Democratic Moderates Fade Into the Background
As Warren and Sanders dominate the party’s agenda, centrists are left sniping from the sidelines.
Last night’s Democratic debate showed how America’s political parties have turned upside down. At center stage stood Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, making arguments about decriminalizing illegal border crossings and abolishing private health insurance that would have sounded fantastical just a few years ago. Throwing darts from the edges were John Delaney, Steve Bullock, John Hickenlooper, and Tim Ryan—candidates garnering less than 1 percent in national polls—whose relatively centrist views sounded like Barack Obama’s.
It was an inversion of the way debates have generally played out in the past. Since at least the 1980s, presidential primary campaigns have generally featured front-runners, drawn from the party establishment, who
