Pardon me if I giggle-snort too oftenwhile writing this, but I have been musing about this for a while. I have wondered whether the Democratic Socialist insurgency into the Democratic party would be worse for them than the Tea Party was for Republicans. And it’s all happening!

I started back in November when Best Supporting Actress Alexandria Ocasio Cortez joined a protest in Nancy Pelosi’s office. Then when Howard Schultz said he might run as an Independant since he was a capitalist on the left. And more recently when the DNC wanted primary candidates to sign a pledge to run and govern as a Democrat.

Earlier this week the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) kneecapped the insurgency with rules for vendors in 2020. Basically, the DCCC will not work with any vendor who works for an insurgent primary campaign ala AOC.

And now the insurgency is kind of upset. And it’s beautiful to watch.

So who is the insurgency? It’s basically the seven House members that belong to the Justice Democrats and Bernie Sanders. These members joined the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Sanders, a self-proclaimed Democratic Socialist, is the only member of the caucus from the Senate.

There are some other lefty loons in the caucus, like Ted Lieu and Maxine Waters. But this caucus has never advocated running progressive challengers against incumbent Democrats. Their Progressive Promise is pretty predicatable, but not confrontational to the larger party:

Fighting for economic justice and security for all

Protecting and preserving our civil rights and civil liberties

Promoting global peace and security

Advancing environmental protection and energy independence

The Justice Democrats, by contrast are explicit in their agend. From their website:

What about good candidates already in Congress? Are you going to run against them? We won’t run against candidates that fully support the Justice Democrats platform, but we also know that challenging incumbents in primaries is the best way to make them start to listen to people over corporate donors.





Executive Director of the group, Alexandra Rojas, was kind enough to name representative Henry Cuellar from Texas and Representative Dan Lipinski of Illinois as potential targets in an earlier tweet.

So the Democrats have built in election infrastructure that an insurgent movement thinks they have a right to use to run against other Democrats. Odd logic, but these are insurgent loudmouthed Millennials so it’s not surprising. From The Intercept:

The leadership of the Congressional Progressive Caucus has met with the top brass at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and pushed back hard against a new party policy to blacklist consultants who work with primary challengers.



Oddly, over half of the leadership of the Progressive Caucus is half Justice Democrats (in bold).

Co-Chairs –Mark Pocan, Pramila Jayapal

Chairman Emeriti – Raúl Grijalva , Barbara Lee

, Barbara Lee First Vice Chair – Ro Khanna



These fine folks are now dragging their entire caucus into their fight with the DCCC. According to Ro Khanna in the interview:

Pramila Jayapal, Mark Pocan, and I met with Cheri Bustos to make it clear that we strongly oppose her new policy that stifles competition and blackballs any consultant who works for a challenger. We made the point to Cheri that Nancy Pelosi, and Ben Ray Luján never adopted such a heavy-handed policy,” Khanna told The Intercept in a statement. “Ben Ray Luján in particular had a much kinder and more inclusive approach.”

Gee Ro, I think Democrats see their competition as Republicans. Not other Democrats. Shortly afterwards, Representative Khanna may have hit the primary objective of the DCCC policy:

Let’s be clear. If this policy remains in place, it will mean that we will not allow new Ayanna Pressleys or AOCs to emerge. It’s simply wrong,” Khanna said

Can I say duh? As Representative Steny Hoyer said at AIPAC, “By the way, there are 62 freshman Democrats. You hear me? 62. Not three.” Democrats are clearly seeing the negative impact Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez are having on their brand. Between socialism and anti-Semitism, the three of them do nothing but give fodder to Republicans.

Like the other four Justice Democrats, the three ladies all come from deep blue safe seats. The Democrat gains in the House came from purple and suburban districts where the radical left policies of the Justice Democrats will not play well. The Democrats are interested in maintaining that majority and know the circus the Justice Dems will create in primarying sitting Representatives won’t help to achieve that goal.

But get a load of Representative Khanna:

We stand for reform in Congress and reform of the Democratic Party machinery to make sure they prioritize our voters and the grassroots.”

Stand aside honey. And take AOC aide Dan Riffle with you.

The simple and obvious solution here is for Progressive Caucus members to stop paying dues to the @DCCC. The DCCC is not an organization that backs any Democrat. They work to elect a certain kind of Democrat, and if you aren't that kind of Democrat why are you giving them money? pic.twitter.com/fD4BNWjStv — Every Billionaire Is A Policy Failure (@DanRiffle) March 28, 2019

If you honestly think entrenched Democrats like Lieu and Waters are going to do this you’re crazy. This is only going to get better as the next election gets closer.

And the Democrats only have themselves to blame. They never figured out at what point their left wing went too far. And now they are dealing with the entitled little monsters they created.