No, Progressives Don’t Want “Purity.” They Just Want Some Courage.

Complicated? Was that 2019-speak for something like “hopping with billionaires who must not be taxed”? If by “complicated” Obama had meant the country was increasingly socialist, he would have come closer to the mark. But in those days “complexity” was all about trying to seduce Republicans and the rich.

A few months after Obama’s fundraising event, Pete Buttigieg, then a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, reprised the purity-test dodge on the debate stage. Senator Elizabeth Warren, also a candidate, pressed him on his ties to robber-baron donors, and he responded that this wasn’t fair game. To mention the opulence of his donor parties, he said, was nothing but a “purity test.”

Five years later, sounding out politicians for their connections to billionaires doesn’t seem so persnickety. With their massively successful “Fight Oligarchy” national tour, which has drawn 261,100 attendees so far, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and good old Bernie have skillfully energized the party’s progressive grassroots and quietly reoriented the whole Democratic enterprise. Progressive Democrats no longer just oppose the bottomlessly corrupt billionaire in the White House. They oppose all billionaires, of every party, as they are all bottomlessly corrupt—and have long rigged politics and the economy to consolidate power, exploit workers, pursue white nationalism, and wage war.