Chait is REALLY cautioning against the hard left swing by several Democratic nomination candidates…
The Democratic presidential primary has worked to the party’s disadvantage by maneuvering its candidates into unpopular positions. This is not quite a crisis, but it is a serious danger that, if not redressed, could blow up in the party’s face.
Democrats have lots of room to run to attack President Trump from the left on economic and social policy while placing themselves on the right side of public opinion. And while the party as a whole has done so, the presidential contenders have been jostling to stand out by adopting a series of highly unpopular stances. To date, the following positions have been taken by some or all the candidates: replace all employer-provided private insurance with a government plan; decriminalize the border while also providing subsidized health insurance to undocumented immigrants; and provide reparations for the descendants of American slaves.
All these positions would likely be serious liabilities in a general election. What’s more, none of them would appear to stand any plausible chance of enactment in the next administration, given that the (current) House majority and (prospective, unlikely) Senate majority both require the support of Democrats far to the right of the presidential field. So these risks the candidates are taking do not bring with them a concurrent benefit. They’re not laying the ground for a sweeping new progressive agenda they can pass in 2021. They’re merely seeding Donald Trump’s attack ads.
Notice that the previous paragraph contains some qualifiers (“likely”; “appear to.”) Modesty is needed in making political projections. Public opinion is never completely fixed, and predicting the effect of any particular dynamic always involves some uncertainty. After Trump, we should retire terms like “unelectable” and its implication of total confidence in political outcomes.
But to acknowledge that we lack certainty about an effect is not to say we know nothing. There is a large body of research showing that voters tend to punish candidates that they perceive as holding extreme positions. Holding unpopular positions in fact tends to make a candidate less popular.
And yet, as obvious as this simple observation might sound, the progressive intelligentsia has devoted enormous energy to denying it. The defensive impulse against any “centrist” critique is so impulsive and so widespread that bad, even silly, political rationalizations for taking reckless positions are now flourishing….
I’m in broad agreement with Chait.
The Democrats need a much more realistic border policy and the idea of reparations for slavery is never going to happen as the candidates advocating that well know.
So am I….
The HARD left stuff will only help Trump…
This doesn’t mean that certain middle stuff shouldn’t be challenged by progressives
But some reality needs to assert itself…
I know james is into the athletic shoe industry, so a post may be forthcoming on the recent controversy of Nike cancelling a rollout of new red, white, and blue shoes, featuring the “Betsy Ross flag.”
Colin Kaepernick, a Nike endorser, complained about the shoe saying that the historic flag is somehow tied to “slavery” and Nike quickly decided to discontinue it as to not potentially offend anyone.
Totally ridiculous in the minds of many. I had never heard of any offensive connotations to the first flag of the United States. This flag for instance is always on display at Presidential Inaugurations along with all the other historical versions of the U.S. flag, leading up to the present 50 star one. Nobody ever complained about it before including the two times Obama was sworn in as President standing basically right in front of it.
Instances like this, from the left, and the willingness of entities to capitulate to them, leave me with no choice but to think that four more years for DJT is more realistic than anyone here would want to admit.
My useless new Senator Josh Hawley tried to make headlines yesterday claiming he no longer considers Nike to be an American company. I guess all those years of Nike buildong theory shoes overseas didn’t bother him–but once they capitulated to the admittedly ridicul
ous demands of Kapernick and refused to release shoes with an old American flag stitched on the heel by Asian workers making pennies per hour. Well you .can see young Josh now sees an oppoerunity to get Trump’s attention. Maybe The Boss will mention him in a Tweet!
Anyone–left or right–seeking to make this a political issue–is stupid.
They won’t be “stupid”, they will be smart opportunists. I think you know that too.
No, the whole issue is stupid. You sound like Hawley.
Basically his (and your) argument is this shows that Democrats re out of touch, and will force good Amwrican folk to vote Republican Because we’ll really stick it to Nike-by lowering their taxes!!
