Schultz has publicly voiced dismay at how far left the Democratic Party has lurched and how rapidly the lurch has been accomplished. Most of the Democratic candidates who'll be running for the White House in 2020 are far left progressives or socialists, the sort of people whose policies would drive a stake into the heart of the American economy, and Schultz has concluded that moderates like him no longer fit in the party.
As Tyler O'Neil at PJ Media put it: "The former Starbucks CEO has attacked the Democratic Party for running too far to the Left, and even bringing the destructive ideology of socialism to America."
Shultz is alarmed at the prospect of a socialist America and is himself considering a run for the presidency as an independent.
This possibility has thrown his erstwhile comrades into a panic. They realize that a moderate third party candidate could siphon a lot of Democratic votes from almost any left-wing Democrat running for the nation's highest office and all but guarantee Donald Trump's reelection.
David Rutz chronicles some of the progressive alarm in a column at the Washington Free Beacon. Here's an extended excerpt:
Democrats like Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D., Fla.), Rep. Katie Hill (D., Calif.) and Julian Castro said his efforts would catapult Trump back into the White House, while CNN "conservative" commentator Ana Navarro said his running would help Trump and "maybe Putin."Much of what Schultz says makes sense, but what progressives in the media want is not sense but solidarity. They have PTSD nightmares of 2000 when Ralph Nader ran as an independent and took enough votes away from Al Gore to hand the election to George W. Bush, and they've reacted toward Schultz much like picnickers suddenly spotting a skunk perambulating toward their picnic.
"Majority Report" host Sam Seder said Schultz didn't "get to be king just because he's so rich," and liberal MSNBC analyst Karine Jean-Pierre said his actions were "very dangerous" and "we cannot allow this to happen." Center for American Progress president Neera Tanden tweeted she would boycott Starbucks and called Schultz's "vanity project" a "disgusting" thing that would destroy democracy.
Left-wing comedian Stephen Colbert said he'd had enough of billionaires running for president, telling them to find "new hobbies," and "The View" co-host Joy Behar said Schultz's decision would hand Trump reelection. "Community" actress Yvette Nicole Brown told Colbert that Schultz clearly didn't care about the country and said 2020 was not his time to run, telling him to do it in 2024 instead.
"Pod Save America" co-host and former Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau called Schultz's potential run a "f---g awful thing to do," and former Obama adviser David Axelrod simply called it a "gift" for Trump.
MSNBC anchors Ali Velshi and Stephanie Ruhle scolded Schultz over the idea by pointing out Michael Bloomberg had already realized an independent run for president was useless. Velshi accused Schultz of "hubris" similar to Trump's.
Those interviewing Schultz and his adviser Bill Burton over the past few days pressed them on the viability of his campaign and his motives—Erin Burnett at one point asked if he was running for the "right reasons."
The last thing they want is for another independent to take votes away from whomever the Democratic candidate is, even if that candidate is someone whose policies would turn the United States into a Venezuelan-style basket case. Better that, the left fumes, than four more years of the hated Trump.
O'Neil concludes, probably accurately, that, "Howard Schultz is too liberal for the Republican Party and, sadly, too pro-American for the Democratic Party."
That's a very sad commentary on the contemporary Democratic Party.