In the after­math of the Trump vic­to­ry, a heat­ed blame game is being played on the fields of the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty. We endorse this spir­it of recrim­i­na­tion. Let’s be frank about what hap­pened: An astro­nom­i­cal­ly well-fund­ed Demo­c­ra­t­ic can­di­date with a cam­paign staffed by the Very Best Peo­ple and who was endorsed by vir­tu­al­ly the entire Wash­ing­ton estab­lish­ment was defeat­ed by a racist real­i­ty TV star who gave out some free base­ball caps and bragged about sex­u­al­ly assault­ing women.

If progressives have a reason to rally to Ellison it may be to pointedly clap back at the West Wing’s clear unease with him.

Giv­en November’s cat­a­stroph­ic pres­i­den­tial elec­tion, and the over­all implo­sion of the Demo­c­ra­t­ic rep­re­sen­ta­tion in state­hous­es and on Capi­tol Hill, a par­ty purge is more than appropriate.

When they meet in late Feb­ru­ary, the 400-plus mem­bers of the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Com­mit­tee (DNC) will elect a new chair. The Bernie Sanders wing of the par­ty, Sen. Eliz­a­beth War­ren (Mass.), Sanders him­self and — sur­pris­ing­ly — future Sen­ate Minor­i­ty Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) are back­ing the can­di­da­cy of Rep. Kei­th Elli­son (Minn.), the co-chair of the Con­gres­sion­al Pro­gres­sive Cau­cus and an ear­ly sup­port­er of Sanders’ pres­i­den­tial bid.

Anoth­er who has thrown his hat in the ring is high­ly respect­ed Labor Sec­re­tary Thomas Perez, an attor­ney who in 2002 was elect­ed to the Mont­gomery Coun­ty (Mary­land) Coun­cil, on which he served until 2006. Perez is report­ed­ly the White House choice for DNC chair. A third can­di­date is Jaime Har­ri­son, the chair of the South Car­oli­na Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty and a Podes­ta Group cor­po­rate lobbyist.

On his DNC cam­paign web­site, Elli­son has pre­sent­ed a 29-point plan for a 3,143-county strat­e­gy to ​“ener­gize Demo­c­ra­t­ic activists across the coun­try and give them the tools to build the Par­ty from the bot­tom up.” He writes:

We will nev­er stop fight­ing at-tempts by the Trump White House, Repub­li­can-con­trolled states, and spe­cial inter­ests to roll back afford-able health care, work­er wages and pro­tec­tions, and a woman’s right to choose. We will stand up for peo­ple of all races, reli­gions, gen­ders and sex­u­al ori­en­ta­tions to fos­ter a more inclu­sive, fair soci­ety and cre­ate an econ­o­my that works for all Amer­i­cans. Our par­ty is right. Our val­ues are just. Our future depends on grass­roots orga­niz­ing. When Democ­rats cham­pi­on the chal­lenges of work­ing fam­i­lies, vot­ers will have a rea­son to show up at the polls in 2017, 2018 and beyond.

Elli­son has called for the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty to devote itself to becom­ing the par­ty of the work­ing class. His stead­fast com­mit­ment to racial jus­tice proves that pro­gres­sive lead­er­ship need not trap itself in the false dichoto­my of stand­ing up for work­ing peo­ple or fight­ing race and gen­der oppres­sion. How could the Left ever do one with­out doing the other?

Perez may have his strengths, but if pro­gres­sives have a rea­son to ral­ly to Elli­son it may be to point­ed­ly clap back at the West Wing’s clear unease with him. The Oba­ma camp is in no posi­tion to hec­tor Democ­rats about their future plans. Many of the big­wigs in Obama’s his­toric cam­paigns who went on to work at the White House have now become hired guns for such pro­gres­sive caus­es as the Con­ser­v­a­tive Par­ty of the Unit­ed King­dom (Jim Messi­na), Uber (David Plouffe) and McDonald’s (Robert Gibbs). In the Twit­ter patois of the Pres­i­dent-elect: Not Good! Sad!