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"If we want to beat Donald Trump and achieve big progressive goals, socialism is not the answer," Hickenlooper said on Saturday afternoon in San Francisco. As many in the crowd of 4,500 jeered, he added: "You know, if we're not careful, we're going to end up helping to reelect the worst president in American history."
Referring to Medicare-for-all, Hickenlooper said: "We shouldn't try to achieve universal coverage by removing private insurance from over 150 million Americans."
Speaking about the Green New Deal, he added, "We should not try to tackle climate change by guaranteeing every American a government job."
Hickenlooper's remarks evoked another Democratic presidential candidate's intentionally provocative speech 27 years ago. In May 1992, Bill Clinton chastised hip-hop artist Sister Souljah for suggesting that killing white police officers might not be so bad in the wake of the Los Angeles riots. Speaking at a convention organized by Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Coalition, the then-governor of Arkansas said: "If you took the words 'white' and 'black' and reversed them, you might think David Duke was giving that speech. We have an obligation, all of us, to call attention to prejudice whenever we see it."
A Sister Souljah Moment has become shorthand for when a candidate directly challenges a core constituency in their party. Clinton, of course, did not invent this. At the 1990 California Democratic Party convention, for instance, a candidate for governor touted her support for the death penalty knowing she would get booed. She used the clip in commercials that autumn to reassure independent voters that she wouldn't be cowed by the left.
Hickenlooper called me on Sunday as he crossed the Bay Bridge to attend services at a black church in Oakland. "There's certainly a liberal element that shows up at these state conventions, so I wasn't surprised. I was aware that there might be some pushback," he said. "I was careful not to call any of the other candidates socialists. What I was trying to do is make sure that we recognize - all of us, all 23 candidates - that it's our responsibility to define who we are but also who we are not. The Republicans are going to use this against us, and we have to draw a clear line that we are not socialists. . . . Is guaranteeing everyone a federal job socialism? We can debate that, but certainly I guarantee you that Republicans are going to call it socialism."
Taking the stage immediately after Hickenlooper walked off, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee took an unmistakable shot. "I am a governor who doesn't think we should be ashamed of our progressive values," he said. The crowd roared.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, the only candidate in the 2020 field who has identified as a democratic socialist, spoke to the party convention on Sunday. He didn't mention Hickenlooper or use the word socialism, but he said that there can be "no middle ground" when it comes to pulling U.S. troops out of wars, lowering prescription drug prices and enacting universal health care. "We cannot go back to the old ways," Sanders said.
Despite his popularity in Colorado, and eight years as the chief executive of a purple battleground state, Hickenlooper has struggled to break beyond 1 percent in the national polls. But Hickenlooper is gambling his candidacy on the assumption that the nominee won't be determined by far-left activists in San Francisco. The 67-year-old is a self-made millionaire. Laid off as a geologist in the 1980s, he started a successful brewpub that helped revitalize a downtown neighborhood and then expanded. In 2003, he became mayor of Denver. He was elected governor in 2010 and reelected in 2014, despite Republican waves both years.
This isn't some academic debate. Accusing Democrats of falling under the spell of socialism has become one of Trump's favorite lines on the trail. Gallup polling released last month showed that 43 percent of U.S. adults say socialism would be a good thing for the country, while 51 percent say it would be bad. The survey found that 47 percent of Americans said they would vote for a qualified presidential candidate who is a socialist.
Last summer, another Gallup poll revealed that Democrats hold a more positive image of socialism than capitalism for the first time: 57 percent of self-identified Democrats have a favorable view of socialism while only 47 percent see capitalism positively. This delta is driven mainly by young people. Overall, a 51 percent majority of all Americans aged 18 to 29 see socialism positively. Only 45 percent of that cohort feels positively about capitalism, down 12 points from 2010.
Public opinion research and interviews with voters have revealed that the term means different things to different people, and that its perceived definition has changed over time. Generations ago, people understood socialism to mean government control over the means of production. Nowadays, many see it as something akin to social equality. But it remains overwhelmingly unpopular with Republicans and many older people.
"There's an awful lot of baggage in this country attached to the word socialism," Hickenlooper said. "Those of us who grew up in the Cold War saw firsthand the slow, continuous deterioration of the quality of life of people that lived under socialism and communism. That's an experience that some of the younger Americans haven't had."
