Cartoon: A smaller tent

While I am idealistic (somewhere in the ballpark of Elizabeth Warren and AOC), I am not so unreasonable that I expect the impossible. I voted for Gore, Kerry, and Hillary Clinton -- not third party candidates. My growing concern with the Democratic party this election season isn't coming from a place of "purity" per se, but fears that they are underestimating the risk of alienating voters they need to win -- not fringe zealots, but people who care about the basic values of human rights, democracy, inclusivity, and intellectual honesty. When I'm feeling this way, it's usually a sign that something's wrong.

In the second panel of the cartoon, I refer to the NY congressional primary, in which George Latimer suggested that Jamaal Bowman's "constituency is Dearborn, Michigan" (which is majority Arab-American) and that he has an "obvious ethnic benefit," electorally speaking. This language has no place in the Democratic party in 2024. And Michigan is a swing state! Latimer was backed by AIPAC, which has endorsed over 100 Republican candidates who voted to overturn the 2020 election. Likewise, many Democratic voters don't want to undermine the International Criminal Court, which we just cheered when it issued a warrant for Putin.

In my experience, Dems do better when they at least acknowledge the concerns of different factions of the Big Tent. In 2004, during the height of Iraq war jingoism, they were at their milquetoast worst —and Kerry lost to Bush. This era was was formational to me as a cartoonist; it was a time when many were galvanized to build a more progressive party that reflected its own constituents.  Even if Biden wins, all this Republican-lite pandering makes the party less able to deal with the pressing issues of our time: the Supreme Court, big money in politics, authoritarianism, and other crises that require the courage to speak frankly. Cede too much ground and you've lost moral clarity and moral authority.

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