“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
Abraham Lincoln spoke those immortal words in 1858 as the nation wrestled with slavery and the moral crisis threatening to tear America apart. Lincoln was speaking about the Union, but his warning carried an enduring political truth: when people become so consumed with fighting one another that they lose sight of the larger mission, everyone loses.
Michigan Democrats would do well to remember Lincoln’s admonition. The increasingly bitter struggle between progressives and establishment Democrats in Michigan’s U.S. Senate primary is becoming more than a contest of ideas. It is becoming a test of whether the Democratic Party can disagree without descending into self-destruction.
Democrats cannot become so disagreeable that they destroy themselves. We have seen this movie before.
In 2024, many progressives and so-called “uncommitted” voters, particularly those angered by the Biden-Harris administration’s handling of the war in Gaza led by the likes of Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit, withheld their support from Vice President Kamala Harris or declined to back her presidential campaign as a form of political protest. But elections have consequences.
President Donald Trump’s second term victory produced an outcome that many of those same communities later viewed with profound concern and some regret because it illustrated a painful lesson that political protest is most effective when it advances, rather than diminishes, the long-term interests of the people it seeks to defend.
Michigan Democrats should not repeat that mistake. In recent days, I have seen some online comments surrounding this Senate race with growing concern. I have seen some supporters of Dr. Abdul El-Sayed post nasty attacks against Congresswoman Haley Stevens, who is widely viewed as representing the establishment wing of the Democratic Party.
When political disagreement degenerates into personal contempt, a party begins to lose sight of its true opponent. Healthy debate is indispensable in a democracy. Progressives should challenge the party to confront economic inequality, healthcare affordability, housing insecurity and the widening gap between prosperity and poverty. Establishment Democrats are equally justified in arguing that elections are won by building broad coalitions capable of attracting independents, suburban voters, labor households and communities across this politically divided state.
Both arguments have merit. Neither side possesses a monopoly on wisdom.
The danger arises when ideological differences become moral indictments and fellow Democrats are treated as enemies rather than future partners in governing. Michigan is not a safely Democratic state. Trump has twice carried Michigan, reminding both parties that this remains one of the nation’s premier battlegrounds. That reality demands discipline, not division.
The stakes extend well beyond one U.S. Senate seat.
Michigan voters will also elect a governor, attorney general, secretary of state and members of the Legislature. If Democrats emerge from this primary fractured and embittered, the consequences could reverberate throughout the entire ticket. Republicans do not have to manufacture Democratic divisions if Democrats are willing to create them themselves.
History teaches that parties rarely lose because they debate ideas. They lose because disagreement hardens into division, and division evolves into self-inflicted defeat.
Politics is ultimately about addition, not subtraction. The strongest political movements are not those in which everyone thinks alike. They are those mature enough to argue vigorously while remembering their common purpose.
The larger question now is whether Democrats will be prepared to unite in the general election around their nominees or whether they will spend so much energy defeating one another that they weaken their ability to defeat Republicans in November.
X (formerly Twitter): @BankoleDetNews
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Bankole Thompson’s columns appear on Mondays and Thursdays in The Detroit News.
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Democrats could lose Michigan before Republicans win it | Thompson
Reporting by Bankole Thompson / The Detroit News
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By Bankole Thompson | USA TODAY Network
