The Real Real Agenda

I encourage you to read Matthew Continetti’s assessment of “the real Democratic agenda” at the Washington Free Beacon. I agree with some of what he has to say, for example:

Democrats have a problem. The base wants to impeach President Trump, ASAP, but the public does not. Indeed, Trump’s approval rating is the highest it’s been in the Gallup survey, right around Obama’s at this point in his term. The brute facts of public opinion suggest that the impeachment of Trump would look more like Bill Clinton’s trial than Richard Nixon’s. Not only would Trump remain in office; the backlash might deprive the Democrats of their 17-seat House majority.

For months, Nancy Pelosi’s solution has been to walk right up to the line of impeachment without actually crossing it. Unleash committee chairmen to fire their subpoena cannons in every direction. Make unrealistic demands of Attorney General Barr. Have Swalwell and Lieu and the rest of the cable gang keep alive the conspiracy theory that the Trump campaign was in criminal cahoots with Russia. Drag out the process into next year, when a weakened and bedraggled Trump faces the eventual Democratic nominee. That way Pelosi gets the political benefits of impeachment without the costs.

But I disagree categorically with his bottom line assessment:

This is not a serious party. It has abandoned policy for litigation, and common sense for fantasies of Medicare for All, Green New Deals, abortion after birth, and slavery reparations. The Democrats assume impeachment will be Trump’s Watergate. It may well turn out to be their Waterloo.

That’s a basic misunderstanding of the actual agenda of the Democrats who hold the reins of power in the party. They’re focused like a laser (to use a favorite Bill Clinton simile) on jobs—their jobs and those of their actual primary constituency: public employees. All of those other issues are just bright, shiny objects being dangled in front of their primary election voters to be forgotten as soon as the election is safely over.