The Era of Divided Democrats 
By Emily Woodruff
Artwork by Shonali Palacios, Design Lead

At a time in our lives when the country seems one bad day from falling apart, even institutions as old as the two-party system seem capable of shattering. When taken care of, fragile things can be beautiful and strong, but if we drop them, they will break. The Democratic Party may have won the Presidency this November, but the moderate-progressive coalition that helped Joe Biden get elected started to fall apart before he was even officially announced as the winner. The Democrats kept their House of Representatives majority, but their margin of victory was much slimmer. Additionally, they did not win as many seats as they had hoped in the Senate. The GOP currently holds 50 seats, and the runoff in Georgia will decide control of the Senate. But it almost seems that no matter who wins in Georgia, we will see an era of divided government. 

The minute the bad results started rolling in, people began pointing fingers. Moderates blamed the Progressive wing of the party for pushing the Defund the Police Movement and other more socialist causes. Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger, a moderate Democrat from Virginia, angrily declared in the New York Times podcast, The Daily: “And we need to not ever use the words “socialist” or “socialism” ever again. Because while people think it doesn’t matter, it does matter. And we lost good members because of that.” However, the Progressive wing of the party countered this accusation by blaming the moderates’ failure to marshal their resources. In an interview with The New York Times, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said, “If you’re not spending $200,000 on Facebook fund-raising, persuasion, volunteer recruitment, get-out-the-vote the week before the election, you are not firing on all cylinders. And not a single one of these campaigns was firing on all cylinders.”

These reports illustrate the underlying tension that exists between the moderates and progressives of the Democratic Party. It also highlights the fragility of the bond that holds the party together.

Since the United States has a two-party system, each party must appeal to broad groups of the populace for support. However, this forces parties to appeal to large groups that occupy various positions on the political spectrum. The Democratic Primaries for the 2016 and 2020 elections highlighted the deep divide that existed between moderate and progressive Democrats. In 2016, the party was able to unite behind Hilary Clinton, and this year they rallied behind Biden until he won. Now the rupture between both sides has appeared again. Ideology has consistently been the driving force behind party unity, but now even within one party, ideologies have split considerably. Trump became the Democrats’ common enemy, but now that he has been voted out of office, how will they unite? Is there any way Biden can create an agenda that will satisfy progressives and moderates? The bond between the two factions is extremely delicate, and every piece of contentious legislation will add cracks which will widen over time. It will be impossible for this bridge to last if it is not taken care of. Democrats will have another chance to capture more seats in 2022, but will they be able to unite behind a single platform? Or is the bond already broken?

Politics are built on fragility. Traditions, under-the-table deals, and word-of-mouth agreements are crucial elements of what makes our government system work. These occur within and between parties. Politicians’ places are also fragile. In just one night, they can go from having a seat in Congress to having their power stripped from them.  But fragility is important to politics because it creates trust. Informal arrangements work because politicians must trust each other. You can’t have a united party or a united government without trust. That is why Democrats’ recent infighting is so troubling.  In response to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’ critique of fellow Democrat Connor Lamb’s campaign, Michael Barbaro, host of The Daily podcast, said that “it is unusual for a member of the House of Representatives to assail the savviness of their colleagues’ campaigns on such a process level. This is unusual.” 

In the past, parties were held together by a candidate’s dependence on their party machines. But with the fall of party machines as result of reform, candidates have been able to assert their independence. This has created visible divisions in parties and is illustrated by the ways in which the similarities that hold such large and diverse groups together have become increasingly delicate. The progressive-moderate battle emphasizes this phenomenon.

So much in our government system is fragile. The bonds that hold institutions together are brittle and hard to repair. But there is a light in the darkness. People protect fragile things; they look after them and make sure they are kept safe. That is what happens in our government. Politicians know how important these bridges and connections are, so they work to keep them safe. Moderate and progressive Democrats are part of the same party, and if they want to keep their party united, they must work together.

Emily Woodruff ‘24 studies in the College of Arts & Sciences. She can be reached at ewoodruff@wustl.edu.