it’s clear the undertow of the progressive wave has pulled the Democratic Party far to the left
The so-called “Blue Wave” that broke over Congress in the November 2018 midterms handed the Democratic Party a 41-seat gain and control of the House, and opened the door to President Trump’s impeachment.
But that wasn’t all. The anti-Trump fury of the Blue Wave also crashed down over moderate Democrats. The arrival of the “Squad” — a quartet of young, socialist anti-Israel Democrats — was the clearest sign that the party was shifting leftwards. In the biggest upset, Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez — then a 29-year-old progressive activist known as AOC — defeated long-serving Democratic incumbent Rep. Joe Crowley.
Two years later, it’s clear that the undertow of the progressive wave has pulled the Democratic Party far to the left. Congress rejected AOC’s ruinously expensive Green New Deal to fight climate change, provide Medicare for all, and guarantee a “living wage” for all Americans. But despite the initial proposal’s $51 trillion price tag, the progressives’ energy forced Joe Biden to move with the times. Repackaging the “climate emergency” for blue-collar workers uninterested in trendy progressive causes, Biden promised “good union jobs that expand the middle class” — a $2 trillion Green New Deal in all but name.
It’s not just climate rhetoric. For all his “C’mon, man!” Joe-from-Scranton spiel, Biden is no continuity candidate. On issue after issue, from abortion and alternative lifestyles to the death penalty and immigration, Biden and the Democrats have shifted leftward.
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