I prefer pointing out the stupid actions on both sides rather than trying to get my party to benefit from it.
I don’t know what Hawley said and don’t particularly care.
I do care that Nike acted the way they did on this. (and I didn’t care when they hired Kaepernick to do an ad)
Whether I would want it to happen or not, this is the sort of thing that will hurt your party, which is why you do the covering of eyes and ears routine.
I was just speaking personally that I think anyone who gets offended by the flag being in the shoe or us offended by Nike refusing to sell said shoe needs to get a life.
You’ve always enjoyed taking these conversatiins amongst the 6 of us on here and tried to turn them into indictmrnts of the entire left or praise for the right.
I speak for no one but myself.
I recall years ago when I simply said I always thought saying the Pledge of Allegiance in a free country was a little weird.
I was the walking talking exampke of why us Godless librul Demmycrats were out of touch in good ole Middle America!
Playing right into Trump’s tiny hands…
I’m kicking (or fact-palming or self=shaming) myself for not having recognized before this afterneoon how the fuss started.
It shows the dangers of a little learning….
I’m almost dead-certain that Colin Kaepernick mistook the first U.S. flag (or the first without a Union Jack), with 13 stars & 13 stripes for the first Confederate flag or Stars and Bars (before the more-familiae Southern Cross) with 7 stars and 3 stripes (or bars (red-white-red), representing the first seven states to join the Confederacy (SC, Alab, Miss, Ga, Ark, La & Texas).
Whatever your own opinion about how to recall Confederate histoty, it’s certainly completely understandable that Colin Kaepernick would be extremely upset at seeing the flag that flew over Fort Sumter after Old Glory was lowered.
Compare
https://cdn.flaggenplatz.de/media/image/2082r.jpg
with
https://www.flagslasvegas.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/311475_stars-bars.jpg
Did you Cc: this comment to Mitch McConnell DSD?
The guy has no idea why there would a another view on this then his….
According to you,
Everything aDemocrat does or says “hurts the party.”
For a guy who would Never vote for aDemocrat for President under any circumstances, perhaps you forgive us for not taking your words of imminent doom for the Democrats as anything other than the words of a very partisan Republican.
Meanwhile Trump lies and lies and lies and lies
And the respunse of your party?
Right On!
Indeed I anxiously await your visit every few days as you describe how (fill in the blank) “hurts the party”, “plays into Trump hands” etc etc.
We are all used to the game.
But that’s not my response.
Not everything. Just calling it like I see it. You have said many times over many years that my “Race of the Day” analyses are good.
If the Democrats did listen to me they would be in better shape.
I am not saying that Kaepernick is specifically the fault of something the party did. I am saying that these are the kind of cultural wedge issues that have given us Trump.
Since you all watch Bill Maher, you know he says exactly the same things on these matters that I do. Is he “shilling” for Republicans?
Oh you’re just like Bill Maher now? Funny I didn’t know you were so pro weed and that Bill Maher was such a stickler for the Hyde Amendment.
I’m the one who thinks Trump should be impeached and that it should not hurt the Democrats to embark on that.
So, that doesn’t fit the narrative.
You guys are plenty scared of losing to Trump without me needing to say one word.
You ought to be scared of Trump winning.
The fact that it interest you more about our level of fear speaks volumes.
You’re more interested in scoring what you perceive to be “debating points” than worrying about Trump.
Republican to the end!
I fear anybody who is running winning at this point.
What else can I do? Maybe the Cubs will start to play better soon so I can feel better about that. At least I saw them win the World Series once, so I can’t complain too much about the world slowly falling apart.
Who am I “debating” here?
Nobody. I am simply expressing my opinion. This site was dead a couple months ago and you personally jack, summoned us all back. So, that’s how it goes. You get to hear my opinions.
One opinion I have is Democrats are blowing it, big time.
Ah?
the site wasn’t dead…
the comments where ….
