From Obama to el Sayed

Abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, imposing Medicare for All, and disarming Israel used to be policy positions confined to the fringe of the Democratic Party. Not anymore. Former President Barack Obama appeared in an ad supporting Michigan Senate candidate Abdul el Sayed on Monday, lending his prestige to all three extreme suggestions. But Obama’s embrace of el Sayed should surprise no one. The candidate’s radicalism is the logical conclusion of the former president’s own politics.Just four days after a debate in which el Sayed refused to say whether Iran or Israel was the bigger threat to the United States, his campaign distributed a video of Obama urging voters to support him. Apparently, the former president sees no obstacle to endorsing a would-be senator who cannot distinguish between a staunch ally and an avowed enemy whose most constant refrain over the course of the last half-century has been “Death to America.” Israel shares intelligence with the U.S. and helps develop defenses that protect both countries. Iran arms terrorist organizations that kill Americans and seeks our nation’s destruction. Treating the two as comparable threats requires ignoring decades of Iranian aggression and Israeli cooperation.That el Sayed would fail to recognize the difference between friend and foe is on-brand, considering his rhetoric throughout the campaign and the policies posted to his website. On the campaign trail, he has blamed Israel for everything from housing prices to healthcare costs and school underfunding. His website calls for “an immediate arms embargo on Israel,” including defensive weapons such as Iron Dome interceptors that have protected Israeli civilians from the terrorism of Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran itself. Obama did not go as far as el Sayed now does, but his campaign for the 2015 Iran nuclear deal helped normalize the same insinuations of dual loyalty that underpin el Sayed’s attacks on Israel’s American supporters. So did his apology tour through the Middle East immediately after his election. His administration and its allies portrayed opposition from Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Ben Cardin (D-MD), and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) as siding with Israel over America. Obama even told Jon Stewart that the Iran deal would prevail “despite the money, despite the lobbyists,” implying that critics were bought by Israel rather than concerned about American security.El Sayed and his support for Medicare for all are the logical heirs of Obama’s healthcare vision, too. El Sayed has said as much. Leading Democrats, such as the late Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, have said for years that Obamacare’s healthcare exchanges were designed to fail, leaving Medicare for all as the only viable alternative. El Sayed agrees. On Sunday, he noted that Obama himself often referred to Obamacare as a “starter home” intended to lay the foundation for a broader socialization of healthcare.The only difference between Obama and el Sayed on the issue is that Obama has since admitted his promise that “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor” was a lie, but now el Sayed is making those promises again.A RED-GREEN WARNING FROM FRANCEOn immigration, Obama’s 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and 2014 Deferred Action for Parents of Americans set the stage for el Sayed’s call to abolish ICE. The first extended promises of non-deportation to illegal immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as children. The second extended that same protection to their parents, essentially legalizing illegal entry for families. Both sought to exempt broad categories of illegal immigrants from enforcement without congressional approval. El Sayed takes that same impulse further by proposing to abolish the agency charged with enforcing those laws.El Sayed is not a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, but he has campaigned alongside its candidates, raised money for the organization, and shares its views on Israel, Medicare for all, and abolishing ICE. Obama’s endorsement of el Sayed establishes that these are no longer fringe ideas in the Democratic Party. They are the Democratic Party. Obama was never the centrist he pretended to be, and now the Democratic Party isn’t either.