Jeffries' socialism dilemma: New York victories expose Democratic Party divide

By Fox News · Fox News

The man looks tired. Veteran observers of Democratic House Leader Hakeem Jeffries know at a glance when the fellow isn’t catching his Zs. Some politicians bark gruffly when they are under pressure. Others become wildly frenetic. Some pick fights. Others go quiet, and retreat. Jeffries gets puffy. It has been one of those tells that longtime Empire State and Washington, D.C. hands have noticed for years. When the Brooklyn Democrat appears on morning television looking a little baggy, a tad swollen around the eyes; when he speaks in his trademark measured cadence but stumbles over the elucidation; when he presents the unmistakable glaze of someone who has squeezed three hours of sleep into what should have been a seven-hour night, it usually means he spent the evening on the phone. HAKEEM JEFFRIES CONFRONTED ON ' YOU'RE NEXT' CHANTS FOLLOWING NY DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST VICTORIES Counting votes. Putting out fires. Trying to solve a problem. Since Tuesday, the problem has been coming from inside his own party. Not Donald Trump. Not Republicans. Not the economy. Not the spending bill. The Democratic Party. More specifically, the Democratic Socialists of America inside the Democratic Party. For much of the last week, Jeffries has found himself staring transfixed at perhaps the most difficult political challenge of his career — immobilized not because he does not know what he thinks, but because he knows exactly what he thinks. He believes Democrats need to look mainstream to win swing districts. He believes affordability is a stronger message than ideology. He believes most Americans don’t want a political revolution. And he surely believes that Republicans — from President Donald Trump on down — cannot wait to compel every rival candidate to answer for the most controversial voices inside the Democratic Party. That has always been the danger of ideological movements. They rarely stay quaintly confined to the neighborhoods where they first emerge. They spread. They redefine…