We're six days into an Israel-Iran war. Trump is demanding "unconditional surrender." Oil prices are surging. And what's the Democratic establishment's big idea? Stand with Israel or keep quiet.
More of the abundant moderate, moderate, moderate agenda.
The Wall Street-friendly Josh Gottheimer and formerly disgraced Rahm Emanuel are back with their tired playbook: Move to the center. Get tough on the border. Stop being so woke.
Meanwhile, AIPAC just sent Democrats their marching orders—complete with the exact script they're supposed to recite about "standing with Israel." According to Drop Site News, 28 House Democrats have already parroted the magic words. More Democrats are calling for war than calling for peace. More standing with Netanyahu than standing against another trillion-dollar desert massacre. So far, only 20 House members have signed onto a bill proposed by Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) that asserts the requirement of Congress’ approval if Trump wants to commit armed forces to military action in the region.
But if you wanted to moderate this could be a shot. Trump's base doesn't want this war.
Tucker Carlson just went on Steve Bannon's show to warn that bombing Iran would "end Trump's presidency." His exact words? "You're not going to convince me that the Iranian people are my enemy. It's Orwell, man. I'm a free man. You're not going to tell me who to hate." He also went HAM on Sen. Ted Cruz.
Bannon himself says war with Iran would "blow up the coalition" and derail Trump's entire agenda. Charlie fuckin’ Kirk said, "No issue currently divides the right as much as foreign policy." Even Marjorie Taylor Greene is calling foreign wars "America Last."
The Guardian reports this could be an "inflection point" for the MAGA movement. These aren't peaceniks—they're Trump's most loyal supporters saying war with Iran betrays everything they voted for.
So if Democrats want to be moderate, they can join the majority of Americans who are against our being involved in this war. They can moderate in ways that may save hundreds of thousands of lives and trillions of dollars. Stop this war before it starts. Take the war powers away from Trump and return them to Congress.
Say no to AIPAC. No to genocide in Gaza. No to bombing Iran over nuclear weapons that our intelligence says don't exist. Netanyahu's been claiming Iran is "weeks away" from nukes for 20 years. It was bullshit then, it's bullshit now.
And moderate on economics. Right now, Trump is normalizing public ownership with his U.S. Steel deal—demanding America get a "golden share" to approve the merger with Japanese company Nippon Steel. Steve Bannon's floating nationalizing SpaceX. Meanwhile, Democrats act like public ownership is communist heresy.
Moderate on building things. Here's a perfect example: Susan Collins just told Spectrum News she wants to create "some sort of fund" to bail out rural hospitals that are "barely making it financially."
Some sort of fund? That's the best we can do?
We're on track to spend $77 trillion on healthcare in the next decade. Seventy-seven trillion. And Collins wants another band-aid fund to prop up a failing system that's extracting maximum profit while delivering minimum care.
Here's a thought: Instead of bailing out broken hospitals, buy them. Run them. Make them public. In 1985, 33% of hospitals in my home state of Tennessee were publicly owned. Make rural and inner-city public clinics the best care you can get. Fund the hell out of them. Show people what government can do when it's not just subsidizing corporate failure.
But no—the establishment wants us to moderate on pronouns or ICE raids or some other culture war shit while they’re cheerleading for war. Get tough on immigrants while billionaires loot the country. Create funds to bail out entire sectors that are failing to deliver and are at risk of collapse.
Recent polling tells the real story: 72% of Democrats prefer leaders like Bernie and AOC who want to "fight harder." Only 18% want the party to become "more moderate" in the establishment sense. People want bold action, not capitulation.
The American people are drowning. They're watching AI threaten their jobs, their towns crumble, and their kids' futures evaporate. They're not begging for another Middle East war. They're not excited about spending trillions to fulfill Netanyahu's fever dreams. And they're sure as hell not asking for "some sort of fund" to keep a predatory healthcare system on life support.
Real moderation means meeting people where they are: sick of war, sick of corporate rule, sick of watching their communities die while politicians write thousand-page bills instead of improving lives.
Let’s moderate our way back to greatness—by listening to people, not donors. Or we can keep taking cues from the same “moderates” who made the party less popular than a convicted felon.
So, do we keep reciting AIPAC's scripts and creating bailout funds, or become the party that finally says enough?
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