The Democratic National Committee has selected its next leader. After a flurry of controversy surrounded the DNC during the 2016 election, it has elected Tom Perez to be the new leader of the party.
To refresh your memory, former DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz stepped down in July after leaked emails revealed that the DNC was attempting to rig the primaries for eventual Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Wasserman Shultz replacement and interim DNC chair Donna Brazile faced her own controversy, giving then-candidate Clinton debate questions before CNN debates. Brazile then added more fuel to the fire by refusing to apologize, saying that if she had to do it again, she would learn more about cybersecurity first.
Long story short, after what can only be categorized as a brutal election cycle and a wave of controversy, the Democratic Party needed efficient leadership to stop the spiral.
Did the DNC get it right? Who is Tom Perez? During the Obama administration, Perez served as the secretary of labor. He championed many of Obama’s labor policies, the most notable being his overtime rule, and was a supporter of Obama’s Trans-Pacific Partnership, a deal that President Donald Trump has since pulled out of. Due to his role in the administration, Perez was considered the establishment candidate, drawing support from former Vice President Joe Biden and former Attorney General Eric Holder.
However, it seems that the committee is not fully behind Perez. After the announcement of Perez’s victory, some members who supported Minnesota Representative Keith Ellison chanted “party for people, not big money.” It is worth noting that Ellison was the candidate of the progressive wing of the party, with support from former Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders.
But I do not believe Perez is the leader that the DNC needs at this key junction in its history. Since taking the job, he has picked up exactly where Hillary Clinton left off during the election: divisive language and a focus of unifying the Democratic party by further adding to the partisanship and rift with the Republican party. Trump and Perez have already engaged in a war of words on the president’s favorite outlet, Twitter, with Trump claiming that Perez won his election due to more DNC election-rigging. Perez responded, claiming Trump’s November election victory was due to Russian hacks. On Sunday’s "Meet The Press," Perez claimed Trump "hasn’t proposed anything but chaos and carnage."
This brings us to the reality of today. The Democrats and the Republicans have been at each other’s throats since November, and I don’t believe that a party chaired by Perez is going to change that. Perez’s victory once again demonstrates the DNC's failure to acknowledge the voices of its constituents in favor of dedicating itself to the establishment.
Trump won the election posing as an outsider to politics as usual, but it seems that the Democrats are still unwilling to shift away from this apparatus.