A string of senior Democratic Party voices is warning that the rise of the Squad and a lurch towards more progressive policies is alienating voters who care more about pocket issues than 'defund the police.'
The concerns emerged this week after months of polls showing Democrats lagging far behind Republicans in congressional polling, triggering fears of a midterm bloodbath.
Taken together, they suggest a push to defund the police, tear down down statues and rename schools is getting in the way of Democrats holding the House and the Senate.
'It's what we've been screaming about for a year,' Matt Bennett, co-founder of center-left Third Way, told the Axios news website.
'It's a huge problem.'
The latest sign of a backlash, according to the report, was the recall this week of three San Francisco school board members.
They faced criticism from parents that they were more focused on renaming public schools that honored Abraham Lincoln and George Washington than getting children back into classes during the pandemic.
It's just the latest example of the public face of the party being out of step with voters and other Democrats, according to figures such as Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), co-chair of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus.
'What I'm hearing at home — and what I'm focused on — are commonsense, bipartisan solutions — from tackling grocery and gas prices, to cutting taxes and fixing our infrastructure, to investing in law enforcement and fighting crime,' he told the site.
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