voters, Obama to Trump, identified by AOC. That is unacceptable to them.
3
It is up to “the squad” to rein it in. They are elected from very blue, safe districts. They did not win a national election, but they may spoil one.
10
The squad came to D.C. and found a swamp filled with the decaying corpse of democracy. Nancy in all her self-righteous glory was happy to do photo ops with the gavel at the podium, back in power again baby! What’s wrong is that the new and old guard are out of sync with each other in a bad way. Maybe they need to put down their phones and try talking to each other. Then Trump got into the scene and the name calling really began. Just when you think Washington could not get anymore dysfunctional, wait until tomorrow. I wonder what would happen if a real crisis erupted? Not some manufactured Twitter storm created by the swamp creatures. It’s no wonder that congress has a lower approval rating than Trump. How many days until the election? Ugh!
2
This is a problem contributed to by Democrats and their elected leaders from all sides. Rather than appeal to Pelosi not to fight with the new congresswomen, appeal to ALL in the party to recognize the threat to ALL when they don't moderate their behavior, talk to one another in civil (though, I'm sure, energetic) negotiations, and resolve to win the White House in 2020.
We're on the verge of losing the election16 months before it happens! Now is the time for all good men and women to come to the aid of their party!
4
Something not said out loud, but what drives much of the policy making among the status quo Democrats goes something like this:
"Honey, it would be great to have universal healthcare in some type of single payer system, but Uncle Joe HealhInsuranceCompanies might get mad and Aunt DrugManufacturers might not invite us over for Christmas dinner.
And you know dear that our income doesn't just fall from the trees, we have to be nice to the people who keep us in hearth and home, you know, The BigDonor Plant that daddy works at. Maybe someday we can do what we really want to, but for now we have people we have to please."
3
Pelosi and The Squad better get it together fast.
This is spiraling out of control. On our side. On Trumps side, he knows exactly what he is doing.
And he is taking it to a very bad place. Well, there have been other bad places, yes. But this is systematically ratcheting it up to yet another new and virulently toxic level.
One of these four brave women may very well get assassinated.
Then we will see what this country is made of.
3
The Squad want to provide oversight.
Pelosi either:
a) doesn't want to provide oversight; or
b) is slow in communicating this to a fault.
Get with it Nancy, start talking....or move over.
1
The problem is that if you don't fight the squad and win, you won't win against Trump
1
Those four luminaries acting out their divisive and irrelevant antics are helping Trump get re-elected. How is it that a political neophyte knows how to push their buttons and get them to react in the predictable way that alienates many potential voters?
4
Please, Squad, fight Trump, not the Speaker. The Squad is alienating Democratic voters the party needs to win next year.
Mark Twain famously wrote, "When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years."
Squad, young as you are, you're considerably older than 21. The Speaker isn't your mother, but it works for me as a metaphor. You haven't learned the lesson Twain had learned by that age. You don't have seven years to wise up.
You don't even have seven months.
4
I'd say the columnist is picking sides too. The squad, in fact, every Democrat, and their supporters, and most of all, their staffers (being "alt mouthpieces"), ought to be respecting the differences and different pathways that got each leader to where they got.
They're all on a bunch of little lifeboats tied together, and like a good woodpecker, Trump is running around boring holes in every one of their sides with his "angry white populist" tool.
1
I agree that Nancy Pelosi should be a unifying factor within the party and should be concentrating her fire power on Donald Trump. The four young Congresswomen have a right to their opinions, but should also realize that a unified party has a better chance of winning. I respect their idealism and their intelligence, but seeing everything in racial terms is not productive, nor accurate.
We have a president who accuses migrants of being rapists, but has himself been accused of being a rapist by a number of women, who has minimized Russian intervention in our last election, who has alienated our allies and cozied up to dictators, who has disregarded a nuclear treaty which we signed, who has caged and broken up families at our border. For heavens sake, Democrats, don't give the man ammunition to distract from the fact that he doesn't belong in the White House!
3
Its all good, Trump in one fell swoop has managed to unify the Democrats .
His racist tweets and policies have resulted in realignment of the caucus and put to the focus back where it belongs .
The total destruction of the Republican Party in 2020 elections and Trump failing in his bid to 'serve ' a second term.
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I would like to focus on two statements of Ms. Goldberg in reverse order of their appearance in her column. "Some of the newcomers' rhetoric has been stupid and irresponsible"; and "It is simply a fact that leftists, as well as the generally disaffected, need to be courted just as moderates do." I would qualify the first of the statements with my considered opinion that the irresponsibility mentioned has involved the newcomers' selective prejudice of their own, namely, antisemitism, with which they pander to their own wings of the Left. As such, the idea in the second of the two statements that the leftists need to be courted is by no means a fact at all. The leftists' antisemitism, rather, needs to be confronted vigorously, after which errors can possibly be eliminated and a modicum of self-respect, and the respect of others, can be regained.
