Nina Turner, Cori Bush and the price of progressivism

In victory or defeat, the progressives are consistently hurting the Democratic party.

Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri, who lay on the stairs of the US Capitol in a sleeping bag to protest the end of the eviction moratorium, is a perfect case study. Both she and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez hammed it up for the cameras this week. Ocasio-Cortez was even cynical enough to throw her mask back on when she realized press photos of their heroic protest were being taken. She wouldn’t want the Twitter trolls to turn on her for going maskless outdoors — the horror!

Luckily for Bush and AOC, the protest worked! President Biden, true to form, caved to their demands. The miserable whiners outside the Capitol managed to crack a smile for a few minutes. Bush was applauded by her army of activists and she grinned from ear to ear while holding a bouquet of roses in her arms. It was a victory! Small landlords across America might never get paid again thanks to these courageous advocates.

But the costs of these pyrrhic socialist victories are growing for the rest of the Democratic party. After all, Biden had to very publicly cave to the pie-in-the-sky progressives. After admitting to reporters that extending the eviction moratorium wasn’t in the cards — or the Constitution — Joe flip-flopped and decided to try it anyway.

One CNN headline read, ‘President Biden shows he’s ready to make drastic moves in the COVID-19 fight — even if he’s not sure they’re legal.’ Au contraire — Biden is very sure that these moves are not legal. Earlier this week, when discussing extending the moratorium he said that the ‘bulk of constitutional scholars say…it’s not likely to pass constitutional muster’. Then again, if it stops the Bernie brats from throwing a tantrum on Twitter, then who cares about ‘norms’ — or the millions of small landlords prattling on about contractual obligations and the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment?

Most of those financially hard-pressed property owners probably voted for Trump, right? Who cares about the moderate Democrats who only backed Biden because they thought he would restore a bit of middle ground to the political landscape?

Now consider how on Tuesday night, former Ohio state lawmaker Nina Turner lost her bid for the state’s 11th congressional district to Cuyahoga County Council member Shontel Brown. Turner’s candidacy was supported by Sen. Bernie Sanders and Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar. Brown was backed by old-school Democrats like Hillary Clinton and House majority whip James Clyburn.

Turner managed to raise $2.4 million more than the winner. So why did she lose? Maybe, as the 2016 and 2020 primaries suggest, the voters in Ohio have had enough of radical leftists and the pendulum is swinging back toward more moderate candidates. But if you ask Nina Turner why she lost, she has an entirely different excuse. During her Stacey Abrams-esque non-concession speech, she screamed:

‘I am going to work hard to ensure that something like this never happens to a progressive candidate again. We didn’t lose this race — the evil money manipulated and maligned this election.’

Social media blew up as both sides of the aisle accused Turner of employing anti-Semitic tropes. The Squad has a well-documented history of dipping their toes into anti-Semitism, so it’s hardly a shock that their preferred candidate might harbor similar prejudices. One user on Twitter noted, ‘Nina Turner and her Squad allies raised nearly double her opponent. She lost. The “evil money” she is referring to here is Jewish Dems vocally backing her opponent and her response here only validates why they were right to do so.’

So not only did Turner scare away moderate voters, she also confirmed their decision not to vote for her.

In another interesting layer to this loss, OH-11 is an overwhelming black district. What does it mean for Turner’s uber-progressive doctrine if large swaths of the people it’s supposedly designed to help don’t vote for it?

One thing is for certain: the Squad is not about to rethink their extreme positions. In fact, Rep. Cori Bush was on television today tackling another issue that is near and dear to her heart. Capitalizing on the momentum from her eviction moratorium victory, Bush advocated for defunding the police. Ironically, Bush has spent $70,000 on her own private security.

During a hit on CBS, the Democrat addressed her hypocrisy: ‘I have private security because my body is worth being on this planet right now.’ Cops for me but not for thee! I would venture to say most Americans feel the same way about their bodies. Bush finished up the interview by yelling, ‘So suck it up, and defunding the police has to happen.’

These far-left ‘Democrats’ have as much self-awareness as the Cuomo brothers. They will continue to blame racism, sexism or dark money whenever their insane ideas are rejected or when they lose elections.

Moderate Democrats find themselves in a more precarious situation. Biden will continue to cower to the woke bullies even if their ideas are not exactly resonating with most Americans. The group that Pelosi once described as ‘like five people’ is twisting Biden’s arm, because they know he will say uncle every time.

Biden is paying for these Squad victories with his credibility. Eventually the rest of the Democratic party will have to pay up too. Collection day is November 8, 2022.