Progressive Left or Liberal Left

One odd thing happened with the 2016 Presidential Primaries. A unified party split. Progressive democrats were pro Bernie and the liberals went with Hillary.

You might remember this fact from a different blog post. The New York Times compared how they voted when in the Senate together. They agreed 92% of the time. What they said on the campaign trail sounded similar. Different approaches to reaching the same goal. The gap never seemed that wide. I just assumed Bernie supporters would get behind Hillary because she wanted the same things they said they wanted, mostly.

And that's what they should have done.

But, they didn't.

So now Trump is President.

And the things they wanted to get stronger will get weaker or disappear.

Because to progressive democrats, it was Bernie or bust so they went with bust.

Now we as a party have to unite the progressive democrats and the liberal democrats. Progressive democrats being the democratic version of the tea party. The tea party has ripped apart the republican party and ended the possibility of bipartisan compromise.

That's the last thing we need. If Bernie and Hillary can agree 92% of the time, why can't progressive and liberal democrats agree 92% of the time? We might have different solutions to the problems. But, we agree on basics.

Health insurance for everyone

Black lives matter

Pro Women's rights

GLBTQ equality

Raise the Minimum wage to a living wage!!!

And many more things that were on a lot of signs over the past few years. Because there is one thing at it's core we all agree on.

We are anti the antis

Everyone deserves to be treated equally with dignity, respect, care, and empathy. We are all people.

Going forward we need to cultivate candidates that are somewhere in the middle. That means changing how the party does things to begin with. Listen to voters on both sides. WHY were a lot of the progressive democrats unable to support Hillary?

It starts with policies. Focus on the economy like raising the minimum wage and protecting government assistance. But, when saying HOW you would fix it, mix ideas from both sides. Aim for single payer but keep in mind one thing.

At it's core, most liberal democrats actually have a decent amount of money. They don't mind some taxes for the rich. Those taxes would effect them. But, how will they benefit?

Talk more about investing tax money into improving education and making college affordable. These liberal democrats might have a lot of money, but that also means they value a college education. Current college costs have well off democrats concerned how they can save for their retirement while paying for their kid's college education. Free public college and preschool is something they might get behind.

At it's core, most progressive democrats have a lot of college debt and are angry about the income gap. They want the rich to be forced to share.

We would all agree to free public college and preschool. We all agree to raising the minimum wage.

So, what happened?

We made the deadly mistake of focusing on social issues.

That's nice, but don't threaten my livelihood.

And that's how democrats can unite as we get closer to the 2018 elections and 2020 Presidential race. No matter what the issue, social issues included, how are you protecting the livelihood of the voters? Don't attack the rich for being rich. How will the sacrifices you ask them to make benefit them personally.

Answer the question: What's in it for me?