During an interview that was aired on Friday’s broadcast of PBS’s “Firing Line,” Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) lamented that the “progressive movement” has now taken the positions of “defunding the police or abolishing the police.” And “BDS or a one-state solution to the exclusion of Israel.”
While discussing his departure from the progressive movement Torres said, [relevant remarks begin around 28:05] “[W]hen I first ran, back in 2013, the progressive position on policing was police reform. Today, it’s become defunding the police or abolishing the police. Back then, the progressive [position] on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was the two-state solution. Now, it’s BDS or a one-state solution to the exclusion of Israel. And so, I have felt alienated from what the progressive movement has become, because it has become radicalized. And, in the end, I’m here to represent the sensibilities of the people of the Bronx. And the people of the Bronx are not ideological, they’re practical. They’re not radical, they’re moderate. What people want in the Bronx is not under-policing or over-policing, but better policing, more accountable and more transparent policing. What people in the Bronx want is peace between the Israelis and Palestinians. We all want Jews, Christians, and Muslims to coexist in peace and prosperity, which is why I’m so passionate about the Abraham Accords. So, I’m far more pragmatic. The fundamental problem with the modern progressive movement is that it has let progressive purity be the enemy of progress in the real world.”
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