Kinzinger's Been Voting Blue... Will He Join The Party? Should Dems Welcome Him?
Starting with FDR’s presidency one would describe the Democratic Party’s core values in terms of a kind of economic security for the American people that included government intervention bolstered by a belief in the government's role to regulate the economy to mitigate the harsh effects of capitalism, including unemployment and poverty. Let’s add to this social welfare (social safety nets like Social Security and Medicare), protections for the right of working people to unionize, an economy where prosperity is more broadly shared, reducing disparities between the rich and the poor and a strong advocacy for the end of racial segregation and discrimination, promoting equal rights for all Americans plus inclusivity. Anything else? Oh, yeah, environmental protection and climate crisis amelioration. Being a Democrat also encompasses a willingness to consider innovative solutions to modern problems, reflecting a progressive mindset that seeks to adapt and evolve policies to meet contemporary challenges.
So… pretty different from how conservatives see the world. And yet, for one reason or another, the Democratic Party has plenty of conservatives— women repelled by the GOP’s misogyny for example, members of minority groups repelled by the bigotry, exigencies of their districts, for Zionists old enough to have chosen team blue when the Democrats were the pro-Israel party, others for other reasons. I mean, let’s face it, Henry Cuellar (TX), Don Davis (NC), Marie Glusenkamp Perez (WA), Jared Golden (ME), Josh Gottheimer (NJ), Jim Costa (CA) as well as new members Wesley Bell (MO), April Delaney (MD) and Adam Gray (CA), not to mention Rahm Emanuel (IL), may have reasons for being in the Democratic Party but they don’t exactly embrace the party’s core values. And now ex-Republicans are being drawn to identifying with the party as well— most of them bringing along their ideological baggage.
That’s why I was thinking about what it means to be a Democrat… because anti-Trump conservative Republicans have been migrating into the party. Yesterday, Adam Kinzinger, in an interview about the film, The Last Republican with Forbes said “The thing that surprised me most with this and here's a funny thing about the last couple of years, I've built these new alliances, like I've realized I'm probably closer to a Democrat now because of how the Republican Party has changed. The Democrats are now the party that's defending America's role in the world, defending Ukraine, which I'm really passionate about.”
The influx of conservative Republicans who hate Trump into the Democratic Party threatens to undermine the party’s core values and further dilute whatever is left— post Clinton— of the party’s brand. While figures like Kinzinger have shown courage in opposing Trumpism, their conservatism clashes with traditional Democratic principles. Note that when he described his newfound quasi-alignment with the Democratic Party it’s rooted in shared support for America’s global role and defense of Ukraine, rather than anything remotely resembling a broader embrace of progressive economic or social policies at the heart of the grassroots Democratic Party.
So, after everything that has happened and continues to happen as a result of him standing up for what he believes is right, does he have hope that the GOP can return to what it once was and a party he can align with again? The future could lie in America's political history.
“That's a good question,” he muses. “Every democracy needs like a left movement and a right movement; it's that push-pull. Obviously, we needed to go forward on gay marriage. There are some things that conservative movements do a good job of saying, ‘Well, hold on.’ I think the Republican Party is toast for a while. Everything is a pendulum, and I honestly believe that Trumpism doesn't survive past these four years. While I'm pissed Trump won, had he lost, I couldn't have put an expiration date on Trumpism. It could have been right then and could have been 10 years from now. The only good thing about Trump winning is that in four years, people are going to want nothing to do with him or his movement anymore.”
“That's typically the same for any American president. After their eighth year, America turned against them; it happened with George W. Bush, it happened with Barack Obama, it happened with everybody, so I don't think the Republican Party is saveable in the near term. We all love this idea of a third party, but that's tough, even mechanically, to pull off. Suppose the Democrats understand that there is room for centrist Democrats. I live in Texas now, and in the last election, Democrats put up a great candidate against Ted Cruz, Colin Allred. Unfortunately, it was a bad year in Texas, but he, a friend of mine, was actually the perfect candidate to defeat Cruz. If you were to put a Colin Allred type as the equivalent of a Republican, they'd have kicked him out for being too moderate. So, I do think there's an opportunity for Democrats to have this family discussion and run the country.”
Fmr. Rep. concludes, “Like I say, I think the Republican Party for the near term, unfortunately, is toast. I hope I'm wrong, and I hope in four years, everybody wakes up and realizes they were under the spell of Donald Trump, and we need to get back to a Ronald Reagan-type or George W Bush without the wars because he was this compassionate conservative type. It's tough because, honestly, the young generation is getting radicalized, and young men particularly. Young people now have never seen politics outside of Donald Trump being a factor, and so that's my whole mission, to try to remind people that politics doesn't have to be this.”
In 2018 Colin Allred, a conservative-leaning Democrat decided to challenge far right Republican Pete Sessions for a North Dallas House seat but he had to get by progressive Lillian Salerno in a primary runoff first. The DCCC stepped in to sabotage Salerno and help Allred. Allred went on to beat Sessions, join the New Dems and run up a corporate-friendly record. Eventually, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce which almost never endorses Democrats, backed Allred. He’s that kind of Democrat— and the kind of Democrat Kinzinger digs.
Ted Cruz beat him by nearly a million votes— 53.1% to 44.6%. He didn’t do nearly as well as Beto in his race against Cruz. In that one Beto won 48.3% and held Cruz to a razor thin 50.9%. This raises a critical question for Democrats: How much should they accommodate conservative Republicans fleeing Trumpism? Or should they double down on progressive values that differentiate the party from the GOP? Kinzinger’s belief that the Republican Party is “toast” in the short term might comfort some Democrats, but his call for a return to Reagan-style conservatism signals a desire to reshape the Democratic Party into a centrist coalition that is already alienating the progressive base. Faced with a nothing candidate who stands for nothing but her career, 19 million Biden voters stayed home in 2024, very much helping to explain how Trump won. (Maybe Kamala should have thought more closely about why it was a bad idea to parade around teh country with Liz Cheney.)
Democrats must decide whether they will remain a party rooted in economic justice, social equity and climate action, or whether they'll continue to drift toward some mushy middle to accommodate former Republicans like Kinzinger. The stakes are high, especially as younger generations demand bold, transformative policies to address systemic issues. The Democratic Party’s future depends on whether it can resist the temptation to water down its values and instead build a coalition that embraces progressivism while welcoming allies who genuinely support its vision for a more equitable and sustainable America.
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