The unprecedented levels of progressive candidates running for Congress, like New York’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortzes, mark a shift in the Democratic party. Ocasio-Cortez took her message of Democratic socialism on the road over the weekend, campaigning with Bernie Sanders in the Midwest. She stunned the political establishment last month when she knocked off a Democratic member of House leadership by campaigning on Medicare for all, free college tuition and abolishing ICE. But not everyone is on board. Last week, eighteen Democrats in Congress sided with Republicans on a resolution supporting ICE. It remains to be seen how democratic socialism will play out in other parts of the country. So is the party undergoing a revolution, and is it one that can lead to a blue wave?
Jim Braude was joined by John Walsh, former chair of the Massachusetts Democratic Party, who also led Deval Patrick's gubernatorial race; Emily Cherinack, the founder and executive director of the bipartisan organization New Politics, and Mac D’Alessandro, former political director at SEIU and now a partner at Democracy Partners.
