The Obvious

I see that Tom Friedman has noticed the same things I have which I think means that they are obvious. From his most recent New York Times column:

I was shocked that so many candidates in the party whose nominee I was planning to support want to get rid of the private health insurance covering some 250 million Americans and have “Medicare for all” instead. I think we should strengthen Obamacare and eventually add a public option.

I was shocked that so many were ready to decriminalize illegal entry into our country. I think people should have to ring the doorbell before they enter my house or my country.

I was shocked at all those hands raised in support of providing comprehensive health coverage to undocumented immigrants. I think promises we’ve made to our fellow Americans should take priority, like to veterans in need of better health care.

And I was shocked by how feeble was front-runner Joe Biden’s response to the attack from Kamala Harris — and to the more extreme ideas promoted by those to his left.

He goes on:

Dear Democrats: This is not complicated! Just nominate a decent, sane person, one committed to reunifying the country and creating more good jobs, a person who can gain the support of the independents, moderate Republicans and suburban women who abandoned Donald Trump in the midterms and thus swung the House of Representatives to the Democrats and could do the same for the presidency. And that candidate can win!

I agree. Glenn Reynolds has been saying much the same thing somewhat less kindly for some time: all the Democrats need to do is not act crazy and they can’t even do that.

Maybe the candidates are right. Maybe there is an overwhelming but unevidenced groundswell of public opinion in favor of Medicare For All, the Green New Deal, late term abortions, open borders, a debt jubilee for educational debt, and extending public benefits to illegal migrants. Maybe Americans really want to see a good fight between whatever Democratic candidate ultimately wins the nomination and Donald Trump rather than the “more normal” country polls have suggested. Or maybe all of those things just represent the views of a relatively small number of activists, what’s true but unevidenced is that people who tell pollsters they disapprove of Trump will vote for him anyway because the alternative is so much worse, and that Donald Trump may well become yet another presumably unpopular president who carries more states in his re-election bid than he did when he won the first time.