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I think @jonathanalter is right about Democrats needing to contend with the arguments @SykesCharlie makes in this piece (there are several). Some Presidential candidates already are. Are the arguments right?
2. Let’s note first two words @SykesCharlie does not mention. One is corruption, a defining characteristic of Trump and the Republican Party in Congress. The other is impeachment, of a President who has obstructed justice and placed himself above the law.
3. @SpeakerPelosi shrinks from even mentioning these, especially impeachment. This, presumably, @SykesCharlie would commend as savvy, prudent, and less likely to offend conservatives who like corruption and thrill to a President above the law.
4. Yeah, the “prudence and savvy” approach has two strikes with me right at the start. Just with respect to 11/20: Trump has supporters no Democratic candidate will ever get. They include most people who voted for Trump in 2016. Don’t worry too much about them getting upset.
5. On issues: some Democrats are for a public option, some for extending Medicare to everyone. The day before the first candidates’ debate, many variables are unknown, but I doubt candidates insisting on the second will be in a strong position by year’s end.
6. That has as much to do with the candidates as with the merits of the issue. I’m not that worried about health care being a Republican strength in 2020.
7. That goes for immigration too — at least as far as @SykesCharlie’s worry about the “open borders” charge is concerned. The charge is a favorite of Trump’s; like many favorites of Trump’s, it’s a lie. Trump has demanded a White America immigration policy;...
8...this is what Democrats will be running against, but none of them will do it by demanding the US import the entire population of Honduras. In the face of Trump insisting Democrats want to do precisely that, all Democrats need to do is keep their nerve.
9. About “weird stuff” concerning race: @SykesCharlie knows whereof he speaks here. He was the premier AM radio talker in the Milwaukee area for years; with all respect for the principled position he has taken against Trump recently, racial resentment was a staple for him...
10...on the air, and has remained a staple on SE Wisconsin AM radio since. Racial resentment works. It motivates affluent white voters to go to the polls to strike a blow against “those people”; it made Scott Walker’s political career here.
11. Does discussion of reparations for slavery, Jim Crow and so forth open a window of opportunity for Republicans to use racial resentment as a wedge on Trump’s behalf next year? I suppose it could. It’s not clear to me how extensive that discussion will be.
12. So far it seems to me to be somewhat abstract, a discussion of whether reparations would be justified morally rather than an actual proposal. The overtly racist Trump will lead his party in a campaign of overt hostility to blacks and Hispanics no matter what Democrats do;
13....that could lead Democratic candidates to put reparations talk on the back burner where it has always been, or prompt one or more candidates to make it a campaign centerpiece. Time will tell, I suppose.
14. Lastly, the spending & taxes issues. I expect @SykesCharlie will be the object of much ridicule for his pose on behalf of fiscal prudence, something no Republican administration or Congress has practiced in decades. Indeed....
15....the core of Republican corruption in this century has been the GOP consensus that people who have given the Party’s candidates money deserve a return on investment in the form of large cuts in donors’ taxes. Nevertheless...
16....Democrats proposing to do big things, like addressing the climate change emergency Republicans want to ignore or extend health care to the millions of Americans Republicans don’t care about, will need big money to pay for them.
17. There’s no getting around this, and no assurance that Americans used to a President who lives on empty promises will support a Democrat firing real bullets, telling Americans of costs that must be borne for the general welfare.
18. A Democratic candidate for President could, as @SykesCharlie suggests, beat Trump by keeping his/her head down, saying as little as possible on policy substance, & letting Trump beat himself. Such a candidate could get across the finish line first. It’s possible.
19. Is it the best that can be done? I don’t believe it is. The Republican Party belongs to Trump now; it’s behind him all the way on everything, from the climate to the corruption and from the Russians to rape.
20. The Republican Party is a stationary target today, as big and immobile as Trump himself. The key thing to fear about a target is that you won’t hit it hard enough. [end]
