Retiring House Democrat criticizes leadership for beating 'moderates into submission': 'You can't keep promising rainbows and unicorns'

Retiring House Democrat and "rising-star" moderate Stephanie Murphy (Fla.) has a few notes for her party on her way out the door — criticisms that should be considered a "giant, flashing 'warning' sign for Democrats heading into the 2022 elections," Politico believes.

For one thing, Murphy worries the party is imperiling its own majority by ditching its "big-tent mantra," Politico writes. "My first term … there was a lot more tolerance for, 'Do what you need to do to hold your seat, and come back because we're trying to build towards [a] majority,'" Murphy said. "With us being in the majority, that tolerance eroded a bit."

She also feels there's an effort by Democratic leadership to "beat moderates into submission."

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"I can't tell you the number of times I said, 'You can't keep promising rainbows and unicorns when your political reality is such narrow margins in the House and a dead-even Senate,'" Murphy told Politico. "They took the difference between rainbows and unicorns and political reality — which is anger and disappointment — and turned that anger and disappointment against their own members."

What's more, Murphy can't wrap her head around the idea of allies going after other Democrats in an election year expected to be difficult enough. "Why, as Democrats, we would take money that we need to reserve for the on-year to help win and grow the majority — why we would spend that money against our own members is really baffling," she lamented to Politico.

Read more of Murphy's party criticisms at Politico.