FOLLOW-UP

In response to yesterday's blog,Trump's 2020 Launch, a reader sees it differently: 

Leon,

Much as I wish it were otherwise I have to disagree with your main point.

Trumpism, along with its international versions, is a pernicious threat to democracy in the United States and in the world. It has already destroyed much of our national civic understanding, and Trump's re-election would be a true disaster from which we would not likely ever recover.

Yes, Trump is using McCarthyite tactics to frighten and divide the Democratic Party. And he has succeeded. I'm scared out of my wits that he may be re-elected.  And the way to assure his re-election is for the Democrats to continue to gratuitously feed him ammunition for his scare tactics. I believe that Tom Friedman is right that we need to put off any discussion of a progressive (let alone socialist) agenda until after we have gotten him out of there.

I believe that much of the progressive agenda is highly worthy, but it will require more time than remains before the election to convince the majority of voters. We can't afford to turn off the large number of voters who don't like Trump but who are scared (or can easily be scared off by Trump's tactics) of anything that sounds like socialism.  

It is absolutely critical that Trump be repudiated (and by a large majority), and we need to do everything we can to make that happen. 

Andy

My reply:

Thanks, Andy.

I don't think your note and my blog are necessarily incompatible. The intensity of our conviction that Trump must go, and our fears about the danger of his re-election, are certainly equal. Our differences have more to do with perceptions of political reality and of the challenges leading up to the election. Even if I agreed with Friedman that democrats should postpone discussing big ideas thatTrump will exploit to paint the Democratic Party "red" -- is that a realistic prospect? You can't wave a wand and have everyone from Sanders and Warren to AOC and Omar conform to Friedman's restrictions.

 There is an option for the undoubtedly sizable number of democrats who share Friedman's view, namely, pick a "centrist" presidential candidate like Joe Biden. That presents its own risks and problems worth examining at another point. But the Democratic Party is evolving as society's problems deepen. It is more and more diverse. It can never be monolithic in thinking or action. That's reality, and it does make things difficult and complicated, but far from hopeless.

We can have a realistic hope that all democrats will make it their priority to expose and oust Trump, and to get out the largest possible majority vote. That’s the only way to win. True, we can lose if “centrists” and “progressives” are each in their own ways tone deaf to the needs and possibilities that connect with voters -- or if they choose to fall into fighting each other over who lost the election well before it takes place. 

If overreach is the danger as Friedman fears, another losing formula is timidity and intimidation. We can’t let Trump’s McCarthyism bully us into a sort of conformity, where ideas, public discourse, vision and inspiration are put on hold. We can’t surrender to our fears our confidence in a strong democratic majority. A self-censored, enfeebled Democratic Party is just the ticket for Trump. 

No one can be sure, but I think the outlook will improve as the nominating process unfolds. Trump may whip up his crowds, but his racism and bizarre behavior are daily more exposed. It’s surely a time for alarm, but not for losing confidence.
Leon