A lot of Democratic voters want to pick a moderate nominee who is promising to stop the fighting in DC, resume bipartisanship and move us past gridlock. I get the instinct, fighting wears you down, but this is a dangerous strategy that will only make the GOP stronger. Here's why:
Republicans blocked Obama's agenda, stole a Supreme Court seat and wouldn't help Dems do anything about Russian election interference. Were they punished? No. They were rewarded with the presidency, two SCOTUS seats, the Senate & tax cuts. The strategy worked. Why change now?
The GOP won’t suddenly reconsider bipartisanship. Rulebreaking/refusing to compromise has been effective for them. It’s a party and voter base that almost put a child molester in the US Senate over a candidate who prosecuted the KKK for killing young black girls! No conscience.
Look how few Republicans have broke from the party and stood up to Trump after the Mueller Report and Ukraine scandal. They see this country changing demographically, getting out of their reach, and they have responded not by evolving but with a ruthless collective power grab.
The GOP is ALL IN on this path, Trump or no Trump. Picking a nominee who's running on getting along with Republicans and turning the other cheek won’t stop the fighting, it will result in Dems putting up less resistance, getting their asses kicked in the ballot box and Congress.
A lot of the people who want the “fighting to stop” seem to be well-off white folks, often men, insulated from the consequences of not fighting back. But if we don’t stand up to the GOP, women, people of color, immigrants, those in poverty and the LGBTQ community will suffer.
We’re in a fight whether we like it or not. Anybody who claims we're not is lying. The country is polarized, and Dems didn’t cause it. We can be delusional, pick a kumbaya candidate and lose. Or we can pick a fighter who is clear-eyed about the battle for America’s soul and win.
“When they go low, we go high.” Pretty words that sound good on paper, especially for idealistic left-leaning folks who value community. But in reality, it’s been “When they go low, we go high, then they go lower and marginalized communities and the working class suffer.”
It also must be said that 2020 Democrats who promise a return to normalcy where Republicans have epiphanies and voters go back to hitting snooze push this BS not only because it sounds good to swing voters, but because big $ donors/bundlers want them to protect the status quo.
One last thing: The GOP version of bipartisanship infringes on social and economic equality, so the party can't even consider that without flushing our values down the toilet. If we're talking infrastructure without unrelated poison pills attached, yeah, maybe that makes sense.
