Yeah, We All Hate Trump But The Democratic Party Should Not Be A Vehicle For Conservative Anti-Trump Ideology

Agents of the status quo fear Bernie-- and for good reason

Jonathan Chait was back with more crap advice for Democrats yesterday. He wants Democratic presidential hopefuls to stop taking what he calls "unpopular stances." He insists that "the primary has worked to the party’s disadvantage by maneuvering its candidates into unpopular positions... if not redressed, could blow up in the party’s face." The party doesn't have a face; candidates do. Some of those candidates are a lot smarter than Jonathan Chait will ever be and have a good idea about how voters see the proposals, like Medicare-for-All, that Chait insists are unpopular. He claims these positions "would likely be serious liabilities in a general election. What’s more, none of them would appear to stand any plausible chance of enactment in the next administration, given that the (current) House majority and (prospective, unlikely) Senate majority both require the support of Democrats far to the right of the presidential field. So these risks the candidates are taking do not bring with them a concurrent benefit. They’re not laying the ground for a sweeping new progressive agenda they can pass in 2021. They’re merely seeding Donald Trump’s attack ads."

Happy 4th of July

As we've been pointing out for months, conservatives-- and especially irate Republicans who lost their party to Trump-- have been giving this kind of advice to Democrats all year. Weak candidates like Harris, Gillibrand, Booker... are already falling for it and backing down from previously stated-- if not fully understood-- progressive positions. Matt Herdman is a Democratic campaign strategist who wrote a savvier column yesterday than Chait's, Republican pundits keep offering Democrats advice. It's almost all terrible. I suspect that Republicans feel emboldened to offer their crap advice because they've been adopted by MSNBC and disdained by their own party. "There's a growing trend of Republican and conservative pundits," he wrote, "offering unsolicited advice to the Democratic presidential candidates. Usually it comes from #Never Trump Republicans, who share a common interest in beating President Donald Trump in 2020. I'm glad that these Republicans are on the team, but I hope none of the Democratic presidential candidates take the bait and listen."

Take, for instance, the recent advice from Charlie Sykes, the editor-in-chief of the Never Trump conservative website The Bulwark. Among Sykes' litany of suggestions are: don't reform healthcare in any way that might end private health insurance, don't be willing to abolish the electoral college, don't push for the Green New Deal, don't require licenses for gun ownership, and don't push for giving away entitlements without giving a way to pay for it, but also don't make the way to pay for it Sen. Elizabeth Warren's wealth tax or anything that hurts the rich.

But Sykes was not alone among center-right columnists in offering unsolicited advice to the Democratic candidates.

Bret Stephens, a conservative columnist at the New York Times, encouraged Democrats to drop universal childcare, "Medicare for All," student-debt cancellation, universal free college, a comprehensive climate plan, and debt relief for Puerto Rico.

Peggy Noonan, the center-right Wall Street Journal columnist, suggested Democrats ditch pro-choice values and stop hammering the 1%.

What does all this advice have in common?

Sure, it tells Democrats that the best way for Democrats to win is to push center-right ideas. Yes, maybe there is some self-interest at play. It's not the most surprising advice coming from center-right pundits.

But most importantly, it's terrible advice.

Polling suggests voters, and independents, support a popular vote rather than the electoral college. It also suggests that voters favor the Green New Deal, creating new social programs like Medicare for All and expanded funding for childcare, and Warren's wealth tax. But you wouldn't pick up on that from these pleas for Democrats to run as diet Republicans.

Don't get me wrong-- I think there are good things Democrats can learn from Republicans. Rick Scott aggressively courted the Hispanic vote early, running Spanish language ads more than six months before the election, and significantly outperformed most Republicans with Hispanic voters. Democrats can learn from this-- don't take the votes of people of color for granted and make early outreach a priority.

Republicans are also better at playing the refs, and when they don't get the decisions they want, they've created an entire ecosystem of refs who will take their side. Republicans leverage accusations of liberal media bias like a flopping soccer player begging the refs for a penalty kick. That doesn't mean that Democrats need to recreate Fox News and Breitbart, but Democrats have room to grow tactically in our ability to shape media narratives.

The key word there is tactically. When Never Trump Republicans give Democratic candidates tactical advice about how they persuade swing voters, it might make sense to see what they've got to say. But when Never Trump Republicans give ideological advice about the type of policies to advance, Democrats should be deeply skeptical. Especially if all of that advice just reinforces the Republican pundit's ideological preferences.

Never Trump Republicans make up a vanishingly small percentage of the electorate despite being oversampled in cable TV green rooms and think-piece authors. Stephens' and Sykes' endorsements won't guarantee a Democratic win in 2020.

I'm not going to pretend I know the magic secret to winning the 2020 presidential election. I'm personally undecided about who I'll vote for in the primary.

There's room for the Democratic Party to debate how best to win over undecided voters, slim Trump's base, and simultaneously turn out the party's ideological supporters. But when Republicans tell you that the best way to win is to throw away progressive values and run on Republican-lite policy proposals, Democratic candidates should ignore them.

Some ideas are better than others. That's what the primary is all about. Democratic primary voters will nominate the candidate whose ideas appeal to them most. People like Charlie Sykes, Jonathan Chait, Bret Stephens and Peggy Noonan should make their case to Republican and conservative voters.