I keep hearing that the Democrats have too many purity tests - but not seeing a lot of evidence. goodpoliticsbadpolitics.substack.com/p/are-democr... - ThreadSky

juliaazari.bsky.social • 1 day ago

I keep hearing that the Democrats have too many purity tests - but not seeing a lot of evidence.
https://goodpoliticsbadpolitics.substack.com/p/are-democrats-the-party-of-purity

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kevindatamiller.bsky.social•1 day ago

Won't someone think of the moderate Democrats who only receive 3-4 doting media profiles annually pointing out how they're mavericks within a party obsessed with ideological purity that does not, in any concrete way, exclude or punish members with different ideologies?

bcwbcw.bsky.social•1 day ago

How do the attacks on David Hogg for talking about primarying old or toothless Democrats in Blue districts relate to purity test issues?

bcwbcw.bsky.social•1 day ago

I've sort-of inverted your comments on David Hogg's effort here, are the attacks on him a form of purity test?

asveenstra.bsky.social•1 day ago

Thanks for writing this. I think there's an interesting comparison to be made on the intraparty and media discourse sides of this to the lack of such discourse about Republicans – they've purged every Pres/VP nominee since ~1988 except Trump, Vance & Palin, but "purity" is not an issue for them.

juliaazari.bsky.social•1 day ago

definitely!

profmisterlizzie.bsky.social•1 day ago

I loved this column! Anyone who talks about a Dem purity test actually means "a random person on twitter said something mean" because actual candidates don't behave this way. Meanwhile, Repub. electeds lose leadership positions for saying "maybe Trump erred." So...who has the purity tests?

jamisonfoser.bsky.social•1 day ago

This is great.

"Democrats are the party of purity tests" has been a central lie about the parties for decades.

See, e.g., the Bob Casey myth: https://www.mediamatters.org/health-care/media-matters-jamison-foser-0

mikethemadbiol.bsky.social•1 day ago

📌

christy-lambertson.bsky.social•1 day ago

Thank you for writing this! The Dem/purity test thing is obviously false, and yet gets repeated over and over again.

itsskylinetime.bsky.social•1 day ago

While I agree that this is not how the party operates, in sharp contrast to the GOP, I do think this purity test dynamic exists in the voting block. I mean, a decent-sized swath of the left refused to vote for Harris/Walz because of Gaza, right? That just happened and was extremely damaging/costly.

juliaazari.bsky.social•1 day ago

that's certainly worth discussing but a different kind of problem than what's being described, in a way that i think significant. no one is being "purged" or blocked in that instance. as much as I might disagree with it, people have the right to vote (or not vote) as they wish.

itsskylinetime.bsky.social•1 day ago

That's fair. Appreciate the response.

danyzn.bsky.social•1 day ago

You have an overly strict purity test for evidence.

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