This Is Not Your Father’s Normal Democratic Party

The Democratic Party’s so-called moderates have had it with Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.; Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.; Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich.; and other members of the “squad.” These “centrists” are laboring to separate themselves semantically from these neo-Marxists, although their differences end there.

These “middle of the road” Democrats call themselves “normal.” If they keep parroting that word, their feathers will turn green.

• “If you want a senator who runs as a socialist, feeds the [Republican Party] attack ads, & didn’t help with infrastructure, I’M NOT YOUR GUY,” Rep. Conor Lamb, D-Pa., recently pleaded via Twitter. “I’m a normal Democrat who supports jobs & wins elections.”
• Rep. Donald McEachin, D-Va., said voters want to “return to normal as quickly as possible.”
• Speaking about President Joe Biden, Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., said, “Nobody elected him to be [former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt]. They elected him to be normal and stop the chaos.”
• “People are fatigued and confused, and they want to get back to their normal lives,” observed New Jersey state Sen. Loretta Weinberg, a Democrat.
• Democrat campaign operative Howard Wolfson prescribed a “course correction” and an embrace of “bipartisan normalcy.”

When these allegedly moderate Democrats call themselves “normal,” this suggests that those further left are abnormal. How insulting! The squad should demand an immediate apology. Indeed, it is the Democrats’ new normal.

The American Conservative Union’s recently modernized website makes it a snap to review senators’ and House members’ votes clear back to 1972. Running from zero for most liberal to 100 for most conservative, the ideological spectrum cleaves into thirds: left (zero to 33 American Conservative Union ratings), middle (34 to 66), and right (67 to 100). Moderate Democrats should inhabit this center slice.

Good luck finding them there.

“Normal” Democrats who loudly claim to be in the middle are on the left—often deeply so.

Lamb, for starters, has a 9.04 lifetime American Conservative Union rating—24.96 points from the centrist border.

The aforementioned McEachin clocks in at 5.68. Spanberger? 10.53. Weinberg votes conservatively 1.98% of the time.

The New Democrat Coalition styles itself as the natural home of centrist House Democrats. Nonsense. This group’s leadership is planted firmly, solidly, deeply left:

• New Democrat Coalition Chairwoman Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., rates 3.48. She stands left of Ocasio-Cortez, who sports a more conservative 5.23 American Conservative Union rating.
• “Centrist” Whip Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa., votes in precise, North Korean-style lockstep with Ocasio-Cortez at 5.23.
• Vice Chair for Policy Scott Peters, D-Calif., is New Democrat Coalition’s most right-wing leader, with a whopping score of 8.2.
• All eight non-freshmen New Democrat Coalition leaders are within American Conservative Union’s farthest-left decile. Those who represent moderate House Democrats vote conservatively less than 10% of the time. In what world does this put them at the center of anything?

Historically, Democrats have marched further left than Republicans have headed right. In 1980, House Democrats averaged a 26 American Conservative Union rating. In 1990, 20. In 2000, 16. In 2010, six. And in 2020, three.

Republicans began at 68 in 1980, peaked in 2010 at 89, and fell back to 74 last year. Across 11 years that I sampled, Democrats averaged 17 and Republicans 76. Democrats were closer to zero than Republicans were to 100.

For 2020, three Republican Party senators and 34 Republican House members rated in the middle third versus zero Democrat senators and only one House Democrat: New Jersey’s Jefferson Van Drew with a 46. He since has defected to the Republican Party.

Meanwhile, “centrist” Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., is not. The West Virginian has a 26.55 rating. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., has a mere 14.59. Phony supposed middle-roader Biden earned a 13.

American Conservative Union ratings confirm that Republicans are America’s more moderate party.

“The data speak for themselves,” American Conservative Union Chairman Matt Schlapp told me. “The most radical elements of the left have hijacked the Democrat Party.”

Moderate Democrats are now mythical creatures, like dragons and unicorns. Nothing remains but leftists and far leftists. Your father’s normal Democrat Party is far, far away.

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