Democratic Primary

A week ago I wrote an opinion piece for this publication titled, “How To Kill the Democratic Party of Virginia” after attending the Blue Commonwealth Gala in Richmond on June 16. I had no idea that this opinion piece would create as many arguments and as much division as it has.

I have been called a “traitor”, an imitator, and told to “become an agent of change” and be “more involved in the party”. I disagree with all of this. Nonetheless, I have been called out, verbally attacked, and sternly spoken to as if I were a child. These interactions were naturally from Virginia Democrats. I’m not sure if this occurred because the title of my piece was so shocking, or if I just hit a raw nerve within the party by saying what lots of people (especially young people) are thinking, and how can we not? Look around at what’s happening nationally.

Either way, the blowback was surprising and emotionally draining. But let me tell you a story:

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, an activist and member of the Democratic Socialists of America, beat long-standing Democratic Congressman and New York City political powerhouse Joe Crowley in New York’s 14th congressional district Democratic primary race.

What does this win tell you? It tells me that the Democratic Party has become old, tired, and is not listening to the young people it should be recruiting as its next generation. Crowely even refused to debate Cortez publicly–part of a long trend of the party being patronizing and dismissive towards young people.

What was Ocasio-Cortez doing during the last weeks of her primary campaign? Protesting at an ICE detention center in Texas. This is what we want to see as young Democrats. This young woman stands for the abolition of ICE, universal Medicare, criminal justice reforms, a federal jobs guarantee, and free college tuition. She was at Standing Rock, from April 2016 to February 2017, when Native Americans protested against a natural gas pipeline cutting through their sacred North Dakota land.

On the other hand, Crowly presents like a Republican: He voted to create the Department of Homeland Security, voted for the war in Iraq, is a monied Democrat, and has not been challenged in 14 years. Too many elected Democrats struggle to believe that a change is upon the party. They still believe this is the party of Hillary and Bill Clinton, and consistently struggle to understand why this is a bad strategy.

One of these Democrats is House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. In a statement after Ocasio-Cortez’s win she said, “The fact that in a very progressive district in New York it went more progressive—Joe Crowley is a progressive, but more to the left than Joe Crowley, is about that district. It is not to be viewed as something that stands for everything else.”

Pelosi’s refusal to acknowledge that Ocasio-Cortez’ win is a threat to establishment Democrats is a wake up call to what young people are shouting at the top of our lungs: what is happening right now in the party is not working.

How would you describe today’s Democratic Party, nationally and in Virginia? Is it a party that is divided over ideology and outreach? Have the Democrats protected us from the hate, fear, and restriction of civil liberties being restricted (because the current administration excels at dividing and conquering)? Does the party have a strategic plan to fight against Trump’s next Supreme Court appointee (his last nominee was supported by at least three Democratic Senators)? Is this a party that looks eerily similar to the Republican Party in the way it is financed by corporate donors who reject a progressive agenda?

Now, more than ever before, Democrats in Virginia and nationally need to band together and adhere to a strategy that represents the party’s next generation. Democrats have won the popular vote in six out of the past seven presidential elections, but conservatives continue to dominate both houses of Congress and now the Supreme Court–that is reflective of political failure.

Republicans will use their control of the Supreme Court to exert policy control nationally for many generations to come, which will damage unions, uphold voter suppression, and, in every way, threaten Roe v. Wade and LGBTQ rights.

In the years ahead, there are other justices that may also need to step down given their age (Ruth Bader Ginsberg is 85, Stephen Breyer is 79), resulting in more liberal seats opening during the Trump Presidency.

So the question once again becomes, what is our strategy? Because older establishment Democrats will not have to bear the brunt of this, we will.

As a thought exercise, I can describe what I envision the Democratic Party in Virginia and nationally to look like moving forward: a party focused on protecting the environment, removing money and corporations from politics, healthcare for all, eradicating ICE, making education a priority, resolving the student loan debt crisis, investing in critical national infrastructure, and re-establishing the middle class–something the party has moved away from.

Ocasio-Cortez’ win shows that the sentiment in my original opinion piece was not wrong or misguided. Progressives are ready for a change in leadership. It is important for me to highlight how many strangers have tweeted, messaged, and emailed me to say that they agreed the Democratic Party is being unrealistic regarding their expectations for the average member.

The Democratic Party needs to do better and stop turning their noses up at candidates like Ocasio-Cortez. The Democratic Party would prefer that moderate centrists candidates continue to run, but we don’t live in moderate times.

The only silver lining about the 2016 election is nothing is safe anymore with regards to status-quo politics. Ocasio-Cortez and her progressive platform is an excellent example. I for one am going to keep working for the most progressive candidate, the one whose platform aligns with the issues that impact my life and the lives of the those around me, the patients I see in my practice, and the voices that seem to be forgotten in the current Democratic Party. If you’re a candidate like Ocasio-Cortez, count me in as someone who will work relentlessly to ensure you’re elected.

