The Democrats are sipping soy lattes. But, politically speaking, they might as well be chugging hemlock.
That was the grim message–if you’re Dem–on today’s Morning Joe.
Jonathan Swan of Axios broke the bad news to the panel:
“What we’re seeing now, is increasing numbers of working-class Hispanics, and working-class African-Americans, particularly men, supporting the Republican party. And for whatever reason, what Democrats are saying isn’t actually getting through to voters.”
Swan’s point was that the dominant progressive wing of the Democrat party is pushing policies rejected by many members of of the Dem base.
Scarborough cited Obama pollster David Shor insisting on moderation and getting mocked by other liberals:
[W]hite progressives have pulled the party to a position — and, Rev, I need to go to you on this — where we’re too progressive, not only for working-class whites, we’re becoming too progressive for working-class Hispanics. We’re becoming too progressive for working-class black voters. We’re becoming too progressive for our very base! And I always talk about Eric Adams, Rev, but he got elected in a Democratic primary in New York City, in Brooklyn and the Bronx and Queens for a reason!
As Scarborough mentioned, and we have noted back in 2020, Al Sharpton has been sounding this warning for some time. As he put it today:
“At what point does your defining yourself as progressive become regressive when you are, in effect, setting the stage for people that are right-wing on all of the issues we may believe in are getting elected?
“You don’t speak for us, you don’t even speak to us. You’re too busy ordering your next latte and having your intellectual, high-brow, conversations.”
That earned a burst of laughter from Mika Brzezinski. Scarborough then added his zinger: not just latte: “soy” latte!
Political parties are like huge ships. It takes a long time for them to alter direction. Odds are the Dems won’t heed these warnings before November and lay off their far-left line. But should they suffer devastating losses in the midterms, it might just get their attention.
Morning Joe warning Democrats that their “soy latte liberal” policies are driving working-class black and Hispanic voters to the GOP was sponsored in part by Pfizer, maker of Nexium, IHOP, and Xfinity.
Here’s the transcript.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
6/20/22
6:31 am EDTJONATHAN SWAN: Another reality that Democrats need to anchor themselves in, is despite all of the things you just said, Hispanics and African-Americans are actually supporting Donald Trump in increasing numbers. That the Republican party is doing much better with Hispanics than they have been. And it’s now breaking down on class grounds, not on race grounds.
And I had a conversation, an interesting conversation last year, with Senator Bernie Sanders. He’s very concerned about this. That actually, what’s happening, what we’re seeing now, is increasing numbers of working-class Hispanics, and working-class African-Americans, particularly men, supporting the Republican party. And for whatever reason, what Democrats are saying isn’t actually getting through to voters. And we’ll see what happens in the midterms. And I know everyone, you know, is getting on this poll, but I do think that what we’re seeing across the country is not actually reflective of what, you know, this conversation is about.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: You know, you talk about those numbers. This is something that David Shor, who worked for Barack Obama, has been talking about since the election. And you have progressives that have been mocking and ridiculing him because he’s been saying, hey—this is what Shor said about himself—we white progressives have pulled the party to a position — and, Rev, I need to go to you on this — where we’re too progressive, not only for working-class whites, we’re becoming too progressive for working-class Hispanics. We’re becoming too progressive for working-class black voters. We’re becoming too progressive for our very base! And I always talk about Eric Adams, Rev, but he got elected in a Democratic primary in New York City, in Brooklyn and the Bronx and Queens for a reason!
And for some reason, I don’t get it, you call them latte liberals and you have for a very long time, but for some reason, it seems a lot of people running the Democratic party out of Washington, D.C., just can’t get this through their heads. They keep losing elections along the Texas border where Hispanics are breaking Democratic. I’m sorry, breaking Republican.
AL SHARPTON: At what point does your defining yourself as progressive become regressive when you are, in effect, setting the stage for people that are right-wing on all of the issues we may believe in are getting elected? But you’re such an ideologue, you’re such a latte liberal, that is my way or no way, that you would rather lose the war to win a little ego battle.
And I think that that is what is being reflected by some black men, some Latinos that are saying, wait a minute, you’re going too far. We are afraid of, yes, police misconduct and brutality, but we have to deal with gun violence, and we have to deal with crime in our communities that is killing our families.
And if you’re too progressive to see that, then you’re not progress for me! And I think that that is what is coming to bite the party. Just like you rightfully raise that when are we going to see some people with enough courage on the right to stand up to these extremists that Donald Trump has been able to project. You’ve got to have courage on the left to say, wait a minute, when we’re fighting for justice for George Floyd, we’re not saying end policing. We’re saying better policing. And you don’t speak for us, you don’t even speak to us. You’re too busy ordering your next latte and having your intellectual, high-brow, conversations.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: [laughing] I love it! All right, Jonathan Swan —
SCARBOROUGH: And a soy latte at that. My God, the horrors!