“Debate backlash.” “Obama allies exasperated.” “Stay away from Barack.” So the headlines read after last week’s presidential debates, with pundit after pundit faulting progressive Democratic candidates for daring to interrogate the legacy of President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.
The critics’ argument: With a madman in the White House, Democrats need unity, and public disagreements about Obama’s and Biden’s record — and by extension, mainstream Democratic policy ideas — will hand Donald Trump his re-election.
These so-called experts are wringing their hands for nothing. Fifteen months until next year’s general election is precisely the right moment to carefully examine the past to get the details right on key issues like health care and immigration. If Democrats just try to paper over their differences in search of unity, the party will never learn from the past, improve its policy offerings, or offer a clear forward-looking vision. And, by recycling a tired policy playbook, the party could well make Trump’s re-election more likely.
Let’s get some obvious points of agreement for Democrats out of the way: Yes, Trump is a vile white supremacist who poses a grave danger to our communities and our planet. Yes, Democrats should do everything we can do defeat him. And yes, Barack Obama was a far superior president, with important policy achievements, including a significant expansion of access to health care, expanding overtime pay for millions of workers and inking the Paris climate accord.
But none of this means we should avoid re-examining the Obama presidency. With enormous challenges facing communities across the country, and much damage done by Trump himself to undo, it’s critical that candidates have strong policy solutions. Some can be achieved by reversing bad Trump policy (for instance, rescinding reckless executive orders), but many policy matters will require learning from the past and developing a new approach.
On health care, while the Affordable Care Act brought health insurance coverage to 20 million Americans — an enormous feat — tens of millions continue to lack coverage. While Democrats must resist Trump and other Republicans’ concerted attacks on access to health care, we must also turn to making our health-care system truly universal. How best can we ensure access to health care — by tweaking a private insurance-based system that puts insurance and pharmaceutical company profits before patients’ needs, or by expanding Medicare to everyone via a single-payer system that other countries use for truly universal, less expensive, and more effective health care? Every candidate should have to answer this question.
On immigration, the Obama administration took executive action for millions of immigrant youth and parents through Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and Deferred Action for Parents of Americans, the latter of which was blocked in the courts. But Obama also oversaw an enormous expansion in immigration enforcement — 3 million deportations during his tenure — that earned him the moniker of deporter-in-chief from immigrant rights activists.
Of course, Trump’s approach to immigrant communities — tearing apart families at the border, threatening mass deportation, using racist slurs, and implementing a Muslim ban, for starters — is far worse. But as we envision our country after Trump, we must look to something better than what came before him.
Here, the debates have been useful: While forcefully rejecting Trump’s disastrous immigration policies, several progressive candidates have also criticized Obama-Biden policies that criminalized and dehumanized immigrants. They have centered instead the ideas of decriminalizing migration and ensuring access to health care for all, regardless of immigration status.
These proposals, like Medicare for All, are good policy and good politics: They both reflect the values of much of the Democratic base, which will help excite voters and volunteers, and offer a glimpse at what a brighter, post-Trump future could offer.
The alternative to rigorous policy debate — waxing poetic about prior Democratic leaders and ignoring policy differences — is a recipe for disaster. Voters across this country are paying more attention than ever, and they want real solutions. To match the enthusiasm among Trump’s white nationalist base in 2020, and his attempts to suppress voting in communities of color, Democrats will need more people power than ever. That calls for a transformative vision that voters can believe in.
Many Americans are understandably terrified by the very real possibility of Trump’s re-election. Count me among them. But, as we do everything we can to organize our communities and prepare to mobilize voters, let us not stifle debate.
The 2020 primary elections offer the Democratic Party its best chance for robust policy debate in a generation. We must not waste it.
Altschuler is the managing director of Make the Road Action, an immigrant advocacy organization.