Trump just did Democrats a huge favor

The party's identity politics civil war gets a ceasefire, courtesy of the president

President Trump.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Photo 12 / Alamy Stock Photo, Alex Wong/Getty Images, BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images, evenfh/iStock)

For a brief, shining moment, it appeared that the Democratic Party would have to come to grips with the identity-politics monster it had created. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez all but accused House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of bigotry and racism for criticizing her sharply leftward politics. That set the Democratic Party on fire with mutual accusations and recriminations — until Donald Trump decided to weigh in on it.

Ocasio-Cortez told The Washington Post last week that Pelosi's criticisms had gone beyond legitimate criticism of the frosh firebrand's positions or electoral strategy. "When those comments first started," Ocasio-Cortez declared, "I kind of thought that she was keeping the progressive flank at more of an arm's distance in order to protect more moderate members, which I understood. But the persistent singling out," she continued, "it got to a point where it was just outright disrespectful... the explicit singling out of newly elected women of color."

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Edward Morrissey

Edward Morrissey has been writing about politics since 2003 in his blog, Captain's Quarters, and now writes for HotAir.com. His columns have appeared in the Washington Post, the New York Post, The New York Sun, the Washington Times, and other newspapers. Morrissey has a daily Internet talk show on politics and culture at Hot Air. Since 2004, Morrissey has had a weekend talk radio show in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area and often fills in as a guest on Salem Radio Network's nationally-syndicated shows. He lives in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota with his wife, son and daughter-in-law, and his two granddaughters. Morrissey's new book, GOING RED, will be published by Crown Forum on April 5, 2016.