End of the Squad Splice Today
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Today is Joe Biden day at the Democratic convention in Chicago. Thanks, Joe, will be the spirit: thanks for winning in 2020 and thanks for finally getting out of the way. But as Biden departs and the party swings into its next phase, the most surprising effect of the Biden period might be the sidelining and cooptation of what, in the last few election cycles, has been an ascendent “progressive” or “democratic socialist” or “squad” faction within the party.
Starting with Bernie Sanders’ shockingly effective primary challenge to Hillary Clinton in 2016, one of the notable developments in American politics (along with the rise of the populist right) is the rise of an anti-Wall-Street, anti-war left, advocating a much more aggressive safety net and other measures to ameliorate economic inequality. With Sanders and Elizabeth Warren as senior leaders, younger figures such as Ayanna Presley, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Cori Bush, and Jamaal Bowman entered Congress and the spotlight over the next couple of cycles.
