Politically, this seems like deja vu all over again. Bill Maher says Democrats have to look strong or Trump will say they’re weak. Pollsters say the president’s numbers show he’s too unpopular to win re-election unless Democrats do something really moronic.
Progressives say no matter which Democrat is nominated, Trump will demonize him or her and, if elected, the Republicans will obstruct every proposal as they did with Obama. So, why not go all out to galvanize the base — free college, free healthcare, tax the plutocrats until they’re begging for alms in the street. What have they got to lose?
Cautious center-left Democrats say what they’ve got to lose is the election, especially if they go so far left that the claim they’re socialists begins to sound true. Furthermore, if they get into a 40% to 40% case contest, the 20% of swing voters in the middle will decide which of two bad choices is best. Do you really want to bet a far-out, fantasyland Democrat will be more appealing to the middle than the politically incorrect incompetent incumbent?
Isn’t the sane course to run relentlessly on something everybody cares about where Trump’s record is easily assailable? No, not racial justice, LGBT rights, miserable immigrants seeking asylum, foreign policy, education, the dangerous rise of nativist, isolationist, extremists.
The Democrats should run on the plain, old, kitchen table, balance the checkbook, struggling to get by economy. Pounding on the issue of the economic anxiety of the many has the added benefit thatTrump ran on it and has done nothing but betray his voters. It was all lies. Amazingly, almost nothing on this subject was raised or addressed at the recent debate. That looks like political malpractice.
Trump promised jobs and we’ve got them, of a sort. But the living wage job with robust benefits is an endangered species. Many American have got not one, but two jobs and still can’t make ends meet. Many more are aware that in a rapidly changing economy, they may find their job gone and their industry obsolete tomorrow.
Trump promised to stop the predatory practices of Wall Street and the banks in favor of Main Street, but an awful lot of Main Streets are in big trouble while Wall Street is fatter and happier than ever. Income inequality increases and a few places prosper while many parts of the country are hollowed out.
Trump promised to achieve a fairer trade environment and instead got us into a trade war that farmers, manufacturers and consumers are losing. He promised to drain the Washington swamp, but has produced the most corrupt administration in a century. The revolving door between regulators and those they are supposed to regulate spins faster than ever, and protections for consumers are gutted daily.
Everyone in the administration from the president and his family on down is enriching himself while the average Joe can’t afford to get sick, lose or change jobs, or send his kids to school. And how about that trillion dollar tax cut that was supposed to make the life of the average middle-class taxpayer better? It brought little to no relief to them, but it paid off handsomely for the entitled few. The day he signed it into law, Trump told his billionaire cronies and donors at a Mar-A-Lago dinner,”You all just got a lot richer.”
If Democrats can’t beat Trump like a drum on his record of approving lopsided tax reform, enabling the greed of under-regulated banks, polluters and employers, failing to address our inferior public eduction system and unaffordable colleges, his misguided trade policy that has made a bad situation far worse, and his failure to fix a fraying, underfunded social safety net that many fear will not be there when hard times come or old age arrives, they don’t deserved to win.
And that’s to say nothing of Trump’s personal self-dealing and the crony capitalism that he and his pals practice at the expense of the rest of us. He promised a level playing field that would give every American a shot at prosperity, or at least economic security. He has delivered progress toward a dystopian society where the few squires prosper while the many serfs fall farther behind.