Although it appears to many that the Democratic Party is moving further down the left said of the political spectrum, Sen. Doug Jones (D-AL) says that is not actually the case, and he says the first night of the second round of the Democratic presidential debates are a sign of that.
During an appearance on Huntsville, AL radio’s WVNN, Jones noted that some of the “centrist” and “moderate” voices on the debate stage made their presence felt and that was a trend we would see going forward.
“I think [Tuesday] night, you saw something important, and I’ve been saying this for so, so long – that the Democratic Party is not just a party of the far left,” Jones said Wednesday on “The Jeff Poor Show.” “What I thought you saw [Tuesday] night and what everybody saw was that the voices in the middle and the more centrist voices, the moderate voices, found their feet, found their voice. And I think you’re going to continue to see that. So, I think that was good.”
“I still don’t like these formats with 10 people on the stage,” he continued. “Hopefully, that’s going to whittle down a little bit. But I thought what you saw [Tuesday] night was the beginning of what I said all along – that the needle is moving back where it should be, and that is a more centrist, moderate position that not everybody is going to agree with. But at the same time, it is not the voices on the far left that we’ve heard for so long.”
When asked about the perception that the party has gone to the far left and was being led by “The Squad,” a foursome of freshman congressional lawmakers that promote far-left ideas, Jones argued that the attention they were receiving on social media, and from the mainstream media and the right was fueling the narrative the Democratic Party was drifting left.
“Absolutely not,” he replied. “It’s a combination of two things: You’ve got some social media stars, and I give them credit for doing all the work that they do. But you’ve also got mainstream media infatuation with a lot of this. And they’re the loudest voices. And the third thing, quite frankly, is you have folks on the right that are trying to portray the Democratic Party that way – that are trying to portray the Democratic Party as all socialist. It’s just not true. It’s completely the opposite of that from the mainstream folks that I talk to every day up here.”
The Alabama Democrat said he anticipated getting a clearer picture of the Democratic Party’s identity as the presidential primary process unfolds.
“I that’s what primaries are for,” Jones added. “Nobody knew where the Republican identity was in 2016. Nobody knew where the Republican was going to be in other times. And the Democrats – when you’ve got a challenger vying for the nomination to challenge a sitting president, there are a lot of voices out there who think they are the right voices. So, all of that is playing out.”
“What I think you’re seeing, what I think came through loud and clear [Tuesday] night was finally the voices of the moderation, the centrist folks have started to find their footing, and that is going to continue that role. And I think by the time we get to the primaries next spring, you’re going to see more and more of that as that identity begins to take shape as the primaries go on. The same thing happened in 2016 with both Republicans and Democrats. The same thing happens in every election.”
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.