New York Daily News

It’s impossible for us Democrats to believe, but the polling data have been clear.

While we see MAGA Republicans as the very definition of extremism, and our own co-partisans as mainstream moderates, voters have believed Democrats and Republicans are equally extreme.

As far as we’re concerned, outlawing abortion even in cases of rape, incest and danger to the mother’s health is extreme. Trying to overturn an election, foment a riot  and nullify millions of votes is extreme.  Eliminating healthcare coverage for 40 million Americans is extreme. Rounding up and expelling millions of immigrants is extreme.

From our perspective there is nothing in the Democratic platform  that comes close to the extremism infusing Republicans’ agenda.

Yet voters perceive it differently.

In a 2022 YouGov poll, 49% said Democrats needed more moderate candidates, while a slightly lesser 47% expressed that view about Republicans. Last year, Morning Consult found voters saying Democrats are more ideologically extreme than Republicans by a 9-point margin. The University of Chicago’s National Opinion Research Center’s Votecast survey asked whether each party was “too tolerant of extremist groups.” Fifty-three percent (53%) said Republicans were too tolerant of extremists whereas an identical 53% said Democrats were.  

All that said, this year’s primaries now coming to a close, reflect a changed reality—Republicans are embracing extremism, while Democrats are rejecting it.

After victories by a series of far-left, anti-Israel candidates, DMFI PAC decided to push back. Beginning in a special election between Shontel Brown and Bernie Sanders’ acolyte Nina Turner, we got deeply involved.  While the pro-Turner forces outspent the pro-Brown alliance, we provided enough support to tell each candidate’s story. Turner began with a 35-point lead but ended up losing the special primary election to now Congresswoman Bown.

It was a turning point.

Last cycle we helped defeat Squad adjacent Congresswoman Marie Newman. 

This year, thanks to great candidates and great campaigns, we helped George Latimer and Wesley Bell defeat Squad members—the radical left caucus among Congressional Democrats—Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush.  

And across the country—from Arizona to Oregon to Texas—we helped defeat Squad wannabes. 

 Extremism is in retreat in the Democratic Party.

Meanwhile it’s on the march among Republicans.  While 28% of Democrats identify themselves as “very liberal,” 45% of Republicans label themselves “very conservative” in a Manhattan Institute poll.

Donald Trump and his extremist MAGA Republicans have taken over the GOP. They changed the party’s platform, killed off it’s internationalist sentiments, and nominated the candidates of their choosing in race after race. According to Ballotpedia Trump’s Republican endorsees won 94% of their primary contests.

During the same cycle DMFI endorsees won 98% of their primaries.

A 94% win rate for Republican extremists, and a 98% win rate for mainstream Democrats.

While our organization worked successfully to oust people like Jamaal Bowman, Cori Bush, and Marie Newman from the House of Representatives, extremist Republicans like Matt Gaetz and Majorie Taylor Green not only go effectively unchallenged but are given prime speaking slots at the Republican National Convention.

Indeed, the GOP’s quadrennial gathering heard from three leading antisemites in one night—Green of Jewish space lasers fame, Holocaust denier and North Carolina Lt. Governor Mark Robinson, and Charlie Kirk whose Turning Point USA organization was labeled “an anti-Semitic grifting operation” by a mainstream conservative leader.

Are voters noticing the difference in the way the two parties are dealing with their extremists?

The evidence is far from complete, but there are some potentially important straws floating in the wind. In contrast to polls in previous years, a Data for Progress survey in early August found voters more likely to identify the GOP as extreme than the Democrats by a 13-point margin.

Just completed CNN polling in six swing states found on average, Donald Trump was more likely than Kamala Harris to be seen as too extreme by a 10-point margin.

As Democrats rid themselves of extremists, we are becoming more acceptable to more voters.

For the country’s sake Republicans should take a lesson.