The Soul of the Democratic Party and a Friedman Column

IS THERE A CANDIDATE TO FIT THE SOUL OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY?

If one were to try to determine where the heart and soul of the Democratic Party rests, and there were no questions of electability in the picture, I believe that the seekers of the answer to that question would end up settling on a progressive position, with the government assuming a greater role in providing for the welfare of Americans, particularly if and when the private sector of our economy fails to do so.  In doing so, they would have to try to live within a reasonable budget, a difficult assignment, even with increased taxation of the very wealthy.

But such objective determinations cannot be so purely made in an election year.  Compromises must be made to attract centrist voters to Democratic candidates to supplement the votes of progressives, necessary to enable the Democrats to triumph in the 2020 elections.  Without them, Democrats lose.  Unfortunately, not wanting to compromise, some progressive voters might be sacrificed by the act of compromising as well.  But compromise is necessary.

The answer is to choose a progressive candidate who is not totally and irrevocably committed to a thoroughly progressive agenda, one who recognizes the need for some compromise.  In 2020, Bernie Sanders is not such a candidate.  The path to victory is to find such a candidate, if there is one.

JL

FRIEDMAN'S SOLUTION

And if there is no such progressive candidate available, the Democrats’ might consider the course suggested by Thomas Friedman in a recent New York Times column.   Really, any Democrat would be better than four more years of Trump and the Trumpublicans who blindly follow him, blithely unaware that they are destroying the country.   READ FRIEDMAN'S COLUMN BY CLICKING HERE.

I get the feeling Friedman is just flailing around, engaging in a lot of wishful thinking, and doubt if the Democratic left would support anyone other than an unreconstructed Bernie Sanders unwilling to compromise, guaranteeing a Trump victory. 

JL

Blog Bonus:  I tried watching Fox News for a while today and really, the coronavirus epidemic didn’t seem so bad on their newscasts. It was reported on, but with an obviously tempered sense of urgency.  I did note that in covering the Democratic primary races, Fox ALWAYS referred to Bernie Sanders as a “Democratic Socialist” and all week, Fox has been featuring what they called “the Unauthorized History of Socialism.”  Today’s excerpts included Mao’s murderous abuse of the Chinese people as slave labor in his “Great Leap Forward,” adjacent to their reporting about Sanders.  Goebbels lives on, on Fox News.  

JL

So, what are YOU going to do about Trumpublican abominations?  Thomas Paine said it many years ago:  "These are the times that try men's souls."

Start by passing this blog posting on to a few friends and relatives …. And then become an activist!