Rep. Max Rose (D-NY) criticized the Democratic Party on Friday for moving so far to the political Left that they may not be able to win back a large swath of voters.
“The Democratic Party has been completely subsumed by this ‘What’s the Matter With Kansas,’ mantra,” Rose told New York Magazine’s “Intelligencer.” “Oooh, I don’t understand why they don’t vote for us? Why can’t they be smarter? Don’t they know all we are doing for them? It’s the most offensive, patronizing thing imaginable. And it’s taken over the party. A better question would be: Why don’t they trust us?”
“I don’t think losing is cool,” he continued. “I want the Democratic Party to be the party of Kyrsten Sinema and not the party of Beto O’Rourke.”
Sinema notably flipped Arizona’s longstanding red Senate seat blue after winning her election in 2018. Since she was sworn into office, she has legislated as a moderate Democrat rather than pivoting to the Left in order to satisfy the party’s base. Accordingly, the freshman senator has voted with President Donald Trump and the Republican Party roughly half of the time.
O’Rourke, however, has consistently moved so far to the political left that his demands have become divisive even among members of his own party. The former Texas congressman unsuccessfully ran to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), despite record-breaking fundraising during a blue-wave election cycle.
During his Senate race, O’Rourke refused to clarify where he stood on the migrant caravan that was heading toward the U.S.-Mexico border despite immigration and border security overwhelmingly being the top issues for voters in Texas. He has since come out in favor of giving citizenship to nearly 20 million illegal immigrants currently residing in the United States and opposes incarcerating individuals who illegally cross over the border. His stance is not only unpopular with Texans, but with the majority of Americans.
O’Rourke has also received widespread backlash for demanding that the federal government seize millions of firearms from law-abiding American citizens. While some of his presidential opponents backed his calls, Democratic leadership, as well as many rank-and-file Democrats swiftly distanced themselves.
“Losing is not as cool as [O’Rourke] thinks it is,” Rose said. “When you win you get to help people, and when you lose you get to be a social-media rock star. So I don’t think Beto is cool, and I don’t think losing is cool.”
“If we don’t win, we can’t do a f***ing thing for anybody in a union, anybody in public housing, anybody that can’t reunite with their family because of a f***ing racist Muslim ban,” he continued. “This is where it begins and ends for me, so f***ing figure it out.”
Rose edged out Republican incumbent Rep. Dan Donovan by just over five points in New York’s 11th Congressional District in 2018. He is considered one of the more centrist Democrats in the House of Representatives, but faces an uphill battle retaining his seat in the upcoming election cycle.
Rather than promulgating progressive issues, Rose told New York Magazine that he wants to focus on what he refers to as “centrist populism,” which includes increasing union membership, massive investments in infrastructure and energy, and eradicating the opioid crisis. He further noted that he “believes there is no problem that can’t be solved by a public-private partnership.”
“I did not go to Washington to become everybody’s buddy,” Rose says. “I am not down there to be a part of the system. What I am down there for is to wage war on the entire political class.”