Tuesday 4 August could prove to be a turning point in American political history. If Democratic primary voters in Michigan choose Haley Stevens, a moderate, as their Senate nominee, the party establishment should stagger on, perhaps up to and beyond the presidential election of 2028.
It’s more likely, however, that the Democrats will elect Dr Abdul El-Sayed, a pro-Palestine radical who supports Medicare for All and the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. El-Sayed’s victory would confirm that the hard left is the coming force in national politics, and suggest that the long-anticipated socialist takeover of the oldest party in the US – the party of Andrew Jackson, Harry Truman and Bill Clinton – is finally under way. Just as Donald Trump’s MAGA movement began to devour a rotten Republican party in 2015, a vengeful left-wing populism seems ready to swallow the much-loathed Democratic elite. The only part that’s missing is the element of surprise.
El-Sayed has impeccable credentials for a 21st-century internationalist progressive – or what right-wingers might call ‘a third-worldist’. A practising Muslim from the affluent suburbs of Detroit, the son of an Egyptian engineer, he captained the lacrosse team at Oxford, earned a doctorate in public health, and turned into a podcaster. He has a beard, a buff torso, and walks out on stage to the rap song ‘Changes’ by Tupac Shakur:
