When I decided to run for the House of Delegates here in central Virginia, I was more than a little concerned about how well I would be received by the Democratic party. I was born and raised a Republican, though the last time I would really have considered myself a Republican was in 2008—when I wandered around canvassing for OFA with an eye-roll inducing "Proud Obamacan" pin on my shirt. The Tea Party, though, made sure to nuke the bridge I had crossed in coming over to support President Obama—meaning I didn't really have a home, politically.
Having not been a Democrat, I had no idea what to expect when I decided to run for office. But I felt compelled to try. The incumbent in my district—an almost two-decade long career politician, cosponsor of the infamous trans-vaginal ultrasound law and personal friend of the Trump family in the district with the Trump Winery in it—was viewed as nigh-on-unbeatable. Nobody had even bothered to challenge him in almost a decade.
Still, I viewed myself as sort-of blue-dog, centrist independent—I mean, certainly not a progressive or a libby-lib liberal! Pshaw and harumph! And I didn't know how the Democratic community in my area would respond to that. Would we find enough common ground to work together? Would they accept me?
But as it turns out, I didn't have to worry much.
Part of that is thanks to the leadership of the Republican Party. Because other than on healthcare issues (thanks to my being an ER Nurse), I don't feel like I've moved that much politically, but the Republican party sure did. I mean, for ****'s sake, ten years ago Romneycare was a cutting edge idea that was going to save the Republican party. And now a Heritage-foundation created policy is to the left of Che Guevara.
Thanks to the Republicans, being the “party of the left” doesn't mean much if the Republican establishment has gone off the rails.
The other lesson I think I learned from the election last year is that the nomenclature of yesteryear— “liberal” versus “conservative”, “left” vs. “right”— those issue framings have been blown right the frick up.
When I first posted here about being a “blue dog” and saying that we needed more “blue dogs” if we wanted to win— whooooo buddy! Talk about trigger warnings. Me, I like the visceral imagery of a blue dog; loyal and fierce, fighting for working folks. But what most folks remember about the class of blue dogs that died out back in 2010 were that they were just trying to be a sort-of milquetoast Republican-lite. Like they took a chart of each party's platform, stacked all the positions up on a left/right line, and then decided their "position" would be exactly in the middle, wherever that happened to land.
But politics ain't The Price Is Right. You can't bid one bit less than your opponent and figure you'll get every number to that side of the line. So, deservedly in most cases, the blue dogs went extinct, because people can see right through that sort-of BS.
By and large, the majority of folks don't care about politicians agreeing with them on every issue, or being “a degree less offensive than the other person.” They want to know someone will listen to them, and fight for them; and they want a clear, immediately understood message that connects with their values and day-to-day lived experiences. They also want politicians with a lick of common sense and integrity.
I was discussing this with a friend of mine recently, a guy who I didn’t originally think I’d get along with. See, he belongs to this “wacked out, far leftist” group called the “Democratic Socialists of America”. I went to one of their meetings because I thought, well, if I really want to not be the sort-of career politician I rail against, I need to engage folks I don’t always agree with, listen to them, and understand them. I don’t have to agree with them, but I need to listen to them.
But it was a great meeting, and led me to engage with one of their leaders, and to us becoming friends. He and I got into a long-winded email exchange, and during the course of it, he said something I'm just going to copy/paste here:
“The Democratic Party has definitely failed at messaging. I think the national Democratic Party became a party of the professional managerial elite—upper middle-class, highly educated, upwardly economically mobile, tending to live in college towns or urban centers, working in 'creative' professions.
Reality is, there *is* a 'liberal class' with its own customs, norms, language, cultural touchstones, etc. As the party's leadership became dominated by that class, the party gradually alienated tons of (predominantly working class) voters.
In professional managerial class world, technocratic policy papers are what gives legitimacy, so the Party slowly made that how they talked about *all* policy issues... it felt like parts of Clinton's campaign focused on telling people ‘Wrong! Do your homework and read our ten-page policy paper on her policy website!’ But as you said, politics doesn't work that way.”
He makes a pretty good point. I don't have much, if any, experience working with the national party to know whether it’s true or not; luckily, my local county-level parties exhibit none of that behavior. They've been incredible. Amazing and dedicated people who want to work for what's best for Virginians, no matter how hard they have to work.
But I can absolutely see what he means in the national scene. It would certainly make sense with some of my experiences, watching as Democrats abandoned places like Southside, the Shenandoah Valley, the blue-collar, rural, working class areas like the ones that make up the majority of my district.
But here's the thing about those folks I've known for a long time, but only now have come to be able to articulate—and why I think the Democratic party isn't the party of the left.
I truly believe the folks in rural, abandoned places, in working class neighborhoods, could actually create a strong progressive base. On 8 out of 10 issues, a lot of these voters agree with progressives. They might frame it differently or use different words to describe the situation, but the basic positions are the same. I had this put into stark contrast for me this weekend at a PCCC training I went to in NOVA (apropos, I’m the ugly guy under the Halloween entry on the calendar); they showed us a list of progressive platform planks, and the combined exit polling on those issues this election cycle, Democrat, Republican, and Independent.
Private prisons? Too-big-to-fail banks? Universal pre-K? Gerrymandering? On and on and on. It makes it clear these aren’t just progressive values- they’re American values.
But of course politicians divide and conquer and focus on the one or two issues where people disagree— abortion, gay marriage, etc.— and hammer in on it, making those issues the most visceral, emotional thing for which there can be no compromise.
Before someone runs to the comment sections with an angry diatribe, hey, I'm not saying those issues don't matter—not hardly—we just need to make sure that they way we address them is right. For instance, me, I take “pro-life” people head on, because I used to consider myself pro-life. But, like me then, most folks who consider themselves “pro-life” don’t want abortion to be illegal. So when you sit down and make it clear you’re not the abortion-loving, baby-killing monsters that the Republican party has, by necessity, framed us as being, you can make headway.
In those instances, I tell them that if they want a politician who’ll actually work for the things that would actually reduce abortion by reducing reasons that women may seek them— things that work for the good of everybody? That’s me. And, framed that way— especially coupled with the “progressive” issues above— the response I’ve had has been tremendous.
So I think there's enormous untapped potential for a progressive alliance that takes on a corrupt political and corporate elite that's been ripping off working families for decades (rather than just puts it on steroids like Trump's con job). Look at Trumpcare; we have one party who wants to argue about who deserves care, and another party who’s arguing about how to get it done.
It’s not left versus right anymore; it’s right versus wrong.
And, by God, that’s what I intend to fight and demonstrate. I think it’s one reason my campaign, being a political neophyte nonwithstanding, has almost five-hundred unique donors in total- short of only a handful of other legislature campaigns in the Commonwealth of Virginia, largely driven through this site.
It’s the power of grassroots support in places like this that have propelled progressive candidates (like me) who are willing to take on the incredible hardship of running for office; will go out to where people live, listen to them, and fight boldly- not apologetically!- for our values!
If you want to help me do that here in central Virginia, $10 today will go a long way to it. Help us gear up for the primary; we don’t have a primary opponent, but we want to be out and engage every voter we can that go to the polls on the 13th of June. Let them know there’s someone out there, for the first time in ten years, who’ll fight for them!
Thank you!
Kellen Squire is an Emergency Department Nurse running for the Virginia House of Delegates in the 58th District this fall.