Michael Goodwin: Michigan Senate race displays the radical shift the Democratic Party has taken

In the run-up to Michigan’s hotly contested Democratic Senate primary last week, a slew of headlines declared the showdown a “fight for the party’s soul.”As cliches go, that wasn’t a bad one.Leaving aside the issue of whether a political party has a soul, the framing worked because the candidates represented starkly different positions, backgrounds and styles.The outcome would thus reflect the party’s emerging values and agenda in a key swing state.And so it did, but in a way that simultaneously makes Michigan look bad and illustrates how radicals are gaining the upper hand in the national party.After far-left, anti-Israel candidate Dr.

Abdul El-Sayed squeaked out a narrow victory against the more moderate Rep.Haley Stevens, new cliches were called upon to explain the outcome.Dem Senate Leader Chuck Schumer, despite being a frequent target of El-Sayed’s, quickly fell in line and congratulated him.Schumer, the highest elected Jewish official in American history, defended his move by insisting his party is “a big tent.” He told PunchBowl News that Dems have a chance to gain a majority only when they “welcome rather than suppress opposing visions of its future,” and declared himself in favor of “big tent-ism.”Because Schumer is fixated on becoming majority leader again, his self-serving appeal has its limits.

One of El-Sayed’s most notorious backers quickly replied by saying, hell, no.Hasan Piker, a social media star and virulent antisemite who once said America deserved 9/11, was in no mood for kumbaya.He demanded that Dems who didn’t support El-Sayed suffer “Marxist-Leninist” punishment for failing to “follow the party line.”He called them “haters in our ranks” who were giving ammunition to Republicans.“You can’t be out here saying like, ‘Oh, I’m a centrist Democrat.

And I think Abdul is a bridge too far.’ That must be punished.”Dems with a more traditional vision took aim at him.Among them was Neera Tanden, he...