Abigail Spanberger and Ayanna Pressley on the Democratic Rift
The Political Scene | The New Yorker
The New Yorker
4.3 • 3.9K Ratings
🗓️ 14 December 2020
⏱️ 21 minutes
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Summary
In November, when the Democratic Party lost seats in the House and a hoped-for victory in the Senate fizzled, centrist Democrats were quick to blame left-leaning progressives. Rhetoric about democratic socialism and defunding the police, they said, had scared away moderate voters, who rejected Donald Trump but voted for Republicans down ballot. Abigail Spanberger, who represents the conservative Seventh Congressional District of Virginia, made that argument on a post-election call with fellow House members which was then leaked to the press. She tells David Remnick that the Party cannot achieve anything without bipartisan dealmaking—however unwelcome it may be to progressives. But Ayanna Pressley, who represents the liberal Seventh Congressional District of Massachusetts, doesn’t buy it. In order to prove Democrats’ value to voters, she says, the Party must stand up for ideals and not seek compromise. Pressley feels that a sufficiently populist approach to pandemic relief, for example, can sway Republican voters. “We know, before the pandemic, [many] families didn’t have four hundred dollars saved to weather a disruptive life event,” she points out. “And I’m sure many of those families were Republicans. So the ultimate persuasion tool is impact.”
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| 0:48.1 | I'm Dorothy Wickenden. On today's Politics and More podcast, a look at tensions between the progressive and moderate wings of the Democratic Party. |
| 0:57.2 | David Remnick will speak to two members of Congress, Abigail Spanberger of Virginia, |
| 1:01.7 | who was narrowly re-elected in November and says she struggled with the party's progressive messaging. |
| 1:07.6 | Meanwhile, Ianna Presley of Massachusetts, a member of the so-called squad, has been one of the most public progressive voices in the party. |
| 1:18.2 | In his campaign for the presidency, Joe Biden played up as long career as a centrist, a champion of bipartisanship. |
| 1:26.4 | At the same time, he advanced an agenda that, on paper anyway, was in many ways more progressive |
| 1:31.8 | than Barack Obama's. |
| 1:33.5 | It was not an easy balancing act at all, but Biden managed to unite the Democratic Party |
| 1:38.6 | and beat Donald Trump. |
| 1:41.2 | But while the Democrats won back the White House, the Democrats also lost a dozen seats |
| 1:46.5 | in the House of Representatives. Centrists in the party were quick to lay the blame on progressives. |
| 1:52.5 | Terms like Democratic socialism and defunding the police, they said, had scared away moderate voters. |
| 1:58.6 | Progressives, on the other hand, say that the energy that they brought to the |
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