The Midterm Impact Of Progressives, Election Deniers, and Iran

Progressive Democrats are surging in primary elections across the country, but the party establishment is worried they’ll lose this November.

Mo Elleithee on the left says progressives are shining because they’re more compelling. “Voters are not choosing democratic socialism. They are choosing bold. They are rejecting safe, incremental, timid. Right now, it is sort of the Democratic Socialist wing – these insurgents – are the ones who are being bold.”

But on the right, Sarah Isgur says the polls show any generic, no-name Democrat is positioned to win over most Republicans in the country this fall – that’s how poorly most of the public thinks of the GOP right now. A Democratic candidate who makes a name for themselves will take more campaigning to win over swing voters in the general.

“If you put in a non-generic Democrat – a lightning rod progressive with a history of saying sort of controversial, attention-grabbing headlines – you’re gonna have to pour a lot more money into that state.”

The House rushed to pass several key measures before their month-long recess, all muscled through by the Republican majority.

They passed the president’s election security bill – the SAVE America Act – just as two election deniers advanced in Arizona’s Republican primaries.

Sarah says there’s no evidence of widespread voter suppression or fraud, unlike what Trump claims, and the real danger is bots and bad actors sowing discord online.

“A lot of what you’re seeing online is messages from these foreign actors who create accounts,” she said. “The worst thing that they can do is undermine people’s faith in the security and openness and fairness of our elections.”

House Republicans also approved over $70 billion more in military spending for the deeply unpopular Iran war.

“Now they get to go home for August recess and hold their town halls, if they hold town halls, where voter after voter is gonna stand up and say, ‘Why did you just vote to give $70 billion to a war that we don’t support and not do anything to reduce my cost of living?’” said Mo.

Do those Republicans now own an unpopular war?

Producer: Leo Duran

Host: Susan Davis

Guests:

• Mo Elleithee, executive director at Georgetown University's Institute of Politics and Public Service - @MoElleithee

• Sarah Isgur, senior editor at The Dispatch - @whignewtons

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