Leftists targeting a gay California lawmaker spells trouble for Democrats | Opinion
When State Senator Scott Wiener has to leave a transgender rally in San Francisco because his politics aren’t left enough, something is seriously wrong inside the Democratic Party that could have national implications.
That’s exactly what happened Friday, in the ugliest way possible. As he walked through Dolores Park at the western edge of the Mission District, Wiener was yelled at, with phones in his face.
“You’ve been terrible!” one man screamed. “You do not belong here!” repeating it again and again.
All that Wiener, the odds-on favorite to replace Nancy Pelosi in Congress, could do was quietly walk away.
This is not an isolated incident. The outright hatred on the left of more centrist Democrats is part of an emerging trend.
In Manhattan, a congressional candidate named Darializa Avila Chevalier last week ousted Latino incumbent Adriano Espaillat, one of three Democratic Socialists backed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani. They won in stunning and convincing fashion. In previous social media posts, Chevalier has said things about former Vice President Kamala Harris that are vile enough to compare to anything that has come out of Donald Trump’s mouth.
Right now, the political bookends of the Democratic Party are farther apart than at any time in my memory. At one extreme, the party has the likes of Chevalier in Upper Manhattan and the Bronx. On the opposite side of the spectrum in Texas, state representative James Talarico is seeking a seat in the United States Senate, a grandson of a Baptist preacher known to make his points through memorized passages in the Bible.
Perhaps the two biggest fault lines involve Israel and America’s billionaires.
With Israel, there is a growing intolerance for anything resembling a nuanced position. Wiener, as an example, is a self-described Zionist who staunchly supports the country’s right to exist. But he also supports a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine while condemning Hamas for the terrorist group that it is.
And while he has increasingly condemned the destruction of Gaza and the killing of Palestinians and the leadership of Benjamin Netanyahu, he has not called the acts a “genocide” as consistently or repeatedly. So protesters shamed him out of Dolores Park on Friday, a gay man canceled from a transgender rally.
Everyone attending this gathering should have promoted the acceptance of all walks of life in this country. When a rally like this is hijacked by a rage of intolerance against one of the most consequential Democrats in California, something has gone dangerously wrong in San Francisco.
Deepening fault lines on Israel and billionaires
America’s relationship with Israel, even on the Republican side of the aisle, feels like it is evolving rapidly, more than at any time since the birth of the country. There are real reasons to feel rage. Right now, the Democrats are taking it out on themselves.
As for the billionaires, California has found itself at the epicenter of this debate. The initiative to assess a one-time 5% tax on the wealth of the state’s billionaires has qualified for the November ballot. Progressives like Silicon Valley Rep. Ro Khanna and Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders support the tax. Creatures of the party establishment, such as Gov. Gavin Newsom, do not.
A hallmark of Newsom’s years in Sacramento has not been some dogged pursuit to address income inequality. Yet even Newsom has been forced to find his voice on the issue. On Friday he announced that he wants Congress to enact a nationwide tax on wealth, with the precise amount unknown, as a substitute for state action.
The underlying difference in the party here is the perspective on the market system itself. The Newsoms of the party value the economy’s innovation and businesses large and small. The Sanders’ of the party see more inherent corruption in corporations and anyone enriched by them.
The Republican Party will have its frictional moments in the sun as the presidential election approaches, something that not even Trump can prevent. For now, the divisions among the Democrats are what dominate the stage.
There’s plenty of room inside the Democratic Party for common ground that doesn’t sacrifice principles. Yet that won’t happen with the kind of political intolerance being demonstrated by the party’s far left. The ugliness at Dolores Park on Friday shows the path to political marginalization.