Hickenlooper said young people are also understandably hungry for dramatic change because they have been let down by society. "You've got to remember that 65 to 70 percent of our kids are never going to get a four-year degree," he said. "That's been true for 40 years. We have to recognize that we haven't been giving them the skills that they're going to need to compete in this new economy."
I asked Hickenlooper if he sees Medicare-for-all and the Green New Deal as socialist ideas. "Well, I think they're massive government expansions," he said. "Those are the kinds of things that Republicans will try to turn into 'socialism.' They're going to call it 'socialism,' and they're going to say this is taking away the freedom and independence of the individual. They're going to try and twist it in every way they can because that's about the only card they're left holding as long as they're still supporting Trump."
But are the Republicans correct on that point? "Well, it depends," Hickenlooper replied. "If you're going to guarantee everybody a job and that's a basic fundamental characteristic [of your economy], you're certainly moving toward socialism."
Sanders, an independent from Vermont who caucuses with Democrats, has long identified as a democratic socialist. "Donald Trump is going to say that about every single candidate in the field, whether you're Kamala Harris or Beto O'Rourke or Pete Buttigieg," Faiz Shakir, Sanders's campaign manager, told Bloomberg News last week. "The only difference is that Bernie Sanders is going to lean into it. He'll talk about the corporate socialism of Trump."
While Sanders seldom uses the s-word of his own volition anymore, he continues to vigorously critique the failures of capitalism."We must understand that unfettered capitalism and the greed of corporate America are destroying the moral and economic fabric of this country, deepening the very anxieties that Mr. Trump appealed to in 2016," the senator wrote in an op-ed for Monday's New York Times. "We are the wealthiest nation in the history of the world and, according to Trump, the economy is 'booming.' Yet most Americans have little or no savings and live paycheck to paycheck. . . . If we are to defeat Mr. Trump, we must do more than focus on his personality and reactionary policies."
Hickenlooper said he shares the same goals as many of the people who jeered him, and he thinks his approach - which includes trying to work with Republicans to seek bipartisan consensus - can accomplish what they want more effectively. "Most Democrats share this notion of universal coverage. Most Democrats really understand the urgency of climate change. But I think we'll get to better solutions faster by recognizing that big, massive government expansions are not going to be as successful," he said in our interview.
"We're in a national crisis of division, and Trump is fueling it but he's not the cause of it," he added. "He's the symptom. He's not the disease. My whole point is that I'm the one person who's actually done all the progressive things the other people are talking about. As such, I think I can I can win in Ohio, North Carolina and Michigan. But, almost more importantly, I've demonstrated that after we beat Trump, I can bring people together. We've got a national vision for climate change and a national vision for universal health care that we can get to rapidly with relatively modest investments. A lot of what we've done in Colorado is a template of what will work nationally."
Hickenlooper pinpoints 1980, the year Ronald Reagan was elected president, as "an inflection point" that sent America on the path toward today's "crisis of division." This weekend's convention took place at the George R. Moscone Convention Center, which was named for the murdered San Francisco mayor and which also hosted the 1984 Democratic National Convention, where Walter Mondale declared so self-destructively that he would raise taxes if he defeated Reagan. Mondale carried only his home state of Minnesota and the District of Columbia. Hickenlooper is determined not to repeat the mistakes that have made Democrats unelectable in the past.
That's partly why running to save capitalism for future generations has become a central rationale for his candidacy. "From 1946 to 1980, literally almost every person in this country doubled their income. Since then, roughly half of Americans have had no increase and, if anything, have lost ground," Hickenlooper said. "The shrinking, some would say the evisceration, of the middle class is a real concern. . . . Our system historically has been a place where a middle class has not only security but opportunity. If people could get a hold of that latter, they could pull themselves up. That's no longer the case."
The governor said it's crucial to raise the minimum wage, expand the earned income tax credit and invest in community colleges to improve skills-based training. But he's calling for more than incremental fixes. "In my first term as governor, we had wildfires, floods and the [movie theater] shooting in Aurora," Hickenlooper recalled. "One of the things I learned is if someone has lost everything, you can't go back to people and say we're going to rebuild it back the way it was. That's not going to be sufficient to inspire them to recover and to be resilient. So what I said during those disasters, and what I say in terms of the damage that Trump has done, is that we're going to rebuild and be much better than we were back then. . . . A Hickenlooper presidency is really kind of bringing a whole different approach to a lot of these issues."
