Progressives' DNC Appearances Represent the Democratic Party's Successful Return to New Deal Policies
The Biden administration is the first in forty years to repudiate neo-liberal "trickle-down" economic policies. Sanders, Warren, and AOC's presence on the DNC stage last week represents that shift.

The Democratic National Convention is over, and we have a winning choice in Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.
Naturally, there was a parade of speakers from former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton; Michelle Obama; the first woman ever elected House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi; Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg; 2016 nominee Hillary Clinton; state governors; former and current congressional representatives (from both parties); United Automobile Worker (UAW) president Shawn Fain; First Lady Jill Biden; First Daughter Ashley Biden; and, of course, President Biden, whose effusive endorsement of VP Harris was powerful and inspiring. Even former Trump administration officials came to blast their boss.
But there were three speakers whose very presence on that stage in Chicago speak volumes about the successful progressive shift occurring within the Democratic party platform--Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Monday, opening night, featured NY Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC)’s masterful, blistering take down of the twice- impeached convicted felon. Some are comparing it to the speech then-Illinois Sen. Barack Obama delivered at the 2004 DNC that introduced him to America and launched his presidential future.
The 34-year-old’s speech electrified the room of Democrats, representing a dramatic shift from when the congresswoman from Queens first entered the scene in 2018 as an outsider and challenger to the party establishment — a Democratic Socialist who unseated 10-term incumbent Rep. Joseph Crowley, protested Democratic leadership in the House, and quickly became the poster child for the Democratic Party’s outlier left wing…Her primetime speech in 2024 reflects a changing party of which some believe she represents the future.
Stressing the importance of winning Democratic majorities in Congress in addition to the White House, AOC added:
But we cannot send Kamala and Tim to the White House alone. Together we must also elect strong Democratic majorities in the House and in the Senate so that we can deliver on an ambitious agenda for the people.
Granted the 2020 DNC was virtual due to the COVID-19 pandemic, four years ago AOC was afforded at it only a 90-second segment to introduce and endorse Sen. Bernie Sanders for president.
This year, though, she was showcased to address the convention about the Harris/Walz economic agenda to further empower the middle class and dismantle four decades of failed neo-liberal “trickle-down” economic theory.
She got rousing applause when acknowledging protesters calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and an Israeli arms embargo, stating VP Harris has been “working tirelessly to secure a ceasefire in Gaza and bringing hostages home.”
The Huffington Post explained:
By handing her a prime-time speaking slot at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Monday night, the Democratic Party has fully embraced New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — a still-occasional insurgent against the party’s leadership who opened her career with the shocking ouster of an incumbent.
It was not even Ocasio-Cortez’s idea to speak at the convention, according to a senior aide. The convention organizers contacted her about the opportunity and gave her a prime-time spot better than the slot given to New York’s governor. And she used it to deliver a stemwinder, generating some of the loudest cheers of the convention’s first night and leaving the crowd chanting “A-O-C” as she walked off the stage.
The embrace does not mean Ocasio-Cortez’s disagreements with senior Democrats have wholly disappeared. And it definitely does not mean the Democratic Party establishment fully embraces Ocasio-Cortez’s progressive agenda. But it does mean the two sides have decided that working together can benefit them both.
Even New York Democratic Chair Jay Jacobs complemented her (sort of) at the state delegation breakfast the morning after:
I thought AOC was outstanding last night. Don’t tell her I said that, will you?
Some are accusing AOC as an “abandoning” of the progressive bonafides that got her elected.
Nonsense.
She is using her role as a Democratic member of US House of Representatives to advance a progressive agenda to improve the lives of average Americans--from within. There is no point yelling and screaming from the sidelines. Only by working within the Democratic party can the modern-day party make its shift back to its FDR New Deal principles.
The following night featured Vt. Senator Bernie Sanders.
He extolled the Biden administration’s accomplishments, stating it has “accomplished more than any government since FDR.”
Reminding people of the crisis we faced when Biden took the oath of office in combating the COVID-19 pandemic, Sanders explained:
We were in the midst of the worst public health crisis in 100 years and the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. 3,000 Americans were dying every day and our hospitals were overwhelmed with COVID patients all across the country.
That was the reality the Biden-Harris Administration faced as they entered the Oval Office: a nation suffering, a nation frightened, and people looking to their government for support. Within two months of taking office, our government did respond.
He also acknowledged the work ahead a Harris/Walz administration must confront guaranteeing healthcare as a human right, raising the minimum wage to a living wage, passing the PRO Act, ensuring every American “regardless of income” has the ability to receive higher education, and taking on the pharmaceutical industry (aka “Big Pharma”) to cut prescription drug costs, which he and Biden have done in guaranteeing a $35 price cap on insulin and asthma inhalers.
Sanders said:
I hope that the day will come soon under a President Harris, where we’re not going to pay any more than other countries, which means lowering prescription drug costs in half.
Before concluding, he expressed his disappointment over America’s policy toward Israel in its war against the terrorist group Hamas, declaring:
On this issue, I think the president is wrong. Israel had a right to defend itself against this horrible Hamas terrorist attack, but they did not have the right to go to war against the entire Palestinian people, killing 30,000, mostly women, children, and elderly. And now creating a situation where tens and tens of thousands of children face starvation because Israel’s not letting humanitarian aid come through. So I believe that we should not be giving another nickel to Netanyahu’s right-wing extremist government.
Sanders has become a household name due to his 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns that introduced into the establishment Democratic lexicon terms that were once considered “fringe” and “far-left”: Medicare for all, tuition-free college, and raising the minimum wage. Not new issues, Sanders has used his presidential campaigns and role as the former chair of the Senate Budget Committee and Chair of the Healthcare, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee to advance them up on the party’s priority list.
Like AOC, his being asked to address the convention speaks to how far the political revolution he ran to inspire has come.
When Joe Biden accepted the nomination four years ago, he did not discount Sen. Sanders’ influence. Biden immediately formed a “unity task force”with Sanders and other progressive lawmakers and activists to produce a report addressing health care, the economy, climate change, criminal justice, education, and immigration that was incorporated into the 2020 DNC platform.
The final night of the convention featured Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, another progressive primary contender for the 2020 nomination.
With Sen. Sanders, she has used her influence in Congress to champion working Americans and hold corporate polluters and Wall Street banks accountable. One way was helping create the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) dedicated to fighting financial institutions’ unscrupulous practices responsible for ripping off millions.
She started her speech recalling her first encounter with Kamala Harris in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis when Harris was the California Attorney General, underscoring:
Kamala was protecting families. And Donald was scamming students at Trump University and trying to make money off people losing their homes. Kamala Harris stepped up. She enforced the law, she fought the giant banks, and she delivered billions of dollars of help for families.
“That is the difference between a criminal and prosecutor,” she added, to raucous plaudits and cheers.
These three important progressive lawmakers are helping to return the Democratic party to what it was from 1933 to 1981, when expanded government initiatives and policies helped create a thriving middle class and economy. From President Franklin Roosevelt to Jimmy Carter, the United States enjoyed its longest stretch of economic and social prosperity.
But then former president Ronald Reagan pronounced in his first inaugural address, “Government is not the solution to your problems; government is the problem,” ushering in another gilded age where the morbidly rich can flood the political zone with campaign donations in exchange for more tax cuts. We have him, George W. Bush, and the convicted felon running again for his old job for the tax cuts that created billionaires that literally did not exist in America until the 1980s.
The administration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris is the first in forty years to repudiate neo-liberal “trickle-down” economic policies.
Senators Sanders, Warren, and Rep. AOC’s presence on that stage last week represent that repudiation.
It’s about time.