My point is Anything the Democrats did would have you saying the same thing.
They are “blowing it” from a Republican perspective.
And harkens back to another point that I will continue to make…
Your disagreement with Trump is your personal dislike of him.Issue wise?Youre on board with most of what he does and why not?Hes aRepublican.Youre a Republican.
Accordingly,since anything the Democrats say will be in opposition to basic Republican dogma, you Always will claim that the Demcrats are “blowing it.”
I didn’t know I had the power to “summons” all you boys back.If I did though?Well so much the better.Most Of the time it’s fun.
I disagree. Before the 2018 midterms, I consistently said Democrats were going to have a big Election Night and win many seats in the House and key Governorships (Senate was a different matter for other factors.)
The other online tribalists said I was a shill and a cheerleader for Democrats who simply wanted to provoke them via my opinions.
On PDog1, it is believed that I am a right-wing shill who believes that Trump cannot lose, Democrats are doomed, and are comparable with Hitler.
On HHR, it is believed I am a left-wing shill, who believes that Trump cannot win, Republicans are doomed, and Trump is worse than Hitler.
It’s a good thing I don’t use Facebook.
will the REAL CG please stand up!
Oh, I forgot..
Over there, I am personally responsible for the rise of socialism and a complete fraud for not voting for Donald Trump against a Democrat.
Here, I am personally responsible for the rise of Donald Trump and a complete fraud for not voting for a Democrat against him.
Exaggeration much?
I,for one, have never said you are “responsible” for Donald Trump.In point of fact just a few posts ago I acknowledged your dislike for him.
Contrary for thinking you are a fraud,I consistently call you a Republican which is what you are and ,as a Republican, you will not be voting for the Democratic candidate for President.
So I don’t know what you’re talking about.
You do seem to believe this stuff though and seem to imply that such makes you somehow more noble or virtuous than the rest of us.
Whatever.
Bill Maher applauds when Drmocrats take more progressive positions on climate change. I have never seen you do that.
I don’t have to agree with Bill Maher on anything ideologically, but he has been bemoaning the excesses of the Left and the “woke Twitter crowd”, etc, a lot lately, as I am sure you are aware.
I seem to recall Bill Maher recently said the Democrats went too far on the Hyde Amendment.
I know of Maher’s problems with “Democratic Twitter” and I agree with him that that contingency represents only 2% of the Democratic Party.
I’ve never heard him claim that about the Hyde Amendment
Maher argued a bit with Congressman Katie Porter over it.
https://thehill.com/homenews/media/447644-rep-katie-porter-ribs-bill-maher-during-abortion-discussion
He said he was pro-choice but squishy about it due to the circumstances of his own birth and since he can see the point that the Pro-Life people have.
He also said that while he was pro-choice, he was more troubled with the government insisting that people have to pay for abortions.
I am sure the entire video of the segment can be found online fairly easily.
CH?
Almost EVERYTHING is political theses days….
Kaepenuick gets PAID to push sneaker/shoe sales …
How many pairs of sneakers does Mitch McConnell wear?
How many $150 pair Nike’s do u own?
A good piece of the Nike high end sneaker market is young people of color….
You figure out why Nike is sensitive to this…
I wouldn’t pay $150.
I am sure Mitch McConnell owns sneakers for the day he is doing his cocaine trafficking.
I am sure they would have sold a lot of the Betsy Ross shoes to young African-Americans, regardless of what Colin Kaepernick said.
Now, they are probably going to pay a business cost.
and every Democrat running for President is probably going to have to give their opinion on this now.
Nike (and Kaepernick) gave Trump a wide opening to hammer you guys. Trump may be an idiot, but he isn’t stupid.
So far this is only a hig story among those who jerk off to FOX News.
No chance this is remembered by the time if the next Democratic debate.
You probably saw it discussed last night on the Chris Cuomo Show. I won’t ask what you were doing at the time.
Happy Independence Day to all.