Thomas Edsall has a good column in the New York Times concerning a basic decision that the Democratic Party needs to make. Should centrist Democratic candidates be encouraged or not? Here’s the conclusion of his column:
To nominate candidates who, like Lamb, are equipped to win working and middle class swing districts in the general election will require Democratic primary voters to cast strategic rather than ideological ballots — focusing on who can prevail in November, in 2018 but also in 2020. And, perhaps more to the point, Democratic donors will have to decide whether they can back candidates who agree with them 80 percent but not 99 percent of the time.
At a moment when Trump has exacerbated polarization, persuading leaders and voters on the left flank of the Democratic Party to think tactically about the 2020 presidential primaries is crucial but problematic. Insofar as Democrats place a higher priority on purity than viability, they may be risking an indeterminate extension of the Trump era.
Coastal Democrats need to come to terms with the reality that being a Democrat doesn’t mean the same thing in Des Moines that it does in San Jose. People who believe as they do constitute a relatively small proportion of the American electorate despite the fact that everybody they know believes as they do.
The situations of the two major political parties are not symmetrical.
I like the portion you quoted quite a bit. I would just add that ideological zealots are only tactical when there is no other choice.