The New York Times - USA (2020-11-09)

P18 N THE NEW YORK TIMES, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2020

Since President Trump won the
White House in 2016, a shocked
Democratic Party has been
united behind the mission of de-
feating him. Four years later, with
the election of Joseph R. Biden Jr.,
the divides that have long sim-
mered among Democrats are now
beginning to burst into the open,
as the president-elect confronts
deep generational and ideological
differences among congressional
lawmakers, activists and the par-
ty’s grass-roots base.
The fault lines began to emerge
within hours of Mr. Biden’s vic-
tory. Moderates argued that his
success, particularly in industrial
Midwestern states that Mr.
Trump seized from the Demo-
crats in 2016, was proof that a can-
didate who resisted progressive
litmus tests was best positioned
to win back voters who had aban-
doned the Democratic Party.
Those tests included single-payer
health care, aggressive measures
to combat climate change and ex-
panding the Supreme Court.
“The progressives said we need
a base candidate,” said Rahm
Emanuel, the former mayor of
Chicago and White House chief of
staff under President Barack
Obama, referring to a nominee
who appeals to the left wing of the
party. “No we didn’t. We needed
someone to get swing voters. If
you campaign appropriately, you
can make that a governing trans-
formation.”

Moderate Democrats said they
were hopeful the urgency of the
problems confronting the nation
would delay the inevitable reck-
oning the party faces between its
ideological wings. Beyond that,
they said that a disappointing
showing by Democrats in con-
gressional races — the party lost
seats in the House and faces a
struggle for even narrow control
of the Senate — would give liberal
Democrats less of a platform to
push Mr. Biden to the left.
After a fiery call among mem-
bers of the House Democratic
caucus, in which some argued
that progressives who have en-
tertained ideas like defunding the
police or “Medicare for all” had
cost the party congressional
seats, some Democratic leaders
pushed further away from the left
wing.
Representative Conor Lamb, a
moderate from Pennsylvania who
survived a difficult Republican
challenge, said the results should
be a wake-up call to the left.
“What we heard from a lot of
our constituents was that they do
not like the Democratic message
when it comes to police in West-
ern Pennsylvania, and when it
comes to jobs and energy,” he
said. “And that we need to do a lot
of work to fix that.”
But after four years of pent-up
frustration and energy, that may
prove unlikely. By every early in-
dication, Mr. Biden’s election has
emboldened progressive energy,
no matter the setbacks in the con-
gressional races. There is an up-
and-coming generation of elected
Democratic officials who have
been waiting in the wings, eager
to take the lead in formulating a
platform for the party.
After supporting Mr. Biden as a
means of defeating Mr. Trump,
younger and more progressive
Democrats who have gained a
foothold in Congress and among
party activists are skeptical about
his future administration. Sena-
tor Elizabeth Warren of Massa-
chusetts, setting policy terms in a
statement after Mr. Biden was de-
clared victorious, said: “A Band-
Aid approach won’t get the job
done. We have a mandate for ac-
tion on bold plans to meet these
twin health and economic crises.”
Representative Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez of New York, a
leading voice of the party’s left
wing, said in a phone interview
that the next few weeks would set
the tone for how the incoming ad-

ministration will be received by

liberal activists.

“I think that’s what people are

keeping an eye out for: Is this ad-

ministration going to be actively

hostile and try to put in appoint-

ments that are going to just

squash progressives and organ-

izing?” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said. “ I

don’t envy the Biden team. It’s a

very delicate balance. But I think

it’s really important to strike a

good one. Because it sends a very,

very powerful message on the in-

tention to govern.”

Mr. Biden has long seen himself

as a pragmatic consensus builder

rather than a strict ideologue. In

addition to the fractures within

his party, Mr. Biden’s administra-

tion will also have to navigate a

Republican Senate, unless Demo-

crats wrest two seats in Georgia

in runoff elections in January.

Some moderate Democratic

leaders urged the president-elect

to head off any internal conflict by

embracing policies both sides can

agree on and reaching out to the

left.

“The first thing I would do if I

were Joe Biden is I’d propose a

$15-an-hour minimum wage,”

said Edward G. Rendell, the for-

mer governor of Pennsylvania

and a former chairman of the

Democratic National Committee.

“That’s something that both sides

agree on. That would be the first

action on behalf of President Bi-

den to show there are significant

parts of the progressive agenda

that need to be acted on.”

Given the two Senate runoffs,

Mr. Biden might be initially reluc-

tant to embrace positions that

could make it easier for Republi-

cans in Georgia to paint Demo-

crats as out-of-touch, radical so-

cialists.

