In an interview with Politico, one of the top advisers to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio–Cortez, D-NY, said radical progressives planned to engage in a new “mature” style of political strategizing if Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden were elected.
However, their tactics still would involve throwing tantrums when they did not get what they wanted, acknowledged Justice Democrats co-founder Saikat Chakrabarti.
Chakarabarti resigned last year as AOC’s chief of staff amid a series of political scandals and infighting with leaders of the Democrat establishment, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
Although he has distanced himself, somewhat, from the organization he co-founded, he has continued to exert pressure from afar as president of the activist group New Consensus.
But that pressure may seem more like extortion than the typical sort of negotiations and inter-party dialogue that come with the political sausage-making process.
“My approach—speaking just as myself—has always been: We’re going to present a solution,” said Chakarabarti.
“We’re going to show there’s no reason not to do the solution,” he said. “And then, if leaders don’t do it—with no excuse—we have to pressure them.”
Politics of Humiliation
One option would be to organize activist sit-ins like the ones that took place during failed efforts to pass the Green New Deal, when groups like the Sunrise Movement trotted out indoctrinated children to confront members of Congress.
Some of the children were later arrested after being coached to conduct disruptive civil disobedience on the US Capitol grounds.
Chakarabarti suggested that the tactic was an effective one in swaying centrist Democrats to their side.
“You have to show that they’re not doing it, because then they’ll at least get embarrassed into doing it,” he said.
“I hope they don’t have to be embarrassed into doing it,” he continued. “I hope they will lead.”
A Lapdog Press?
Bizarrely, the Politico article falsely implied that radical progressives had been given some sort of mandate in the recent election to enact their leftist agenda.
“For decades, nobody was harder on Joe Biden than the political left. He was too cozy with Republicans, in bed with credit-card companies, too hawkish on foreign policy and far too quick to embrace law-and-order politics,” it began.
“Then something unexpected happened in November: In one swoop, Biden became president and the left gained a significant foothold in Congress,” it continued. “And suddenly, to progressives whose agenda now depends on his administration, he doesn’t look so bad.”
The outlet itself may share in the blame.
Politico’s former star writer, Glenn Thrush, notoriously was exposed for colluding with the Hillary Clinton campaign in 2016.
“Because I have become a hack I will send u the whole section that pertains to u,” Thrush—now a New York Times reporter—wrote in an overly casual email to Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta.
“Please don’t share or tell anyone I did this”, he continued. “Tell me if I f****d up anything.”
Politico, at the time, denied any wrongdoing, according to The Hill.
Now, it appears Zack Stanton, the digital editor of Politico magazine, may have followed Thrush’s lead in the collaborative article with Chakarabarti.
Even many mainstream Democrats have acknowledged that the party’s embrace of the radical Left likely led to its underwhelming performance in both federal and statewide races.
Democrats lost seats in the House of Representatives and are resting hopes of securing the Senate on two Georgia runoffs in which radical challenges are taking on Republican incumbents.
Anyone with a normal, healthy capacity for reasoning might see the outcome as a repudiation of radical progressivism.
However, radical leftists and their media cohorts have to spin the narrative that it’s cause for celebration.
Charm Offensive
Referencing unsubstantiated media claims that Biden had secured an Electoral College majority and an inevitable victory in the Nov. 3 contest, “Squad” member Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., tweeted out a “wish list” of demands Tuesday.
She later said she was “quite happy” with the receptive response she received in return.
You might be surprised (I was) that Rep. Ilhan Omar told me she is “quite happy” with the Biden transition’s approach so far and found them to be receptive and “thoughtful.”
Here’s her and other “Squad” members’ wishlist for Exec Actions: https://t.co/KEi6btmZpO pic.twitter.com/jPKKawfG2Z
— Alex Seitz-Wald (@aseitzwald) December 10, 2020
Chakarabarti agreed with Omar’s assessment. “We could not be happier for the nation that you have won election to the White House,” Chakarabarti wrote in an obsequious memo to Biden.
“Congratulations! In a spirit of both celebration and collaboration, we wish to show in this Memo how much you can do to ‘Build [Our Country] Back Better’ whether you have a cooperative majority in the Senate next year or not,” he continued.
Brave New Deal?
His seven-page memo invoked the spirit of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
“I think Biden has a historic chance to be an FDR-style leader who isn’t just relying on pressure to do the next bit,” Chakarabarti told Politico.
Like Biden, FDR was personally flawed—a sometimes racist and privileged elitist who, likewise, engaged in adulterous sexual impropriety.
But the polio-stricken president also enjoyed the protections of a lapdog media, who assisted FDR in securing election to the White House four times.
Roosevelt’s New Deal and court-packing efforts have since become the clarion call for modern leftists.
But just as the politically ambitious FDR betrayed and broke rank with Tammany Hall—the corrupt New York political machine and precursor to modern-day vote-fraud efforts—Justice Democrats and their allies seemed worried that their charm offensive may backfire.
Chakarabarti suggested that the radical Left might even dangle its patronage as a sort of insurance policy, threatening to thwart Biden’s agenda if he doesn’t make concessions to theirs.
“The Justice Democrats have 10 members in Congress, and the House Democrats have—I think it’s a six-seat majority,” he told Politico. “Now they can negotiate as mature partners at a table. They have real power.”
Hollow Suit
Chakarabarti seemed to confirm the suspicions of many that—despite Democrats’ reliance on executive orders to enact their policy agenda—Biden would, himself, be something of an empty-suit figurehead, there to do the bidding of party extremists by empowering the un-elected bureaucracy to take over legislative functions.
“Biden’s role here is about leading and creating the space for the Fed and executive branch to do these functions,” he said.
“His role would be going out and having a news conference with the heads of the big auto companies, and saying, ‘You guys are going to get money to build electric cars. Tell us what you’re going to do. Tell us how many jobs you are going to make.’ And then hold them accountable,” Chakarabarti added.