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Pelosi got 275,000 votes in last election. AOC got 17,000. I’ll support Pelosi for now.
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I wish someone would pass a law that prohibits politicians from using Twitter. The only thing it's good for is hurling insults.
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Sen. Pelosi is 79 years old, yet to read the news lately, one would think she is 40. Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez is 29. Reading similar sources, one might conclude that AOC is 7 or 8.
Yet the truth is that Ocasio-Cortez is not a young lady or a brat or a kid. She is a duly elected member of Congress and an adult who has commanded everyone’s attention—like it or not. Pelosi is seventy-nine. She is many things, but “in her prime” is not one of them.
The persistent, stubborn refusal of (many, but not all) baby boomers to accept their own mortality and step aside is frustrating, tiresome, and ultimately quite dangerous. Pelosi is a master player of the old game, but she is only human and we all grow old in our time. Climate change will not be solved by the same old thinking and policies that contributed to it. Nor will the horrible specter of American fascism and authoritarianism be vanquished by “reaching across the aisle” and allowing the GOP to define the big tent party’s platform. The game has changed fundamentally, and we need new leadership to match it.
Ms. Pelosi must retire for the sake of party and country, but I doubt that she will.
I’m still unclear how theses lefties hope to realize their vision of America without completely breaking down this country into a dystopian quagmire with unsustainable debt, a large population of unskilled uneducated non English speakers and a green dream whose very implementation is a huge leap of faith for many of us.
Free college
Medicare for all incl illegals
Open borders
Green Dream
Not one. No one has shown proof using logic and math that the above ideals can be implemented in a sustainable fashion.
I just don’t understand what people see in the “squad”. Brilliant they are not. Diplomats they are not. A track record of implementation and success is zero. So what do people see in them?
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Congress gets two year terms. The voters in their districts may fire anyone of these megaphones. I for one hope the good people of MN will get rid of their newbie. If you listen to her words, it's hard to understand what she believes in. I am not a super patriot myself but I find her very offensive. Un-american even.
Very reasonable article. Trump's comments could not have been more timely. Once again disproving the theory that there is a method to his madness. Blind stupidity is correct half the time on average, but here he saved us and we should stop this fight.
Personally, I think Pelosi should be encouraging these passionate young members, and guiding them more adroitly, but their hearts are in the right place, and I think Pelosi should use them to independently rally the base. Demeaning them was entirely unnecessary and just wreaked of overt jealousy. Nonetheless, likening the situation to one of racism was not very apt and a bit reductive. I think they should take the opportunity that Trump afforded them and move on.
The one thing they should not do is take advice from Tom Steyer. The cries for impeachment will not age well once Steyer is exposed for what he is. Do not get wooed by his offerings. He is just using his association to the left to infiltrate our movement. If we let him and do as he says, he will destroy us. Pelosi is 100% on this point to push back against the influence of Tom Steyer. He will destroy this party if we let him.
Let bygones be bygones.
Wrong. Pelosi’s waging the smart fight. The Squad is playing right into Trump’s hands.
Nancy Pelosi is a dinosaur who needs to go. So is Diane Feinstein, who gave the old-white-man response of "I've been doing this since before you were born" to the young environmental activists. The problem to which they refer has overlapped perfectly with Feinstein's tenure in the Senate.
If Pelosi and Steny Hoyer had done their jobs in 2008 by punishing both GOP war criminals and Wall Street financial criminals, the Republican party would still be on its heels. At least AOC knows what she thinks before or without reading the polls.
I think you have it backwards. Please Squad, fight Trump, not Pelosi !!!
If The Squad keeps this up, the Democrats will not only lose the Presidency, but also any hope at regaining a majority in Congress.
The only thing The Squad will be able to do then is yell at the moon, while another Trump administration destroys what is left of the USA, making it "great again".
Do you actually think Pelosi was giving the squad the time of day? That's why the twittering. Corporate Democrats have been brushing off the left for 40 years. Do you ever hear this much fuss when the blue dogs line up to kill legislation?
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Kudos to the four ladies. Finally, the party has some new blood and people who have the energy and real convictions to fight for it.
They are left because all else is to the right, extreme right. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren were fighting the battle alone.
The old guard is too chicken to even use the word, Socialist, they are afraid of it. Secular Socialists tower over the Christian Republicans any time. Christian politicians don't behave according to their bible, the NT, they are shameless.
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Are "the Squad" an asset or liability in "fighting Trump"?
We be so much better off without Twitter. Social media is destroying us.
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If Pelosi and the rest of her old-line Democrats believe that AOC is a non-factor with her "15,000 votes," then she is even more foolish than I first thought. If either Elizabeth or Bernie doesn't win the presidency in 2020, a thirty-five-year-old Ocasio-Cortez will be taking the oath of office in January 2025.How is that for "inconsequential" for you?
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