I have argued for years that Democrats need to have a cohesive positive vision for America that speaks to the average American, and policies that flow from it (see my book, We Still Hold These Truths, and my post “The Perennial Search for the Democrats’ Mission”). Never has that been more important than for the 2020 election.
We have a mad President to whom roughly a third of the voting electorate is in thrall. In typical populist style, he has whipped them to a frenzy. The rest of the electorate is not in thrall and indeed rather disgusted by the President.
This is an opening for Democrats. The key to winning is getting the uncommitted people who normally vote, and who voted for Trump in 2016, to vote for the Democrat in 2020.
But If activist progressives have their way, that opening will be squandered and Trump will win another term. Some of their ideas are just off the wall. Others have merit but the way they are expressed and their attitude towards those who oppose them creates ill will among a far larger group of people than those they appeal to.
They have no nuance; no willingness to compromise. They have no understanding what leadership involves. Because they won their seats, they think they have a mandate; they don’t understand that the rest of the country may feel very differently.
For example, while most people would like better and cheaper health insurance, most are by and large happy with their current employer-provided insurance. They need to be convinced and allowed to choose Medicare For All, not be forced into it by eliminating private insurance off the bat. That scares them and creates a feeling of insecurity. Let’s get back to the initial goal of making all Americans health care secure by providing access to those who don’t have it now. Medicare For All should initially be an option for all.
Most people want to treat immigrants and asylum seekers fairly. On the other hand, regardless our history as a nation of immigrants, many feel that things are different now than in the 19th and early 20th century. We cannot have open doors. And so the idea of decriminalizing illegal entry seems wrong-headed. And providing health care by right to all illegal immigrants would not only encourage illegal immigration, millions of our own citizens don’t have that access.
The progressive immigration reform agenda used to be to provide a pathway to citizenship for the illegal immigrants already here and who are part of our society and economy. That people could understand and support, depending on the details. But that goal seems lost in the current debate.
The first Democratic debate does not bode well for winning over the uncommitted group in the middle. Despite activist progressives representing only a small fraction of the Democratic voting base, their strong presence on social media and the Squad’s in-your-face press conferences, led most of the candidates to voice positions or raise their hands in solidarity with the activists but striking fear into the rest of us who worry about another 4 years of Trump.
I consider myself a progressive and have argued in these pages for major changes in the relationship between government, business, and the people. But these changes must be approached incrementally; otherwise there will be no mandate for those changes. We need a progressive candidate who is reasonable, not strident; who will appeal to the Democratic base and beyond.
A.O.C. and Rep. Omar scare me. That they bring a smile to Trump’s face scares me even more.
