In an interview with PBS’s “Firing Line” that aired Friday, Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) lamented that “the progressive movement” has now taken positions on “defunding the police, abolishing the police” and “BDS, a one-state solution that excludes Israel.”
Speaking about his departure from the progressive movement, Torres said: [relevant remarks begin around 28:05] “[W]When I first ran for office in 2013, the progressive position on police was police reform. Today, it’s defunding the police or abolishing the police. [position] My biggest goal for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was a two-state solution. Now we have BDS, a one-state solution without Israel. So I’ve felt alienated by how radicalized the progressive movement has become. And at the end of the day, I’m here to represent the sensibilities of the people of the Bronx. The people of the Bronx are pragmatic, not ideological. They’re moderate, not radical. What the people of the Bronx want is better policing, more accountable, more transparent policing, not under-policing or over-policing. What the people of the Bronx want is peace for Israelis and Palestinians. We all want Jews, Christians and Muslims to coexist in peace and prosperity. That’s why I’m so passionate about the Abraham Accords. So I’m much more pragmatic. The fundamental problem with the modern progressive movement is that the purity of progress has become the enemy of real-world progress.
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