Well, apparently Tom Friedman got quite a lot of response to the column I posted about the other day and the New York Times has published a selection of the comments. If this comment:
Why is it the left’s job to keep in step with the status quo in order to unite the party?
is at all typical it highlights that they just don’t get it. “The left” is, perhaps, an eighth of voters. Far, far more are center-left, moderates, or conservatives. In particular blacks, necessary for Democrats to win elections, are far more conservative than a lot of people seem to believe. Whatever Republicans may think “Democrat” is not synonymous with “the left”.
For “the left” to get even a little of what it wants, they must persuade people not bludgeon (literally) them. I do not believe that in the age of smartphones and the Internet any Democratic presidential candidate, having raised their hand in favor of open borders, will be able to dash back to a more centrist position.
The question that Democrats should be asking is if Barack Obama had staked out the positions in 2008 that he eventually had taken by the end of his presidency, would he have been elected for a first term? I think the answer is “no”.
Historically, the candidate who expresses the most optimistic view of America, its people, and its future has won in the general election and that includes Trump. Maybe it will be different this time but, as Cicero said more than two millennia ago, to be ignorant of what happened before you were born is to remain forever a child. It’s even worse to think that this time will be different just because you’re around.
Running against two-thirds (or more) of the voters will not be a winning strategy for anybody.
The country may not be ready for AOC and her squad, but they have a lot of growth potential. Their problem, as Sen. Sanders learned, is that their agenda will be co-opted.
While I have an overwhelming opinion of their proposals, I can understand the left’s desire to “burn it all down”. Like the right, the left have been used by the Democrat party which has no intention of implementing any of their ideas.
Joe Biden is the left’s Sen. Romney.