Mr. Biden has made clear he in-

tends for his cabinet to be diverse

in race, gender and sexual orien-

tation — but a left wing that has

become disenchanted with the in-

herent idea of representation as

progress will be looking for con-

cessions of power.

Grass-roots political groups on

the left had a dual message for the

president-elect: Congratulations

— and here’s a list of demands.

Several signaled that they ex-

pected Mr. Biden to defer to some

demands of progressives, not

only by selecting some for key

cabinet positions but also by ex-

cluding people with a Wall Street

or lobbying background. Mr. Bi-

den’s flexibility in making cabinet

appointments, however, will be

constrained if the Senate remains

in Republican hands.

Jamaal Bowman, a progressive

New York Democrat who will be

sworn into the next Congress,

took the view that Mr. Biden’s vic-

tory was not an affirmation of

moderate ideology, but a testa-

ment to a diverse Democratic

Party that had embraced the

shared goal of defeating an un-

popular president. He cited the

work during the general election

of progressive groups and candi-

dates who opposed Mr. Biden dur-

ing the Democratic primary, in-

cluding young climate organizers

like the Sunrise Movement — and

said they should be rewarded.

“We have to move past the

moderate-versus-liberal conver-

sations and start speaking and

moving together as a strong

party,” Mr. Bowman said. “We

have organizations like the Sun-

rise Movement and candidates

like Jamaal Bowman who have

gone out of our way to get Joe Bi-

den elected.”

Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said she ex-

pected a long-term fight, particu-

larly given the setbacks for Dem-

ocrats in the congressional con-

tests. She also cited cabinet ap-

pointments as a way to measure

Mr. Biden’s ideological core.

It is unclear what kind of audi-

ence progressives will find with

Mr. Biden and his administration.

Throughout the year, his cam-

paign sought to project unity

through measures like a joint task

force with supporters of Senator

Bernie Sanders, which led a cam-

paign to adopt some of the left

wing’s policy proposals, including

plans around college debt. But Mr.

Biden stopped short of the biggest

ideas, like eliminating the Elec-

toral College or embracing state-

hood for Washington, D.C., and

Puerto Rico.

Some leading Democratic

Party moderates said they sup-

ported many of the ideological

goals on the left but, reflecting

what has long been a divide be-

tween the two wings, urged cau-

tion, particularly because of Dem-

ocratic losses in other races.

“We all have to take a deep

breath,” said Deborah Dingell, a

Democrat from Michigan, a state

that Mr. Trump snatched from

Democrats in 2016 but that Mr. Bi-

den won back this year. “I know

there are going to be people who

are pushing for change. I’m one of

those people who want Medicare

for all.”

But Stanley Greenberg, a Dem-

ocratic pollster who advised Pres-

ident Bill Clinton when he suc-

cessfully pushed the party to the

center in the 1990s, said Mr. Biden

would be able to delay divisive

party fights because of the enor-

mity of the crises he faces.

“The nature of the pandemic

and the economic and health cri-

sis is so deep, he will inherit a

mandate of urgency,” he said.

“Unity within the party and unity

within the country.”

But for some on the left, the

pandemic and the resulting eco-

nomic crisis were reasons to push

the administration further — not

to back off. They cited mistakes

made as Mr. Obama began his ad-

ministration in 2009, when many

believed the party’s progressive

wing was too deferential to the

new president in a moment of eco-

nomic crisis.

“I don’t think there will be a

grace period for Biden, because

the country doesn’t have time for

a grace period,” said Heather

McGhee, a former president of

Demos, a progressive policy and

research organization. “A million

more people in poverty don’t have

time for a grace period. A racial

epidemic and the coronavirus

pandemic isn’t taking a grace pe-

riod. As he is declared the winner,

he needs to be putting a team in

place that can really change

Washington.”

Nina Turner, a co-chair of Mr.

Sanders’s 2020 presidential cam-

paign, said she expected progres-

sives to pressure Mr. Biden’s tran-

sition team and administration

from the outset. When asked how

open she thought Mr. Biden would

be to the left, she said, “If the rhet-

oric that’s being used on the cam-

paign trail is any indication, not

very open.”

Still, she said, “things have an

amazing way of changing once

you’re in the office and you get

that pressure.”

Can President-elect Biden manage Democrats’ wide spectrum of ideologies?

AMR ALFIKY/THE NEW YORK TIMES

By ASTEAD W. HERNDON

and ADAM NAGOURNEY

A unified party won

the presidency, but its

fault lines run deep

and could quickly

tear it asunder.

