A warning to any Democrat running for President:
If Democrats want to unify the country, they should stop talking about wanting to unify the country.This has it just right. There are few people in this country (as least those aware enough to bother to vote) who think a politician of any party is going to unify the country at this point in our history. Decades of toxicity injected into our political bloodstream by right- wing eliminationist rhetoric, lies and fear- mongering have done their work too well, giving us a revanchist political party with a truly existential threat in Donald "Rump" Trump. There's no convincing a large swath of America that has been taught and conditioned to hate liberals and Democrats above all else. This isn't about "civility." As we and others have said before, it's about winning by having sane policies and then out- organizing, out- messaging, and out- voting them. Over and over again. Period.
That's one of the paradoxes of living in a highly polarized political culture. What once might have sounded uplifting and public spirited now sounds banal and naïve. Democrats need to propose a distinctive account of the country's past and present and an alternative vision of its future — one that contrasts sharply with the one emanating daily from the White House and the president's Twitter account. Positioning themselves above it all, as ready and eager to work and compromise with the party of Donald Trump, can't help but make them sound weak and defensive. It certainly won't defeat the president and win back the Senate from the GOP in 2020. The time for such pabulum is over.
BONUS: Jon Chait has a similar take.
(Photo: We'd rather you be Russian than American.)
