Medicare for Whatever: Will progressives eke out a big victory in Michigan? The state held Democratic primary elections yesterday, and progressives pinned their biggest hopes on epidemiologist Abdul El-Sayed, who has campaigned to be a Senate nominee for the party. This sounds to me like El-Sayed, as with so many progressives, supports a policy he either doesn't understand or won't elucidate, because the specifics would be unpopular and unworkable. The progressive faction now seeking to take over the Democratic Party appears to have learned none of these lessons. As Nate Silver points out, "It's clear that progressives are rising in the Democratic Party overall.