Don't Believe The Hype

 

This narrative is common and it's mostly wrong.

First, it vastly overestimates the electoral strength of progressive Democrats in particular races. Sure, there are places, like CO-1 in Denver, where a progressive can be elected. But a whole lot of Democrats don't come from those jurisdictions.

Second, the main reason that Democrats have failed to elect their agenda is that they haven't controlled the Presidency, the U.S. House, the U.S. Senate, and the U.S. Supreme Court at the same time. And, even when they have, by narrow margins, usually, a handful of "moderate" or "conservative" Democrats have thwarted them - usually Democrats elected from jurisdictions very inclined to vote for Republicans.

Democrats have consistently been the party pushing to protect and enhance the social safety net. LBJ's war on poverty brought us programs including Medicaid. Obama brought us the ACA. Democrats have pushed for fair elections. Democrats have pushed to protect civil rights.

Also, not all "corporate Democratic" policies have been bad ones for the working-class and middle class. Free trade and more open immigration rules pushed by "corporate Democrats" have been central to American prosperity. Fiscal responsibility kept deficits smaller and sometimes produced surpluses. Democrats reduced military spending after the Cold War. Most of the corporate bailouts during the financial crisis ended up paying for themselves with interest.

"Corporate democrats" haven't been clamoring for a return of child labor, didn't gut scientific research, didn't gut food safety, worker safety, consumer safety, consumer fraud protections, and public health measures. "Corporate democrats" didn't push to pardon drug kingpins, white collar criminals who committed tens of million dollar to billion dollar fraud, and violent criminals who attacked police and tried to overthrow an election. They resisted Republican efforts to give massive tax cuts to the rich. They tried to support farmers economically, even though farmers didn't vote for them.

The push to make every Democrat campaign on a progressive platform is not a winning strategy nationwide. There are races where it can work, and there are races where it won't. You aren't going to elect a progressive Democrat in West Virginia or Kentucky or Nebraska. But politics is a team sport, and without national majorities you can't accomplish anything.