The Daily BS • Bo Snerdley Cuts Through It!
The Daily BS • Bo Snerdley Cuts Through It!

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Democrat breaks ranks to back Mike Rogers — Mehdi Hasan wants her booted from the party

by

BS BULLETIN:

  • Democratic State Rep. Karen Whitsett of Detroit appeared with Republican Mike Rogers Thursday as his campaign launched a group of Democratic supporters opposed to Abdul El-Sayed.
  • Whitsett specifically attacked El-Sayed’s signature Medicare for All proposal, warning voters about losing their private insurance.
  • The backlash was immediate: progressive commentator Mehdi Hasan said Whitsett should be kicked out of the Democratic Party, according to Twitchy.

The Michigan Senate race is already producing something Republicans would love to see a whole lot more of before November: Democrats standing beside Republican nominee Mike Rogers and telling their fellow Democrats they cannot support their own party’s nominee, Abdul El-Sayed.

Rogers rolled out a “Democrats for Rogers” effort in Detroit Thursday, surrounding himself with voters and Democratic figures willing to cross party lines in one of the country’s most important Senate contests. Among them was Detroit Democratic State Rep. Karen Whitsett, who made clear that her objections to El-Sayed are not merely stylistic. She has a major policy problem with his progressive agenda.

Whitsett took particular aim at Medicare for All. “The government will be controlling your healthcare,” she warned, arguing that such a system would give Washington control over doctors, medications and medical visits.

In video circulated by the Rogers campaign, Whitsett put it even more personally: “I do not want to lose my Blue Cross Blue Shield.” She argued that voters with private coverage should understand that El-Sayed’s Medicare for All proposal would replace existing private insurance.

That is precisely the kind of attack Republicans are likely to make repeatedly between now and Election Day.

El-Sayed, the former Detroit health director and progressive favorite backed by Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, barely escaped the Democratic primary. Official unofficial totals showed him defeating Rep. Haley Stevens 48.47% to 47.52%, a margin of fewer than 15,000 votes.

Which means more than half of Democratic primary voters voted for somebody else. Rogers is now making an unmistakable play for them. “I’m not asking you to be a Republican,” Rogers told Democrats at Thursday’s event. “I’m asking you for the opportunity to earn your trust.”

He told the Detroit crowd that Michigan deserves a senator willing to represent voters regardless of which party they supported.

El-Sayed’s campaign fired right back, accusing Rogers of putting Donald Trump ahead of Michigan and predicting that he would “rubber-stamp Trump’s reckless agenda.” Campaign spokesman Cole Wozniak insisted El-Sayed has “the only coalition that can win this November.”

That coalition suddenly has a few visible cracks.

Whitsett wasn’t alone at the Rogers event. Rabbi Asher Lopatin, a Democrat concerned about antisemitism and El-Sayed’s politics surrounding Israel, also appeared, along with other self-described longtime Democratic voters. Separately, Jewish Democrats and independents have been circulating an open letter urging Michigan voters to support Rogers instead. The letter accuses El-Sayed and his political allies of alienating Jewish voters; El-Sayed has rejected charges of antisemitism and has publicly said, “I love and revere Judaism and the Jewish people,” while distinguishing his criticism of Israel’s government from hostility toward Jews.

That distinction should be included because this race is combustible enough without pretending every criticism of Israel is automatically antisemitism. But the Democratic rebellion itself is real. And that apparently was too much for progressive commentator Mehdi Hasan.

After Whitsett appeared with Rogers, Hasan reacted by arguing she should be thrown out of the Democratic Party.

There it is. Democrat publicly disagrees with the nominee. Solution? Remove the Democrat.

This may become a serious problem for a party trying to win a battleground state.

El-Sayed emerged from an unusually bitter primary as the champion of Michigan’s progressive wing, campaigning on Medicare for All, higher taxes on the wealthy, restrictions on big-money politics and cuts to U.S. military assistance to Israel. He has made no dramatic post-primary dash toward the political center.

And Michigan remains extremely close. The first major Fox News poll after the primary showed Rogers ahead among registered voters 51% to 47%, though that advantage was within the poll’s margin of error and El-Sayed led among voters who said they were definitely going to vote.

So neither candidate can afford to casually toss voters overboard. Which makes the reaction to Whitsett rather revealing.

MY QUICK TAKE

Oh, I see how the “big tent” works now.

Everybody is welcome! Unless you disagree. Then please leave the tent immediately and surrender your wristband on the way out.

Karen Whitsett is a Detroit Democrat. She disagrees with Abdul El-Sayed on Medicare for All. She thinks Mike Rogers would make a better senator.

The immediate instinct of some on the left is apparently: EXPEL HER!

Nothing says “democracy” quite like demanding that the heretic be escorted from the village.

And strategically, this is even funnier. El-Sayed just won a Democratic primary with 48.5% of the vote. The man has not exactly achieved Saddam Hussein election numbers. So perhaps the winning general-election strategy is not to locate everybody who voted against him and announce: YOU ARE DEAD TO US.

Mike Rogers must be sitting there thinking, Please, Mehdi. Keep posting. Because Rogers doesn’t need to convert every Michigan Democrat. He needs some. Some suburban Democrats worried about Medicare for All. Some Jewish Democrats uncomfortable with El-Sayed’s allies or rhetoric on Israel. Some old-school Democrats who look at the new progressive movement and wonder when exactly Bernie Sanders became the party’s guidance counselor.

And when one of those Democrats steps forward, perhaps yelling “TRAITOR!” is not the sophisticated voter-retention program the consultants think it is. The Democratic Party has spent years advertising itself as the glorious coalition of every imaginable viewpoint.

Now comes the test: Does the big tent still have room for people who don’t salute on command?

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