DEMOCRATS

AMR ALFIKY/THE NEW YORK TIMES

The election of 2020 ended for

Republican Party leaders a lot

like the election of 2016 began: As

much as they may want to move

on from Donald Trump, he won’t

let them — and neither will the

voters.

After losing the White House to

Joseph R. Biden Jr. and the popu-

lar vote for the seventh time since

1980, and facing the possibility of

once-unthinkable defeat in Ari-

zona and Georgia, Republicans

were grappling with how to un-

tangle the man from a movement

that is likely to dictate party poli-

tics for years.

Even in defeat, Republicans

saw clear indicators of the endur-

ing power of Trump-style popu-

lism. By the time Mr. Biden gave

his victory speech on Saturday

evening, Mr. Trump had received

7.4 million more votes than he did

in 2016 — one million more in the

battleground of Florida alone. Re-

publicans cut into the Democratic

majority in the House with wins in

several swing districts from Iowa

to New York, where they followed

Mr. Trump’s slash-and-burn play-

book of branding his opponents as

far-left hysterics.

No one seems to be under the

illusion that Mr. Trump will fade

quietly. All week, as he launched

an extraordinary, baseless attack

on the integrity of the election,

few in his party challenged claims

that he was being cheated of a vic-

tory. Privately, some began dis-

cussing the possibility that he

might not concede, which would

put them in the awkward position

of having to choose whether to de-

fend him until Mr. Biden’s inaugu-

ration in two and a half months.

This dynamic presents a prob-

lem for the Republicans who will

run for office after Mr. Trump is

no longer the leader of the party,

on paper at least. In particular,

Republicans in their 30s and 40s

see a road map to the bigger and

more diverse coalition that the

party has tried to build for two

decades, if they can salvage the

more popular aspects of the presi-

dent’s appeal to middle-class

Americans while jettisoning the

racial grievances he fanned.

From Senate offices, think

tanks and off-the-record video-

conference salons, the conversa-

tions about what’s next have

grown in urgency now that the fi-

nal months of the Trump presi-

dency are at hand.

“He is sort of the king with no

heirs,” said Oren Cass, the execu-

tive director of American Com-

pass, a group that hosts monthly

online happy hours of Capitol Hill

staff and policy experts to debate

the successes and failures of the

Trump agenda. Mr. Cass said Mr.

Trump’s defeat set up a clash be-

tween more conventional Repub-

licans who, on one hand, took the

attitude of “this too shall pass, and

we can go back to doing to what

we were doing before,” and those

who think the president “called

attention to a certain set of issues

and voters that certainly the cen-

ter-right wasn’t paying enough

attention to.”

Senator Marco Rubio of Flor-

ida, who said he had tried to re-

imagine Trumpism with “a mute

button” for the president, ex-

pressed a view that had taken

hold among conservatives — one

that would seem to rule out any

reflective, autopsy-style self-as-

sessment of how they lost.

The fact that Mr. Trump’s de-

feat was not the blowout critics

had hoped, Mr. Rubio said, means

that the anticipated repudiation

of Trumpian politics was wrong.

“Trump was going to get wiped

out, the G.O.P. was going to get

wiped out,” he said, running

through often-repeated predic-

tions. “Meanwhile, Republicans

are going to probably hold the

Senate and make up to a 10-seat

gain in the House.”

While Mr. Rubio said he could

not imagine a scenario in which

Mr. Trump was not in the picture

— “He’s not going to just vanish

into a building” — the president’s

strong support among Latino vot-

ers in Florida (47 percent) and

Texas (40 percent) showed how

the party could expand a “multi-

ethnic, working-class coalition”

that did not fit neatly inside the

left-right paradigm.

Navigating the unavoidable,

disruptive force that is Mr. Trump

complicates an already difficult

job for conservatives like Mr. Ru-

bio, 49. First, Republicans need to

persuade more voters of color

that they are welcoming, despite

embracing Mr. Trump and his di-

visive message.

They also need to demonstrate

that Republicans can be the party

for Americans who are struggling

economically — many of whom

were won over by Mr. Trump’s

message — not just the party that

cuts taxes for corporations and

dismantles government regula-

tions.

A “pro-worker” Republican

Party, as described by the likes of

Senator Josh Hawley, 40, of Mis-

souri, would require a sea change

in the way its members tend to

balk at spending when there is a

Democratic president.

Mr. Hawley, like Mr. Rubio, has

been vocal about the need to pass

a second coronavirus relief pack-

age, breaking with Republicans

who have expressed concerns

about growing deficits. Some con-

servatives have proposed less

conventional ways of appealing to

the party’s core constituencies,

including social conservatives, by

embracing ideas typically associ-

ated with Democrats, like paid

family leave.

