The Revolution That Wasn't

The Revolution Was All About Turnout

I recently published a post in this space that said that the revolutionary part of American progressive politics was the change it proposed in the balance of power. The progressives proposed to take power away from the “establishment” by stimulating a very large increase in voter turnout among young people. They would vote in candidates who would enact a progressive agenda.


The progressive agenda, itself, was not revolutionary. It amounted to an extension of policies that had been in place for decades or a return to policies that we used to have. Medicare For All, for example, would be an extension of the existing Medicare program; free post-secondary education would be a return to the conditions of the 1950s; and the Green New Deal would extend our support for energy production from fossil fuels to green energy. This very unrevolutionary agenda was being blocked by our country’s radical right, which denied the value of government programs in solving society’s problems, but we could break though the blockage by electing progressive politicians. We could do that if we stimulated a big increase in voting by young progressives.

The Turnout Didn't Occur

On Super Tuesday, no such increase occurred. What did occur was a big increase in turnout among  moderate Democrats, Black voters and Republican “never Trumpers” who supported Mr. Biden in large numbers. I think that Super Tuesday’s results settled the argument that had been going on in the Democratic Party since 2018. Some of us had espoused the view that we could win in 2020 by stimulating a big turnout among people who had not voted before. This was the argument of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who claimed to have won her seat in that way, and this was the argument of Mr. Sanders’s presidential campaign. Others in our party – like Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg – had said that to win, we would have to appeal to moderate voters in places like Wisconsin, Pennsylvania or Virginia.

We Must Depend on People Who Go to the Polls

Super Tuesday settled that argument. The young voters who were supposed to power the revolution did not show up at the polls in sufficient numbers to win the election. Mr. Sanders’s failure in 10 states was not due to some sort of establishment conspiracy, and it was not due to the evil effect of big money. Mr. Sanders’s campaign had raised plenty of money, and Mr. Bloomberg, who had spent almost half a billion dollars, flopped. Mr. Biden’s victory was due to the fact that his supporters went to the polls while Mr. Sanders’s supporters did not. If we want to win in November, we have to appeal to people who go to the polls.

Keep the Faith!

This is not really a tragedy for the progressive agenda because it has never been really revolutionary. It has always consisted of incremental reforms to the status quo. So, we don’t have to despair. We can get some health care reform and parts of a green new deal with candidates who can win in November. We won’t get everything that we want, but we may get a lot. To do that, we will have to keep the pressure on our politicians. Their weakness is that they are too quick to compromise. So, we have to make sure that the option of compromising by delivering nothing is not available. So, work to win in November!

Keep the faith! Keep your eye on the prize!