The Democrats’ dilemma: two parties in one

by Niall Ferguson

Niall Campbell Ferguson is a British historian and works as a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. Previously, he was a senior research fellow at Jesus College, Oxford, a visiting professor at the New College of the Humanities, and also taught at Harvard University.

Last week I began to understand how the Democrats will lose the 2020 presidential election. The reality is that they are not a single party, but two: one liberal, one socialist. The former can beat Trump — but not if it is associated with the latter.

Socialism is a term for so long regarded as anathema in the United States that it used to be avoided altogether: Instead of “socialism,” one said either “progressivism” or “the s-word.” These days, however, the s-word is no longer taboo. In their eagerness to recruit a new generation of young voters, the Democrats have — not for the first time in their history — admitted a faction of radical ideologues into their midst.

Exhibit A is the “Green New Deal” unveiled on Thursday by the Bronx’s very own La Pasionari a, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), and the rather less glamorous 72-year-old senator from Massachusetts, Ed Markey.

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