As with several of his Democratic rivals, antitrust has become a focus. Hickenlooper faults the Reagan administration for taking steps in 1981 to scale back enforcement of the antitrust laws, which led to an era of consolidation that he believes has hurt small businesses. He endorses collecting data and looking at whether the biggest technology companies have too much power, but he says the problem is bigger than tech.
"Capitalism will only work if you've got open, fair and competitive markets to be sure that we get the best choices at the lowest prices," Hickenlooper said. "Over 80 percent of hardware sales are from two companies. No wonder people aren't starting hardware stores or neighborhood stores on Main Street. These consolidations are happening in so many industries. We get distracted by saying, 'What about Google and what about Amazon?' Those are legitimate questions to be asking, but I think in a broader sense, we need to ask: How do we get more start-ups? For the last 20-plus years, every year there have been fewer businesses started than in the previous year. That's not healthy for capitalism."
Colorado is a must-win state for Democrats in 2020, and Hickenlooper does not think someone who gets defined as a socialist can prevail there. Geography might be a factor that helps explain why Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., who served as Hickenlooper's chief of staff when he was mayor of Denver, has also made opposition to socialism part of his presidential bid. Bennet likes to point out that he stood to applaud Trump during the State of the Union when the president declared that America will never be a socialist country.
"When he said we're never going to be a socialist country, I was the first Democrat out of their chair," Bennet said at a March house party in New Hampshire. "I didn't know this at the time, but Bernie is sitting right behind me and he's sitting in his chair scowling while I'm standing up and applauding. ... The reason I was on my feet is that I'm not going to let him disqualify us that way. I know what he's trying to do. . . . I want to show that Democrats don't feel that way. Most Democrats don't."
If Hickenlooper was trying to get attention, his gambit worked. He generated significant cable conversation on Sunday. It was a hot topic during the roundtable on CNN's "State of the Union," for example. Former Tallahassee mayor Andrew Gillum, the liberal who won an upset in last year's Democratic primary to be Florida governor but lost the general election to Ron DeSantis, criticized Hickenlooper for "parroting a Republican trope." "There is not a single Democrat . . . who is running as a socialist," said Gillum, who campaigned with Sanders in the Sunshine State. "Social democracy is different than socialism."
"It was an important statement to make," countered Joe Lockhart, who was White House press secretary for Clinton. "There are some people in the Democratic Party who believe in socialism. A very small number. If the Republicans are able to brand a Democrat as a socialist, then they'll be very successful. None of them are, but I give Hickenlooper credit for going in and saying that's not right. He may not have said it precisely right, but it is an important message."
The leading liberal candidates - including Sanders and Elizabeth Warren - used their speeches in San Francisco to take digs at Joe Biden, who continues to lead in early national polls and skipped the convention to campaign in Ohio. "Some say that if we just calm down, the Republicans will come to their senses," Warren said, referring to the former vice president. "But our country is in a crisis. The time for small ideas is over."
"Leftist candidates and activists have concluded they can no longer wait for Biden to fade on his own, as some once hoped," the Post's Sean Sullivan reported from San Francisco. "Nor can they count on Democratic congressional leaders to fight Trump with all the tools at their disposal, without some prodding. . . . But the power of their newly emboldened movement remains unclear. Even here in deep blue California, it faces hurdles. Late Saturday, the state party overwhelmingly elected a labor leader from the mainstream ranks of the party as its new chairman. He defeated a liberal activist backed by many Sanders supporters.
"Interviews with current and former elected officials, strategists and donors in California revealed a relatively high level of confidence in Biden's ability to defeat Trump. Many Democrats see that as the most important quality in a candidate. 'This is not a normal presidential election,' said former U.S. senator Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat who called beating Trump a 'moral imperative.' Asked who fits that bill, she replied, 'I think the only one right now is Joe.' That could change with time, said Boxer, who has not endorsed a candidate."
"Bernie's clout in the party might be overrated," The Post's Dave Weigel wrote in his list of takeaways from the weekend: "Kamala Harris doesn't have California locked up . . . but most other candidates can't compete for it. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Rep. Eric Swalwell - whose district was a short 30-minute BART ride away - had the most distracted crowds. . . . Pete Buttigieg did well without surprising anyone. . . . Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota out-hustled a number of stronger-polling candidates, appearing at every caucus and reception she could, but didn't leave with one strong theme.
