It's not about Bernie. It's about the way he wants to change the party. [View all]

[DanTex]

And it's very clear what he wants to do. He wants the party to prioritize economic issues over social issues.

There's no getting around that. Either part of it, in fact. There's no getting around the fact that Bernie wants to elbow out candidates that don't support things like single payer and free college. And there's also no getting around the fact that he wants to make the party more accommodating for people who don't support things like choice and gay marriage. It is true that Bernie himself holds progressive views on social issues. But that doesn't change the fact that his vision for the Democratic Party is one that is strongly populist on economic issues and accommodating on the social front.

In fact, I want to thank his supporter Krystal Ball for making this point clearly on AM Joy today. Good for her. Because a lot of people supporting Bernie's attempts to transform the party try to obfuscate here. No obfuscation. Bernie wants to prioritize the economic over the social. People defending his agenda should do what Ball did: own it and defend it.

Turns out a lot of Democrats are justifiably not too happy about that whole thing. Why?

Well, first of all, social issues like choice are extremely important. As some here have pointed out, choice is also an economic issue. Which is true, and important, but to me it kind of misses the point. Choice doesn't need to be justified on economic grounds. It's a moral imperative. Women should not have religious fundamentalists deciding for them what they can or can't do with their bodies. Period.

On the other hand, on many economic issues, there actually is room for progressive debate. It's not at all clear that Bernie's economic positions are the best ones. For example, a lot of progressive, intelligent experts on health policy do not think that single payer is the best way to achieve universal coverage in the US. Some progressive economists question whether the labor market can sustain a $15 national minimum wage. And so on.

In contrast, there are zero progressive arguments that can be made that abortion should be banned, or that gay people shouldn't be able to get married, or that racial profiling by police (and by non-police) is a serious issue that needs fixing, and so on. I know that there are parts of the country where these things might not be popular, so maybe for political calculation we might have to support some Dems that don't hold progressive views here. OK, fine. And the same goes for economic issues. We do need to win elections, and purity tests don't help. But at the policy level, there is simply no progressive argument to be against these and other positions on social issues.

I'm sure there are Dems who would like to see the party prioritize economic issues over social issues. And Bernie is a big political figure now, and he has a right to make his case. But he, and everyone supporting him, have to understand that this is going to be very controversial. It's not "Bernie-hating", it's defending what most Democrats think of as Democratic values.