Yuval Levin, a scholar with the

American Enterprise Institute

who has been convening discus-

sions with leading conservatives

about the post-Trump landscape,

said it would be unwise for Repub-

licans not to embrace the pro-mid-

dle class parts of the Trump

agenda that he campaigned on in

2016, but then largely abandoned.

“It’s not really even Trump’s mes-

sage, Mr. Levin said. “He’s been

president for four years, and his

only legislative accomplishment

is a perfectly traditional tax cut

bill.”

If Mr. Trump did anything, Mr.

Levin said, it was to shatter the

notion that voters want Republi-

cans to talk about smaller govern-

ment. “A lot of people have been

instinctively, reflexively saying,

‘We can’t be spending this kind of

money right now.’ And I’m think-

ing: What voters want that?

Who’s saying don’t give us

money?” he said.

For starters, Senator Ted Cruz

of Texas. He, Nikki Haley and

other Republicans who want a

starring role in the party’s post-

Trump reboot have revived Tea

Party-like critiques of govern-

ment stimulus. Earlier this year,

Ms. Haley resigned from the

board of Boeing after the com-

pany asked for federal aid to help

weather the pandemic-induced

recession. She cited her “strong

convictions that this is not the role

of government.”

Other conservatives say that

Republicans need to accept that

Mr. Trump realigned the party’s

coalition away from wealthy, well-

educated people in the suburbs,

and that they should not obsess

over winning those voters back.

“We are, by and large, no longer

the party of white college gradu-

ates,” said Rachel Bovard, senior

director of policy at the Conserva-

tive Partnership Institute. “That

was the Reagan coalition, and the

Reagan coalition doesn’t exist

anymore.”

Florida provided a model for

what the future could look like.

Mr. Trump easily won there, two

Democratic members of Con-

gress lost their seats, and voters

approved a measure to increase

the minimum wage to $15 an hour

by 2026 — with 61 percent sup-

port. In a post-election memo, the

Trump campaign noted how its

improvement over 2016 came not

from suburban or rural counties,

but “from larger more urban

counties.”

Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland,

a Republican elected twice in a

heavily Democratic state, is cred-

ited with showing how his party

can appeal in Black communities

and with other traditionally left-

leaning constituents by focusing

on a middle-class message. He

has one of the highest approval

ratings of any governor in the

country, with equal support from

white and Black voters.

Unlike other Republicans, Mr.

Hogan has been public in his criti-

cism of the president, and said he

cast a write-in vote for Ronald

Reagan. Reflecting on 2020, he ar-

gued that when Republicans look

at how they lost, the answer won’t

be voter fraud but rather a presi-

dent who insisted on making his

re-election about resentment and

blame instead of how he would

make the American economy

work for everyone. “One, he did-

n’t focus on the things that he ran

on the first time. And he didn’t ac-

complish a lot for those folks,” Mr.

Hogan said. “Two, the tone of an-

ger and division turned off voters

who might have been receptive to

that message.”

Still, Mr. Hogan said, the elec-

tion was neither a total repudia-

tion of Mr. Trump or an embrace

of Democrats. “It wasn’t a rejec-

tion of the Republican Party,” he

said. “It was not an acceptance of

the far left.”

Republicans disagree on how

deeply Mr. Trump has changed

the party. In their most hopeful

assessment, they argued that his

influence was most noticeable in

matters of style and tone, and that

was not permanent. Dwindling

are the days, some said, of Repub-

lican candidates bringing card-

board cutouts of Mr. Trump to

campaign events, cursing in their

ads and competing for the honor

to claim they first embodied his

belligerent style as someone who

was “Trump before Trump.”

“We’ve got to figure out again

how to be happy warriors like

Reagan,” said Scott Walker, the

former governor of Wisconsin

who lost his seat in the Democrat-

ic rebound of 2018. He is now chief

executive of Young America’s

Foundation, where he is focused

on college students, a group that

has recoiled from the Republican

Party under Mr. Trump.

Republicans, he said, need to do

a better job of settling on a mes-

sage that is more inclusive and

begins “with the premise that

even those you disagree can be in-

herently good.”

By JEREMY W. PETERS

The election results were not a rejection of the Republican Party, one governor said.

ADRIANA ZEHBRAUSKAS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

REPUBLICANS

They lost the White

House but otherwise

had a strong showing.

How to harness the

appeal of populism?

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

PETE MAROVICH FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Annie Karni contributed reporting.

Election