Pollak: Voters Need to Help Democrats Have a Tough Conversation with Themselves

Democrats need to have a tough conversation with themselves after November in the event that they lose the election.

They need to ask how they managed to find themselves on the wrong side of the anthem and the flag; why they bowed to the mob against ordinary citizens and the police; and what possessed them to curse the very country they were attempting to lead.

The far-left forces that have taken over the Democratic Party are not just bad for its political fortunes. They are terrible for the country.

If a party takes power after encouraging, and participating in, violent protests, it will legitimize the future use of political violence. If a party takes power after attempting, through illegal means, to spy on the opposition and deny it the legitimate right to govern, it will subvert the very idea of democracy. If a party takes power after silencing free speech, with thugs demanding obedience in the street, it will never be able to restore the basic order that makes ordinary life possible.

Democrats need to confront the far-left. It will take more than one election. The Bernie Sanders wing of the party will claim that Democrats lost because they went with an establishment candidate — again — and subverted the progressive grass roots.

They will demand the chance to run one of their own — perhaps “Squad” leader Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez herself, who will turn 35 years old just before the next election. She has the charisma to win in 2024, depending on who Republicans choose.

Only once the very best of the “progressives” is defeated will Democrats begin to contemplate what went wrong.

It will not happen right away. The left has taken over the major cultural institutions — the schools, the universities, the media, even the sports world — and they will continue to push for revolution. Dissent within the party will still be dangerous. But over time, new leaders will find room to emerge.

Democrats will be liberated by their own defeat. Voters need to make sure it happens.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His new book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.