Dem
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GOP
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The Congressional Progressive Caucus has a new chair, a 35-year-old Texas millennial: Greg Casar. He thinks the Democratic Party has lost its working-class roots and needs to get back to them. He also thinks it is too cautious and boring and has a tendency to take unpopular positions. He wants the party to be first and foremost known as the party for working people.
This is a huge break from what the progressive wing has been shouting for years, like "defund the police" and "abolish ICE." These have not only not been winners, they have been extremely counterproductive. The progressive wing has also demanded ideological purity on everything. If an otherwise good candidate failed to support one of the many litmus tests the CPC has—some of which are very unpopular with the voting public—that person is rejected as unacceptable. It is a package deal. You have to take all of it. There is no à la carte menu where you can be with the caucus on climate, abortion, and taxing the rich, but not on DEI. It is all or nothing.
Casar wants to change that. He said: "I believe that progressives need to make sure that we are connecting our causes to the broadest base of people possible." In particular, he wants to focus on economic issues, where he thinks most Democrats agree and the public is largely with them. De facto, that means he will downplay more divisive issues, especially those where the public is not with them.
One issue Casar wants to push is protecting Social Security. He even went on Fox last week to attack Elon Musk for trying to gut it. On Saturday, he went into the R+13 district of Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) to defend Social Security. He believes if the Democrats become known as the party that wants to protect Social Security and the Republicans become known as the party that wants to destroy it, that will pay off in elections for years to come. He made a point of saying: "Republican officials have figured out how to elevate social issues that impact only a small number of people and make them the dominant issues in elections."
He also noted that after knocking on thousands of doors in Texas in his badly gerrymandered very skinny TX-35 district that runs from Austin to San Antonio paralleling the I-35, he never encountered a voter who said: "Thank God you're here. I want to talk to you about the appropriate level of testosterone for somebody to compete in the NCAA [sports]." But if he talks about protecting Social Security, everyone listens. This is an implicit message that talking about trans people is an electoral loser, and the Democrats need to focus on economic issues like Social Security, jobs, wages, taxing the rich, and poverty. Mark Longabaugh, a longtime strategist for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), agreed. He said: "There are some cultural issues that we're going to confront that not everyone is going to agree on, but what are the core things we agree on? Everyone ought to make a living wage, everyone should have health care, ending poverty. Instead, we get into a conversation about bathrooms."
A good story needs a musky villain, and Casar has one in Elon. He harps on the fact Musk makes $8 million a day off government contracts paid for with your hard-earned money. And what is he doing for all that money? Trying to kill your Social Security and Medicaid. It's a good story. Here is Casar at a House committee meeting:
Some progressives see Casar as the next generation of working-class leaders, along with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). One Democratic consultant said Casar doesn't come off as a "college professor in a sweater and horn-rimmed glasses." He also said: "If Democrats have to spend all their time having to talk about why we shouldn't deport dangerous criminals, if boys should play in girls sports or whatever the social issue of the day Republicans are forcing us to talk about, then we're not talking about what is driving Americans, which is survival, bringing down costs." It sounds like Casar is a younger version of Bernie. He could be what the Democrats need. (V)