A top Democrat, South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn, exposed a burgeoning split within the Democratic Party Wednesday, telling upstart “Democratic socialist” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez that she should expect to “wait her turn” to be allowed into party leadership, if she makes it to Congress.
Clyburn seemed to suggest that, although Ocasio-Cortez claims to be reforming the Democratic Party from the inside, once she gets to the hallowed halls of Congress, any big changes she plans to make will have to wait for when she’s earned the right to make key decisions.
“I would ask her to remember how long I had to wait to get here,” Clyburn told Buzzfeed News. He added that so-called “progressives” challenging mainstream Democratic leaders have only a skin-deep understanding of how Democrats have really contributed to social justice causes.
“Let’s not forget the history of all of this,” Clyburn continued. “And I think that all of the folks who have that mentality seem not to give much respect to those of us who sat in jails, as I did, so that they would have the kind of activities or the kinds of rights that they have today.”
Clyburn angrily added that he and his fellow Democratic leaders deserve more credit than they’re being given by a generation of “Democratic socialist” Millennials who seem to believe they invented caring about the poor, the infirm, and the oppressed.
“So do I get any credit for being on the cutting edge of all of that? Or should the credit go to my children and grandchildren who are the beneficiaries of it? I think that we have to balance this out,” Clyburn raved.
The answer is probably, no, Clyburn does not get credit. As far as Ocasio-Cortez and her colleagues are concerned, the mainstream Democratic Party has lagged in its sworn duty to expand government to an effective degree, and to shut out and shut down any opposition to a socialist agenda. Demanding respect for their “elders” doesn’t seem like a successful tactic in preserving the Democratic Party, either, from insurgent Millennials.
But Clyburn’s emotional plea for respect does seem to expose one true fact: that the Democratic Party is more seriously fractured than they care to publicly admit.