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Interesting use of political history (from the abolitionists to the New Deal to the Gingrich GOP) to make sense of the 2020 race. inthesetimes.com/features/joe-b…
This paragraph especially resonated with me. Say what you will about the post-Goldwater GOP, but it's an example of a successful takeover, first of a party & then of an entire political culture, by a vision that was considered radical at the time and became "common sense." 
And in return, the GOP succeeded in getting the media and self-described "centrists" to think of widely popular policy ideas that are firmly grounded in American political history as "radical." Like gun control. Or environmental regulation. Or expanding access to health care.
I'm not on team Beto, but one thing I do appreciate about his public statements recently is that he's simply not giving credence to this "aren't you going too far left?" media narrative. He just says "look, here's what I believe and I think a majority of Americans agree with me."
How about this for some alternate framing? Guns were regulated for the first 200 years of American history. To return to that is not radical, it's conservative.
Regulating businesses in the public interest is something the US has done for over 100 years. To attack all regulatory systems is to attack a fundamental American tradition that generations of ordinary Americans have supported and benefitted from.
The idea that we are stewards of the earth & that it's our responsibility to ensure we leave it in a healthy and sustainable state for our descendants is a value that is thousands of years old. It's radical to think we can just keep burning oil and let others clean up our mess.