"Just a couple of candidates performed in a way that had Democrats talking about a possible breakout: Cory Booker and Jay Inslee. The senator from New Jersey, one of the most dramatic orators in the party, used his speech to declare 'the normalization' of gun violence 'the challenge of our generation,' and got a standing ovation.
"Warren's very good month was capped off by a series of Bay Area coups. She drew the largest crowd of her campaign in Oakland, where at least 6,000 people came to hear her, and thousands waited in line to get a photo with her. . . . She got the best reception at the convention on Saturday, with a speech that subtly but unmistakably pitched her as the alternative to a race-to-the-middle Biden candidacy."
Harris has fallen out of the top tier of 2020 candidates. The Los Angeles Times's Melanie Mason and Mark Z. Barabak reported: "There is a prevalent sense that for all her seeming potential, California's charismatic U.S. senator has fallen short of expectation. The disappointment, observers say, stems in part from Harris' failure to present a compelling case for her candidacy beyond her background as a prosecutor, her buoyant personality and a deep contempt - shared by others in the contest - for Trump. . . . Backers say Harris' slow-and-steady approach is the right one for this early stage of the campaign, arguing that consistency on the trail and fundraising matter more than catchy sound bites or viral moments."
Strapped for cash, several Democratic hopefuls who talked a big game about rejecting big money are now going hat in hand to Wall Street, Hollywood and Silicon Valley. The Post's Michelle Ye Hee Lee reported: "Last month in Manhattan, Beto O'Rourke held a private reception for supporters who had paid the maximum amount to his campaign or brought in as much as $25,000 by persuading others to do the same. It was the first such fundraiser of O'Rourke's presidential bid - and a contrast from the early days of his campaign, when he emphasized that he had 'no large-dollar fundraisers planned, and I don't plan to do them.' . . . Many of the candidates previously had held a handful of high-dollar fundraisers or avoided them altogether. . . . But after a disappointing fundraising haul in the first quarter of the year, and as the primary drags on with no clear front-runner, many of the candidates are turning their focus to wealthy donors."
Several candidates held fundraisers in the Bay Area over the weekend, including Buttigieg, Gillibrand and Klobuchar. Booker, Gillibrand and Klobuchar also recently schmoozed with the "Hillblazers," who raised at least $100,000 for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign, at a gathering at the D.C. home of Esther Coopersmith. And on Wall Street, a group of Democratic donors recently met with Buttigieg. In New York, a group of wealthy and prominent Democratic donors recently opened their homes and offices in Manhattan to host private "salons" with O'Rourke, Buttigieg, Klobuchar, Booker and Bennet. "Many of those donors have made maximum donations to multiple candidates," Lee reports. "One of those donors is Robert Wolf, a former investment banker and an Obama supporter. He said he has met with about a dozen candidates, which included a recent one-on-one with O'Rourke, and has given money to 10 presidential contenders."
During a town hall on Fox News on Sunday night, Gillibrand attacked the network for spreading a "false narrative" about abortion rights.Politico's Elena Schneider reports: "'We want women to have a seat at the table,' Gillibrand said. At that, [Chris] Wallace jumped in and asked: 'What about men?' 'They're already there - do you not know?' Gillibrand said, greeted by one of the biggest rounds of applause of the night. 'It's not meant to be exclusionary, it's meant to be inclusionary,' she said. 'All right, we're not threatened,' Wallace responded."
The DCCC policy that bars consultants from working for primary challengers may undermine women of color who are trying to emulate the success of rising stars like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York or Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts. "Of the 50 longest-serving House Democrats, two-thirds are white and about the same share are men. Insurgents are often female, often young and often nonwhite," Jennifer Steinhauer notes in the New York Times.
Wisconsin Democrats elected a longtime leader of the liberal group MoveOn.org to chair the state party. Madison native Ben Wikler held a string of national political positions within MoveOn, where he helped lead the successful organizing push to halt the repeal of Obamacare. (Wisconsin State Journal)
In case you missed it: Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan announced that he will not challenge Trump in the GOP primaries. Hogan's decision dashed the hopes of conservative Trump critics who envisioned the popular governor as a viable alternative to the president. But Hogan said he wanted to focus on his role as governor and as the incoming chair of the National Governors Association. "I have a commitment to the 6 million people of Maryland and a lot of work to do, things we haven't completed," Hogan told Bob Costa. But he also criticized the direction of the Republican Party, saying, "We need to have a bigger tent and find a way to get things done."
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