The Democratic Divide

America is astonishing! Two veteran campaigners are competing for the Democratic presidential nomination in an effort to beat Donald Trump in November 2020. Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders placed at the top on Super Tuesday, the first stage in a long series of primaries. Their confrontation is going to set the pace for the campaign until the Democratic National Convention in July.

Each candidate offers his own utterly different program to Democrats and their followers. Biden embodies continuity with the administration of Barack Obama in which he served. His priorities for the middle class and minorities are articulated in a liberal economic vision that trusts in market mechanisms even though they sometimes require regulation or guidance, for example, the battle over climate change. Sanders, by contrast, has declared himself a socialist and often projects populist overtones. He is proposing radical changes to fight against glaring inequality and is taking a stand against the forces of capital and the establishment.

There is certain to be fierce combat over the coming months, and with it the risk of deepening the divide between the two Democratic factions, thus weakening the winning candidate’s challenge to Trump. If the Democratic Party wants to win in November, it will have to strike a careful balance between its reformist base and its progressive wing, while attracting the numerous independent voters who reject partisan labels. General hostility to the incumbent president will certainly act as a powerful unifying force among these groups, but it will not be enough to win the White House.