Do Democrats even want to win in 2020?
Donald Trump remains a remarkably unpopular president. With the primary campaign in full swing, Americans disapprove of his performance by an 8% margin.
Trump lost the popular vote and squeaked into the Oval Office with the thinnest of electoral victories. He has faced an unprecedented onslaught by the media, popular culture, and even several pundits in his own party.
Given the conditions, winning the White House should be a layup for Democrats. If the first primary debates are any indication, however, they want to make 2020 as difficult as possible.
Over two nights, four hours, and featuring 20 candidates, the NBC News broadcasts were a prime opportunity for the Democratic Party to contrast a serious, center-left vision with the erratic reality TV star Tweeting from the Resolute Desk.
Instead, Democrats lived up to every caricature Trump and Fox News hosts have drawn of them.
Despite mocking the idea of a border crisis a few months ago, the candidates insisted that the situation is even worse than viewers could imagine. The consensus was to fix it with virtually open borders.
Julián Castro said that illegally crossing the border should no longer be a crime, but simply a civil offense. Beto O’Rourke and Sen. Kamala Harris eagerly agreed.
Candidates also proposed that free health care be given to all undocumented immigrants. Did I say “free?” I meant taxpayer-funded. On night two, every candidate raised their hands for this decidedly unpopular measure.
Gliding over Obamacare, which was supposed to fix our broken system, Democrats portrayed U.S. health care as a for-profit nightmare requiring more radical intervention. Harris, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and New York Gov. Bill De Blasio even called for the abolishment of private insurance plans. After the debate, Harris wisely retracted her answer.
As expected, all of the proposed plans would cover abortion without limits, with Castro oddly insisting that taxpayers fund abortions for trans females. At some point, you’re pandering to an audience that doesn’t exist.
Rep. Eric Swalwell insisted upon a federal buyback “of every single assault weapon,” to which Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden agreed. The need for door-to-door confiscation of gun owners who didn’t comply was never raised.
Two candidates, South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg and entrepreneur Andrew Yang, boasted of their six-figure college debts, while others promised to cancel debt and make college free.
Did I say “free?” I meant taxpayerfunded.
The most emotional moment was Harris’s you’re-not-racist-but-you’re-pretty-racist attack on Joe Biden. What sin did the vice president of the first African-American president commit? He opposed mandatory busing 40 years ago, as did most Americans of both parties and all races.
Harris didn’t retract that position but claimed we need to bring back busing here and now.
It’s common for a party to lean to the extremes for the primary then shift to the center for the general. But last week’s debates positioned them so far to the left that run-of-the-mill Democrats – not to mention Trump-skeptical moderates – were left scratching their heads.
In a CNN poll after the debates, 57% of Democrats opposed eliminating private health insurance and 59% opposed government health care for undocumented immigrants.
Oddly, the party is rejecting their successful strategy in 2018. Sure, progressives won dark blue districts, but centrists won the purple ZIP codes by focusing on the bread-and-butter issues of everyday life. This is the reason Nancy Pelosi is the Speaker of the House.
It’s been less than a year, but Democrats have utterly abandoned that obvious path to victory.
Out of 20 candidates, there was only one winner of the first Democratic debates. His name is Donald Trump.