This is a good post by Amanda Litman, who runs Run for Something, which I think is a good organization, and she’s smart and perceptive. It’s about the whole Hasan Piker thing, which I’m sure you’re all sick of, but since it’s a proxy battle between the donor-controlled centrist class and anyone to the left of John Fetterman, I find it interesting since it reveals a lot of hypocrisy and stupidity. Here are her points and I want to drill into two of them:
(1) Hasan is not the name on the ballot. Full stop. For others to make his campaign participation a liability only further alienates the people who trust him and only him. Having him as a surrogate is a choice the campaign made — Michiganders will respond to that decision accordingly.
(2) Republican members of Congress have said offensive shit, as have many a podcast or streamer host who more moderate or centrist politicians have appeared with.
“When centrist Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro appeared on a show with far-right racist musician Ted Nugent, it failed to elicit any response or condemnation from Bennett and Third Way. No one suggested at the time that Shapiro has “taken on all of Nugent’s baggage,” (which includes calling Barack Obama a “subhuman mongrel”) as Bennett’s Piker logic would imply.”
If we refuse to engage with anyone who says something we find offensive or worse, we’re making it harder to win.
(3) The president of Third Way told The Bulwark:
“If people really are arguing that the price of winning is becoming like a bigoted misogynist like Hasan Piker, then I’ll take not winning. … What is the point of reviving the Democratic party so it can compete in an age of right-wing populism, if the price of that is you mainstream bigoted, anti-American, misogynistic voices?”
No one is arguing that candidates should be like Hasan Piker. We’re arguing that it’s good politics to reach his audience in order to compete in an age of right-wing populism. (And bad news, but a bigoted, anti-American, misogynist is already president — that’s as mainstream as it gets.)
(4) Just to push this point to the next step: If you don’t want to associate with Hasan Piker, give me an alternative strategy for reaching young disillusioned men. I’d love to hear it.
I would take me a hell of a lot to say that I don’t want a specific Democrat to win a general election. I obviously have big opinions on primaries, but if, for example, Schumer got past a 2028 primary and I still lived in New York, he’d get my (grudging) vote. That’s because, obviously, I don’t want Democrats to lose. But, for the President of Third Way, a DC think tank which has DC insiders as its main audience, it’s very easy to say that they’d rather have a candidate lose than have that candidate go on a podcast. What utter nonsense. Unless the President of Third Way is on the record complaining about Shapiro going on Ted Nugent’s (!) pod, fuck him. Plus, even if you think Hasan Piker is a piece of shit, he’s a rabbit turd next to the pile of elephant dung that is Ted Nugent.
Related to this, I really don’t know how I feel about things like Mayor Pete going on Fox News. I’m probably more sympathetic to this than some others, because in the red rural areas that I sometimes frequent, Fox News plays in the background because it’s the “news”. So, there may be some unengaged folks who see Buttigieg or someone else refute talking points on the network.
That said, even though I don’t know how exactly to think about Democrats appearing on Fox and other right-wing media, I do know something for sure: if they go on those shows, they had fucking better stick up for the values and policies of the Democratic Party. They shouldn’t do what Newsom, for example, did: appear on a podcast and endorse anti-trans right-wing talking points. This is tough for most politicians because they very badly want to be liked, so those politicians should stay the fuck away from right-wing media. Send Bernie and AOC if they want to go, since those two (and other progressives loathed by 3rd Way) know what they believe and don’t water down their beliefs because they’re afraid of offending some right-wing media personality.
There’s a whole industry devoted to making sure that Democrats act like Republicans-lite. And you know what? The way things are going, a large number of politicians with a “D” after their name are going to win this Fall, no matter how they campaign. Because that “D” will be interpreted as “Not Fucking Trump” by voters. If centrist organizations are good at one thing, it’s taking credit, deserved or not, so they’re going to say that their “moderate path” contributed to the wave election. Unfortunately, if Democrats take their advice, they will get into office and we’ll have another four Biden years. Decent legislation that the much noisier right-wing noise machine will drown out, and failure to hold MAGA accountable for their illegal acts. Then, voters will get tired, again, because the change they crave wasn’t delivered. And they’ll grab the wheel and throw the car in another ditch.
This is the prospect of following the “Third Way” and their ilk: more years of decline by a party that has a historical opportunity to make a hard turn against Republican rule. Plus millions spent on social media and TV ads that won’t be half as clever or hard-hitting as one social media post by a relatively big-name non-political account. (Reference if you missed it.)
