It’s Time for Democrats to Admit our Mistakes
Democrats: charity workers, champions of the poor, empathetic philanthropists, patrons of science, and accepting of everyone. Yes, that’s us in many ways. But while we are some of those things, we are not perfect, and our unwillingness to call ourselves out is hurting the party.
Especially in a time of extreme partisanship, Democrats believe they are the “good” and Republicans are the “bad”, and vice versa. Democrats often villainize Republicans and are quick to point fingers when things go wrong in the government. We are so preoccupied with the wrongdoings of the “enemy”, that we end up ignoring our own flaws. It’s time we take a look in the mirror, not so we can bash ourselves, but so we can recognize our transgressions and improve ourselves.
We Democrats pride ourselves on our progressivism and diversity, which is an excellent thing to have, especially in the government. It is very exciting to have a Democrat back in the West Wing, not to mention our Vice President being a woman of color. However, because of this, too many Democrats have relaxed; just because our party is now in power does not mean the issues occurring during the Trump presidency have disappeared. The President and Vice President are still career politicians who have to serve and please both liberals and conservatives. While Biden has done many great things so far during his short time in office, Democrats need to stop pretending this administration is the antithesis to Trump’s, and that the world has been righted.
When Trump bombed the Middle East time and time again, Democrats were furious, and Trump was dubbed evil, which is fair. But who dropped 26,171 bombs onto the Middle East in 2016? Obama. And now we’ve had our first bomb strike under the Biden administration. We need to hold our own party members accountable for violence against anyone, but especially civilians in warzones who are victims of gross misuse of military power. Blatantly ignoring the atrocities Democrats have committed and condone makes us just as bad as we think Republicans are. In a closer to home instance, immigrants detained at the border under the Obama Administration were such, but then became Trump’s kids, starving and dying of thirst and disease in cages when he took office. Now in 2021, they’re again detainees to Democrats, and Biden holds the keys to the cages.
It seems as though Democrats are deathly afraid that, if we admit our mistakes and faults, our party will be overcome by them. But not acknowledging the racism, classism, and injustices that occur in the Democratic party will lead to our downfall. Beneath our perfect facade lie flaws that go against the righteous values we boast. The only way we can fix them and strengthen the party to its full potential is to confront them head-on. Part of our reluctance to admit our mistakes is the fear that Republicans will exploit them in an effort to weaken the party. However, if we hold ourselves accountable before anyone else does, we can fix the problem efficiently, and ensure it doesn’t get blown out of proportion.
It would be so easy to believe that Republicans are the enemy and that Democrats are the infallible good guys. This narcissism has substantially weakened our party, and in order to accomplish our lofty goals and reach the ideals we strive for, we need to stop being afraid of being wrong.
