Sun Rises in the East: Media Narrative that Democrats Have to Change and Be Moderates.

NPR was doing it’s damndest to get newly elected Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger to trash her fellow Democrats and the Democratic Party.  The questions by the NPR inteviewer were centered around if the Democratic Party needed to change.  And in case anyone missed what the interviewer meant by change, it wasn’t just that they needed to find someone else to lead in the House.

No, NPR brought up supposed differences Spanberger was going to have with progressives like Ocasio-Cortez on climate change.

First off, Spanberger just disagreed with how Ocasio-Cortez went about highlighting her advocacy about climate change.  Spanberger is not into public protests.  And Spanberger is not some climate denying Democrat:

ENVIRONMENT

As a kid, I cherished the time I spent outdoors, trekking through the woods or picnicking in parks with my family. As an adult, I know how lucky we are to have Virginia’s mountains, rivers, and beaches. It is our responsibility to protect these resources for our children and generations to come by investing in alternative and renewable energy sources and decreasing air and water pollution. Energy independence is good for the environment and good for the economy — solar energy job growth climbed 65% from 2015-16 in Virginia, making the Commonwealth one of the fastest growing solar job markets in the nation.

We must do everything we can to seize this opportunity. Climate change is real, and we’re already seeing the effects right here in Virginia with rising sea levels, higher average temperatures, and stronger hurricanes. An investment in clean, renewable energy is an investment in our ecosystem, our health, and our economy. These efforts require significant coordination, as well as a shared baseline of facts, and I will stand up to attacks against science.

But here was NPR trying to start some moderate vs progressive fight on climate change.

But the NPR interviewer — I just caught it on after 6 P.M. today, and I think the show is the All Things Considered? — kept up at how Democratic moderates like Spanberger must change the Democratic Party.  While Spanberger is not going to vote for Nancy Pelosi, she did not take the bait and trashed talked the Democratic Party.  

And as many here know, this is expected.  After every election that Democrats do well in, we have the Media, pundits, and oh so helpful Republicans telling Democrats to be moderates.  And none of those usual suspects really mean for Democrats to be moderates.  What they really mean by Democrats being moderates is “Be conservatives and keep the Republican agenda going.”

Several really moderate positions now were once progressive stances.  But the Media, pundits, and conservative Republicans want moderation to be on Republican terms.  And this includes all the BS like tax cuts, not doing a damn thing on healthcare, rolling back worker rights and environmental protections and so forth.

We won on running on such moderate positions as expansion of the ACA and protection of pre-existing conditions.  And we are even talking about universal healthcare/Medicare for all.  All of those positions on healthcare are anathema to Republicans.

A few years ago, we had Blue Dog and Conservadems running away from those positions.  How many of them are still around?  Most of them listened to the Media on not going “too far to the left.”

Fuck the Media narrative on “moderation.”