When asked about making the jump from intelligence professional to civilian politics, former CIA agent and Democratic primary candidate for Virginia’s 7th District, Abigail Spanberger, had a very distinct answer. “My whole role was to become a subject matter expert on a variety of different topics at a variety of different times.” As an intelligence professional, Spanberger had to use her analytical skills to cover issues like nuclear mitigation, science, technology, and narco-trafficking.

While these skills on the surface might seem to apply only to the world of a professional spy, Spanberger explains how they have prepared her for life on the campaign trail. “What is the most transferable of these skill-sets is understanding really complicated topics that have inter-related challenges and then communicating them back to other people.” And as a legislator, this is how she would assess the most critical issues that her district and the US faces; as a series of policy initiatives that connect across issues.

Spanberger, like her primary opponent Dan Ward, stands out in this election cycle because of the vast foreign policy credentials she gained while working abroad. A former law enforcement officer for the US Postal Inspection Service, Spanberger went on to become a core collector with the CIA, responsible for enlisting sources and gathering intelligence that informed national security policy. To obtain this position, recruitment can take anywhere between 12-18 months and includes extensive background checks and polygraph testing, along with medical and mental evaluations.

RVA Mag caught up with Spanberger at her campaign office in Henrico to take the temperature on what is happening around the globe and how her experience abroad is playing out on the campaign trail.

“My experience in foreign policy and in the intelligence world would be incredibly unique,” said Spanberger, when asked if she would tackle foreign policy in Congress. Indeed, her experience is unique and she is only one of two other women with these spooky credentials running for Congress this cycle. The other being Elissa Slotkin, a Democrat running in Michigan who was also in the CIA. Despite this, she was quick to clarify that her passion for serving was not only her commitment to country, but also helping people understanding complex things.

My interests can easily pivot from North Korea nuclear policy to Latin American leadership issues to health care, tax policy, and mental illness,” said Spanberger.

Nonetheless, a lot is happening in the world, and it is not often that one hears directly from a former CIA agent running for Congress about the dangers lurking in the shadows.

“We are at a point of strange instability,” commented Spanberger, expanding on her worldview and the challenges the US faces. “In particular for other countries, you could always generally always guess where the US was going to go as it related to foreign policy. You could always generally understand the ribbon that tied all of our actions together.” Like most, she was quick to comment on the President Trump’s Twitter feed, acknowledging that US strategy now varies “tweet to tweet”. She summed up this kind of foreign policy as “wholly phrenetic” and lacking the continuity that foreign countries need to “engage with us diplomatically.”

Because of the frenzied inconsistency of this strategy, foreign policy professionals have been at a loss for how to conduct business. Yet from a certain perspective, gains have also been made, such as the announcement that North and South Korea will officially end hostilities after 65 years. This presents a problem for Democrats running on foreign policy credentials, something Spanberger was pressed on in terms of how the administration should be credited.

“This is more complicated than it outwardly looks,” she replied, before admitting, “It is to strange of a turn of events. There is a play somewhere and a variety of options as to what it can be, maybe that is a little too pessimistic. Normally I am an optimist.”

One of the defining features of this political age is the way in which fringe messaging which borders on the conspiratorial has become mainstream, and this year’s election cycle in Virginia is no exception.

In fact, the sitting incumbent for the 7th District, Congressman Dave Brat, has been called out more than once for re-tweeting conspiracy theories, most notably after the school shooting in Parkland, Florida. Spanberger has not been immune to this messaging either, being pinged by publications like The Gateway Pundit as being part of a “deep-state conspiracy” due to her CIA background.

“So I have gotten the deep state narrative,” she said. “I would write something on Facebook about healthcare and they would write ‘you’re deep-state we shouldn’t listen to you’.” This messaging has only been emboldened by a roster of up and coming Democrats who have foreign policy and intelligence credentials, along with Trump’s attacks on the Justice Department claiming they are engaged in a deep-state conspiracy against his presidency.

“There are a couple of us running and the Washington Post ran an article about Elissa and me, and that got a lot of play and that’s when it picked up.” In an age of foreign-based social media campaigns, Spanberger was quick to point out that these were not Russia bots, but people living in Virginia’s 7th District.

While foreign policy is built into the DNA of the Spanberger campaign, her focus still remains local.

Asking about her priorities if she makes it to Congress, she was quick to name three: financial stability, gun-violence prevention, and healthcare; something she spoke enthusiastically about, “We find ourselves in a place where premiums are continuing to rise, estimates are thousands of people in the 7th District are going to lose their healthcare.” Explaining how healthcare can be addressed, she commented on the need to bring back the individual mandate as a way of strengthening the Affordable Care Act, along with allowing Medicare to negotiate its own prescription drug prices. “There is a variety of things we can do to positively impact someone’s life as it relates to healthcare, and we need to be doing all of it.”

Before closing out, Spanberger was asked what her message is to young people and her answer was reflective of 2018. “Everything is political. Whatever it is you care about it is linked to politics..nothing will change until the people who want it to change get involved.”

Photos by Landon Shroder

Opinion: When Will the Democratic Party Finally Listen to the Next Generation?

Former CIA Agent Abigail Spanberger is on a Mission for Virginia’s 7th District