The Democrats are not as polarized as you think. Although those who call themselves progressives and democratic socialists claim their positions are oh-so radical. In fact, the main difference is that they are just overly optimistic about how soon we can get where we all want to go. How do I know this? I listen to Bernie Sanders — if anyone knows, he does.
In November 2015 Sanders’ swore that FDR’s vision in 1944 is his vision today. And FDR hated socialism and thought radicalism was having “both feet planted firmly in the air.” Moreover, as I’ll show, Sanders learned about FDR’s vision from a very moderate Democrat. And Sanders has sold this vision to most of his followers and they’ve all stuck with it. Sanders himself is, in fact, a radical socialist. But his followers are almost all liberal Democrats and don’t actually know what socialism is.
And of course, FDR is the Democrats patron saint, so we are all aligned regarding our vision. The difference is simply this: mainstream Democrats know that the radicals have been promising a revolution for 172 years, and gotten nowhere, while the moderates have made a huge amount of progress by taking a million small steps.
The radicals, however, don’t know this and believe their own revolutionary mythology. So they are sure the moderates must be going slow (rather than leaping tall buildings in a single bound) because the moderates don’t want to go far. The truth is, the moderates do want an end to poverty, war, and injustice, just like the radicals. They just know that real positive change, although a slow process, is faster than revolutions that don’t happen or take us backward.
So our polarization is not about our vision, it’s about strategy. And that is not a moral question, it’s a question of what actually works. And what works is what has always worked — slowly changing public opinion and electing good politicians who will keep pace with it.
Ripped Apart
