The WSJ set the table. \u201cThe triumph of three left-wing congressional candidates in Tuesday\u2019s New York primaries,\u201d the article reported, \u201chas escalated the Democratic Party\u2019s civil war over its identity.\u201d When your very identity is in play, you are definitionally in crisis. \u201cThe clash,\u201d it continued, \u201cpits centrists who have said moderation is the only way to regain power in Washington against a resurgent left, which has sought to oust establishment Democrats.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not unreasonably, they are calling it a \u201ccivil war.\u201d But it is a little confusing to compare what\u2019s happening in 2026 to the U.S. Civil War, because the Democrats were one of the sides in the 1860s conflict, and they lost.<\/p>\n
In 1880 \u2014during Reconstruction\u2014 Robert G. Ingersoll gave a famous speech on Wall Street supporting James Garfield for president. You\u2019ve never hear about it, schools don\u2019t teach it, media never quotes it, and when you read this short excerpt, you\u2019ll instantly understand why.<\/p>\n
Ready? Here\u2019s a small part of what Ingersoll said in 1880:<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery man that tried to destroy the Government, every man that shot at the holy flag in heaven, every man that starved our soldiers, every keeper of Libby, Andersonville and Salisbury, every man that wanted to burn the negro, every one that wanted to scatter yellow fever in the North, every man that opposed human liberty, that regarded the auction-block as an altar and the howling of the bloodhound as the music of the Union, every man who wept over the corpse of slavery, that thought lashes on the naked back were a legal tender for labor performed, every one willing to rob a mother of her child \u2014 every solitary one was a Democrat.\u201d<\/p>\n
JEFF CHILDERS IS PAYWALLED ON SUNDAYS <\/p>\n
I may get around to posting the whole thing later<\/p>\n
teaser<\/p>\n
The DSA published its newly amended political platform this month. The DSA\u2019s platform seeks to tweak the structure of the U.S. government. Just slightly.<\/p>\n
It would: abolish the U.S. Senate; subordinate the President and Supreme Court to Congress; defund the Pentagon; shutter all overseas military bases; nationalize major U.S. corporations; impose mandatory Medicare for all; freeze rents; end all economic sanctions, including on Russia, Iran, Cuba, and North Korea; grant blanket amnesty; abolish police and prisons; hand Jerusalem to Palestine; and last but not least, \u201cdraft a new constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The WSJ set the table. \u201cThe triumph of three left-wing congressional candidates in Tuesday\u2019s New York primaries,\u201d the article reported, \u201chas escalated the Democratic Party\u2019s civil war over its identity.\u201d When your very identity is in play, you are definitionally … Continue reading