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<\/p>\nEoin Higgins is the author<\/a> of \u201cOwned: How Tech Billionaires on the Right Bought the Loudest Voice on the Left.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The PUMA spirit<\/span> is back. The 2008 Democratic Party protest movement, inflamed by what Hillary Clinton supporters viewed as Barack Obama stealing the nomination from their primary candidate, scorned his general election campaign and embraced the mantra \u201cParty Unity, My Ass<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n This time, that energy is aimed at the candidates preferred by the Democratic Socialists of America<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n DSA-aligned progressives have won a number<\/a> of party primaries<\/a> and are set to help Democrats take the majority in Congress. But once in power, they\u2019re likely to make demands \u2014 the kinds of demands that could upend decades of carefully crafted donor-friendly policymaking.\u00a0<\/p>\n For moderate Democrats, \u201cparty unity\u201d is only a goal worth pursuing to bully the left wing of the party to fall in line with their preferred candidate.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n For moderate Democrats, \u201cparty unity\u201d is only a goal worth pursuing to bully the left wing of the party to fall in line with their preferred candidate. When it\u2019s on them to step up and vote for someone who might have different goals, that\u2019s another story completely, and some centrists are even hoping for Republicans to win the House this November if the alternative is an empowered DSA Democratic wing.\u00a0<\/p>\n James Carville, the fossilized Cajun strategist who was part of exactly one successful national political campaign, Bill Clinton\u2019s 1992 White House victory, said on The Bulwark podcast<\/a> last Sunday that he\u2019d prefer a tight GOP hold on Congress over a narrow Democratic majority.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI would be disappointed if it comes in at 225 House seats,\u201d Carville told host Bill Kristol. \u201cI would rather the Republicans keep the House by five than the Democrats to win by five, because, if that happens, they\u2019re hostage to the DSA.\u201d<\/p>\n To his credit, Kristol \u2014 who, in a sign of how people can change when they know which way the wind is blowing, spent the PUMA moment promoting Sarah Palin<\/a> but is now a self-proclaimed Democrat \u2014 pushed back, saying he\u2019d rather win.\u00a0<\/p>\n Carville is the first of his cohort to explicitly call for a GOP victory rather than the left flank of the party getting more power, but he\u2019s not the only centrist deprioritizing his party\u2019s prospects in November.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Maine Gov. Janet Mills has yet to endorse<\/a> the Democratic Party\u2019s Senate nominee, Troy Jackson, after she lost to now-disgraced<\/a> Graham Platner. (Mills and Jackson have a long and bitter history from state government<\/a>, which may be playing a role here.)\u00a0<\/p>\n Perhaps most consequentially, in Michigan, Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed has faced an uphill battle since winning his party\u2019s grueling primary. He\u2019s now focused on winning in the general election and becoming the first Muslim U.S. senator, but resistance to his candidacy remains a concern.<\/p>\n Much of the difficulty has come from members of his own party and other liberals<\/a>. Their antipathy<\/a> toward a candidate whose positions aren\u2019t so out of step with other members of the caucus has raised questions about what exactly is so objectionable<\/a> about him. El-Sayed may skew to the progressive side of the party, but he\u2019s not a socialist<\/a> and not a member of the DSA; his positions on domestic policy should place him companionably among the likes of Sen. Elizabeth Warren\u2019s wing.\u00a0<\/p>\n Until recently, most of the anger after El-Sayed\u2019s primary in early August was confined to X and occasional cable news hits.\u00a0<\/p>\n That changed on October 16, when two Michigan Democratic Party power players, David Kramer and Lon Johnson, urged voters in a Detroit News op-ed<\/a> to leave El-Sayed\u2019s place on the ballot blank \u2014 effectively handing the Senate seat over to Republican Mike Rogers, an election denier and a lockstep Trump ally.\u00a0<\/p>\n The piece tied El-Sayed to extreme elements of Islam and suggested his opposition to Israel\u2019s genocide, war crimes, and occupation was based in hatred for the Jewish diaspora.<\/p>\n \u201cOur gravest concerns involve El-Sayed\u2019s associations with figures who have excused or minimized terrorism, his reluctance to unequivocally condemn dangerous rhetoric, and his support of extreme policies,\u201d Kramer and Johnson wrote. \u201cAt a time of rising antisemitism, Democrats deserve leadership that unequivocally rejects rhetoric threatening Jewish communities.\u201d<\/p>\n Comedian Mike Drucker accurately described on Tuesday the centrist rejection of El-Sayed as less \u201cblue no matter who\u201d and more \u201cblue unless brown<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n