David Crowley Admitted He's Not a Moderate Democrat, but a Progressive Just Like Francesca Hong

Milwaukee Democrats want it both ways. They need David Crowley to look like the responsible grown-up in the race, the guy who balances budgets and doesn't scare suburban voters, while Francesca Hong plays the avowed socialist scaring everybody else. Except Crowley himself blew up that script. He's on record saying his policies aren't meaningfully different from hers. So which is it?

This is the same trick Democrats have run nationally for a decade now. Slap a "moderate" label on someone, hope nobody checks the actual positions, and let the media do the rest of the branding work. It worked for a while because reporters rarely bother asking candidates to specify where they diverge from the socialist in the room. Crowley did everyone a favor by just admitting there isn't much daylight there.

Voters in Milwaukee deserve credit for asking the follow-up question that too many outlets skip. If two candidates agree on the substance, the primary isn't a debate over ideas, it's a personality contest over who can better sell the same agenda to people who'd otherwise be uneasy about it. That's not moderation. That's marketing.

We'd just ask that the local press stop doing the marketing for free. If Crowley says he's a progressive no different from Hong, write it that way. Let voters decide what to do with a party that keeps two different labels for one product, depending on which zip code you're selling it in.