Recently, failed Democratic presidential primary candidate Andrew Yang along with other prominent sufferers of Compulsive Centrist Disorder announced the formation of a new third party for the 2024 presidential campaign, called the Forward Party. Jamelle Bouie, taking their claims of trying to offer a new direction at face value, does a very nice debunking of their political project.

But there’s no reason to take their claims at face value (no one does this with other political parties). When you look at who is funding this effort, it’s the same corporate centrist ideologues who fund ambulatory shit stains like Josh Gottheimer (D-FIRE Sector). This is nothing more than rich people who, realizing that the mainstream of the party, and not just the Radical Left, is moving away from centrist ideology out of political survival, have decided to take their ball and go home.

In other words, this is a barely veiled threat to the Democratic Party from the neo-liberal wing: move ‘too far’ to the left (which is to say, not left at all), and we’ll help elect a fascist.

Imagine 2020 with a ‘Forward Party’: Democrats likely lose Arizona and Georgia, and states like Virginia are much closer. This is not (just) a vanity campaign for Andrew Yang: it’s an attempt to force Democrats to cut back on whatever minor progress they make by threatening to throw the 2020 election to Republicans.

And supporters of this party must be treated as persona non grata by Democrats.