Democrats' Circular Firing Squad?
Back in April, Obama warned us. And now it’s happened. Here’s what he said:
“One of the things I do worry about among progressives is a certain kind of rigidity where we say, ‘Uh, I’m sorry, this is how it’s going to be’ and then create a ‘circular firing squad’, where you start shooting at your allies because one of them has strayed from purity on the issues.
When that happens, the movement weakens.”
Firing squads are not about debating the issues, they’re about shooting to kill. Not literally of course. They use character assassination. Now everyone knows you shouldn’t do that, so it’s always done with innuendo and insinuation. They need to be sneaky and have “plausible deniability”, so they can say, Oh, no that’s not what I meant, even though it’s exactly what they meant.
Joe Biden’s rivals should attack him with some “Republican talking points”
Mathiew Yglesias (400,000+ Twitter followers) is not a politician, so he can come right out and say it — Let’s have a circular firing squad and see if we can kill Biden. If so, that’s good because it means he would not have been a good candidate.
Given the danger, that’s freakin’ insane
The above quote is the headline of a new post on Vox, a smart progressive website that I like and turn to often. And Yglesias is one of the smartest commentators. Generally, they are not the purist progressives Obama was worried about. But I guess they are still the type that likes to shoot at Democrats. And just to be 100% clear about this Yglesias says:
The solution for candidates from either faction is to try to bring Biden’s numbers down by going after him the exact same way that Republicans will.
By “either faction” he means the moderates and the so-called progressives — everyone. He’s recommending they all form a circular firing squad, put Biden in the middle, and pretend they’re Republicans.
Of course, he has a rationalization: We need to test him to find out if he can stand up to Republicans, like in a general election. It sounds sort of logical, but …
You probably already see what’s wrong with that, so let me point out how it would work if it were used against the “progressives.” (Remember, I’m not suggesting these, but Yglesias is when he calls for attacking “the exact same way that Republicans will.”)
- All the other candidates would surround Sanders and bring up his support for Hugo Chavez, his honeymoon in Russia, his days singing the Communist International, etc. Then they would accuse him hiding is true socialism behind FDR so he could sneak into the White House and turn the country communist.
- Or they could surround Warren and call her Pocahontas and talk about what the Indian tribes said about her use of the DNA test.
- Or they could all start calling Kamala Haris a “corrupt prosecutor & hypocrite.” Cory Booker could say she was “freaking disgusting” and not “an American black,” as a black Republican did. Bernie Sanders could call her racist for only wanting to give housing subsidies to people “of a certain color.”
This is a perfectly disgusting way to run the debate, and it would be the ultimate circular firing squad approach. But the huge problem with it is this:
When the general election comes, the Republicans will be using the same smears, but they will be quoting all top Democrats to prove their point. For example — even Warren called Sanders a communist. Or, even Sanders called Harris a racist. Or, even Booker said she wasn’t an America black.
I know Yglesias is well-meaning and 200% wants to defeat Trump. But being a progressive, I guess he is just so fond of shooting at Democrats that he can’t see both sides of the argument.
Obama Was Right: Firing Squads Weaken Us
Obama didn’t shoot at anyone in particular and he called the firing squad “circular” to spread the blame as moderates always do. But he was also clear. It is those that apply purity tests who shoot first. And these are “progressives”, not moderates. Moderates see the world as complicated and without pure answers.
So the Democratic Firing Squad is not circular, it’s one-sided. The progressives form the squad and start firing. The moderates want everyone under a “big tent” to get along and take a few rounds for the sake of peace, but then they do fire back.
This does not mean there’s anything circular about this arrangement. The radicals shoot until first, and the Democrats stop shoot back when necessary.
Ripped Apart
