Thank you for writing this.

I’m a Centrist Democrat. In other words, my centrism is based upon my belief in pragmatic, realistic, sustainable solutions instead of just idealism and ideological purity. Democrats from the left and center have built this party from the vestiges of the Dixiecrat stench to the modern, big-tent, inclusive party that led to a great deal of success even after the Republican Revolution of 1994.

As Democrats, we’ve forgotten what we truly are — members of a big tent party that advocates for good government, civil and human rights, civil liberties, and policies that are sensible. Did we play identity politics? Absolutely. Uncomfortable alliances? Not going to sit here and say that the party is the party of saints. But for the most part, we had our eyes on bigger prizes later on down the road, and saw things in the long run…until we stopped doing so.

We fell into the ideological trap. We fell into this idea that we had to have an answer for the ideological, tribal virulence that has infected the Republican Party. We’re now letting an ideologue, an independent that has no signature legislation to his name control the direction of the party I mean hell, he only came up with a Medicare For All plan that some of our extremists friends are openly embracing, all the while ignoring the fact that there has been no extensive, exhaustive cost benefit analysis of such plan (you know…the same shit they were bitching about the GOP doing) — but I digress.

The Democratic Party is a coalition party. A big tent party. A party that was always above ideology and idealism. A party that embraces good, reasonable government. Some of that includes expanding the welfare state, some of that includes supporting business. That’s what it means to be a true Democrat.