The Establishment Is Panicking

Washington Watch

July 6, 2026

Dr. James J. Zogby ©

President

Arab American Institute

It’s fascinating to watch how some elements of the Democratic Party establishment respond to insurgencies. 

After Senator Bernie Sanders won a number of early contests in the 2020 presidential nominating process, the establishment panicked. In 2016, Sanders had almost beaten their favorite, Hillary Clinton, before they put their thumb on the scale by providing the Clinton campaign with a questionable infusion of cash and mobilizing the votes of hundreds of what were called “super delegates” to give Clinton the appearance of a lead in the primaries. 

Despite beating back the Sanders insurgency in 2016, here he was again in 2020 winning against their favored candidate, former Vice President Joseph Biden. After Sanders’ early wins, an anti-Sanders television advertising campaign was launched making arguments that “Sanders was too old,” that “Sanders’ socialist views were too radical,” and that “with Sanders at the top of the Democratic ticket, Democrats would lose down-ballot races across the country.” 

It wasn’t so much that TV ads directly swayed voters, but rather that the ads actually were the party’s talking points. On television talk shows and newspaper commentaries, these themes—Sanders is too old, too radical, and will cost Democrats elections—were repeated over and over again until they became standard fare. The irony was that, despite the establishment’s anti-Sanders hysteria, polls continued to show him beating Biden in the primary and doing better against Donald Trump in the general election. 

It’s worth recalling this recent history because we can see much the same scenario playing out in the Democratic establishment’s reaction to this year’s mid-term elections. With their favored candidates having lost in a number of big city mayoral contests, a few Senate primaries, and over a dozen congressional races—once again, the establishment is panicking. And true to form, their chosen response is to make hysterical claims designed to scare voters. 

Because many of the victorious insurgents have either been members of a group called the Democratic Socialists of America or have been endorsed by Senator Sanders, the attack language used by more establishment Democrats has been extraordinarily harsh. The insurgents are routinely called “extremists,” “far left,” or “bomb throwers who hate America.” It is charged that they are “holding the party hostage to their socialist views,” and their elections would only serve to “wreak havoc in Congress.” One member of Congress went so far as to call the insurgents “a growing cancer” that needed to be rooted out. 

There are several observations to be made at this point. 

After a similar insurgent/establishment standoff in the 1988 Democratic presidential primary, it was Jesse Jackson who famously noted that “it takes two wings to fly,” cautioning both liberals and moderates to find ways to work together because both were needed to win. The Clinton campaign did not do this 2016, but when it came to writing the 2020 Democratic Party platform the Biden campaign smartly formed teams with Sanders’ people and wrote a joint document that helped to heal the divide between the party’s two wings. 

Secondly, it must be pointed out that what both the 2020 advertising attacks on Sanders and the current assault on the mid-term insurgents have in common is that they are both about Israel without ever mentioning Israel. In 2020, it was strange to see repeated dramatic TV ads excoriating Sanders for being too old or too radical and then to see the tagline at the bottom of each ad: “Paid for by the Democratic Majority for Israel.”  Similarly, the almost $50 million spent to defeat this year’s insurgents was supplied by groups backed by the pro-Israel lobby, AIPAC. Once again, in no case do the ads attack the insurgents because of their position on Palestinian rights or their opposition to continuing military aid to Israel in the wake of the genocide in Gaza. But even though they won’t mention it, the obvious reason AIPAC or DMFI are so heavily invested in defeating these insurgents is Israel. 

One question the establishment types fail to seriously think through is “why are the insurgents winning?” There are some facile answers given like “urban angst and youthful naiveté” or the less serious “hatred of Israel.” But there is a real problem that can’t be ignored—voters, especially Democratic voters, do not see the status quo working for them. They feel that being against Trump isn’t enough, nor is simply observing that “things cost too much.” They want these problems addressed with programs that work. It rings hollow to simply mimic New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s “affordability” mantra, without also embracing his detailed program to make life more affordable. If that means taxing billionaires, rent control, raising the minimum wage, universal day care, and healthcare recognized as a right not a privilege—and if the establishment wants to term this socialism, then so be it. 

Finally, it must also be cautioned that the byproducts of this effort to besmirch the insurgent victors only serves to drive a deeper wedge between the ideological wings of the party and to hand Republicans weapons to use against Democrats in the general election.