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Do not listen to this man. He is wrong about everything, always. 
Thomas Friedman treats his readers (and apparently his editors) like fools. Pair his fear about current Democratic health care proposals (left) with his own proposal from a Jan 2016 column (right). Flippity-flop. nytimes.com/2016/01/06/opi…
The truth is we have no idea right now of what message will win the 2018 election. We have not had a primary. No one has voted. The purpose of these exercises is to allow people voice in the direction their party heads. Friedman (and others) want to short circuit that process.
Even if you share Friedman's fears, to short circuit the process is to make a Trump victory more likely. If a safe, Bidenesque choice is the winning strategy, so be it, but if a Warren or Sanders vision captures a majority, who is to say it can't win in November?
Thomas Friedman's column isn't strategic advice to keep Trump from being elected. It is messaging designed to keep people like Thomas Friedman at the center of our political conversation. He is trying to defend his own relevance.
Look at Friedman's columns from the first months of the Trump presidency as he tries to establish a foothold of influence. As history has shown, and was quite predictable to boot, Friedman's attempts were utterly ineffectual
Let's not forget how influential Friedman once was. His World Is Flat theory was taken as gospel in center right and center left spaces. His championing of the Iraq War helped sell it to the broader public. Both of these stances have been utterly destructive.
Under Trump, Friedman has no such influence. He knows it too. He essentially asked for a personal bailout from tech and business "leaders" in a column. This plea wasn't for the country. It's about his own irrelevance.
Similarly, today's column is an attempt to rein in the Democratic Party to prevent them from electing someone who will similarly make him irrelevant. Friedman wants to get back to being the Pied Piper of the status quo.
The fact is, as voters hear more from non-Biden candidates, they like what they're hearing. This is not solely driven by leftists or what Friedman would consider extremists. Let the process happen. Ignore the Tom Friedmans of the world. Believe in something and stand for it.
And if your preferred candidate doesn't win the primary, vote for who does. Trump is a menace who must be stopped.
