How Democrats' Rotating Villain Strategy Backfired
The time-tested establishment tactic blew up in their face.
Establishment Democrats have a problem. Though corporate-friendly forces control the party and make up 85% of its elected membership, they are far more conservative than their progressive base. Democratic voters are to the left of the national Democratic Party on Medicare for All, Israel, economic issues, and other political questions of high importance. This creates a problem for House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, who are politically closer to Republicans than they are to the average Democratic voter. Not only do they have to try to compete against conservatives in general elections, but they’re in a never-ending war to suppress their more progressive base and preserve the Democratic Party as an institution that works for the interests of capital, cops, and Israel. To thwart the left-wing politics that their voters desire, the Democratic establishment regularly cheats in elections, produces fake polls, and employs deceptive, undemocratic ploys to trick their own voters and hide their true political intentions.
One of the most common deceits Schumer, Jeffries, and other Democrats use to hide their conservative politics is the Rotating Villain Strategy. The Rotating Villain Strategy (RVS) has worked quite well in the past. Democratic voters have become more progressive over the last decade, but the party itself has drifted to the right, abandoning workers’ rights, campaign finance reform, and progressive economic policy. RVS is one of many tricks conservative Democrats have used to pull this off, often with great success. However, that all changed last week when Democratic leadership tried to use the RVS to fund ICE over the wishes of both left-leaning and independent voters. But the strategy backfired, exposing seven corporate Democrats — and their leaders — as charlatans and liars. Now, they’re scrambling to pick up the pieces and salvage their already-pitiful approval rating from diving any lower.
Here’s how the Rotating Villain strategy has worked in the past, and why it blew up in the Democratic establishment’s face over funding ICE.
