Democrats Shouldn’t Compromise

By Astrid Fabinski

Since Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race on July 21st and endorsed Kamala Harris as the new democratic nominee, the Democrats have made an effort to become much more progressive in the face of the ever-more extremist GOP. However, the Democrats’ ostensible progressive shift is at its best not enough, and at its lowest purely semantic. It seems that the Democrats’ strategy to court young and far-left voters after their devastating response to Israel’s genocide and the subsequent protests is to promise big things and, for some reason, to ignore Palestine altogether.

While it is promising to see Democrats spend so much energy on appealing to their left voter base, it is also disappointing to see them cede so much ground to Republicans on topics like gun control, border control, police funding, and especially the arms trade. Promises to tighten border control and claims that immigrants are an issue in America, promises to increase police funding across the states, and pride over gun ownership aren’t what one would usually think of when talking about liberal policies. It seems that Democrats decided to abandon their normal policies in favor of compromise and selective outrage.

This strategy only works when the other side agrees to compromise, and it is undeniable that Republicans are unwilling to do so. During the Tim Walz v JD Vance vice presidential debate, Walz repeatedly defended against claims that Democrats were weak on the border by asking for Republicans to sign an authoritarian border bill. This bill, which Republicans refused to sign because they wanted to paint Democrats as unwilling to pass a border bill, is entirely counter to historically immigrant-friendly liberal ideals, and at its heart, is entirely Republican. Yet, despite being conservative, Republicans wanted all or nothing.

If Republicans don’t want to compromise, the answer is not to compromise with them. Democrats have displayed that they’re able to effectively combat Republicans on two subjects; January 6th, and Roe V Wade. During this crisis, they called Republicans weird, mean, and even fascist to their faces. Republicans were forced to relax their abortion policies and decry Trump in response.

If Democrats applied this same energy to Republicans’ other authoritarian policies (like border and gun control), they would be able to make more leeway for their policies and offer voters an out from Republicans. If they don’t, Democrats will shift further and further right until voters have no options at all.