The hard-left primary push of Democrats like Kamala Harris could doom them in general election
March 1, 2019
Democrats in a packed field of presidential candidates are struggling to stand out. Like crabs in a barrel, they’re adopting fringe, left-wing positions, from Medicare for All to slavery reparations.
However, some experts say that this hard-left turn will make it difficult for a Democrat candidate like Kamala Harris to trounce President Donald Trump in the general election.
Hard-left turn will hurt Dems
In just the last few months alone, the Democrats seem to have lost their collective minds as they have come to embrace socialism, open borders, and infanticide in everything but name. Trump and his Republican supporters have reacted to these developments with glee, joking that all Republicans need to do is let Democrats do the campaigning for them. Speaking with Sean Hannity this week, Trump joked that the Green New Deal was a gift, saying he loves the idea “as long as they’re the ones who have to sell it.”
So how will this radical turn play over in 2020? Not well, some warn. Speaking with Fox, former Obama for America spokesperson Zach Friend acknowledged that primary campaigns can be more ideologically driven, but whoever wins the Democratic nomination will have to transition to winning over middle-of-the-road voters who care about things like the economy.
“There’s gonna be a pretty strong movement to the Left in order to win this nomination. The question is going to be can you make the transition in the general election. Because ultimately it’s still going to be decided in a lot of those states across the Midwest, that still care mostly about these bread and butter issues, specifically the economy,” Friend said.
It’s not uncommon for candidates to run more ideological campaigns in the primary before transitioning to a general election campaign with broader appeal, but with candidates this radical, that may be hard to pull off. The present field of Democrats are not exactly taking a moderate path.
Several Democratic candidates have embraced expensive, unpopular policies, including Medicare for All, open borders, the Green New Deal, abolishing ICE and late-term abortion. Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke, expected to announce soon, did his best to stand out from other open borders Democrats when he called for tearing down existing border walls. Harris is one of the most radical candidates and the de facto progressive favorite, having embraced Medicare for All, an end to private health insurance, the Green New Deal, legalization of marijuana, and even reparations for slavery.
Harris has even defended abortion up to the moment of birth.
None of the Democratic presidential candidates in the Senate voted for a Republican-backed bill, the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, which would threatened criminal penalties against doctors who fail to attempt to save the lives of babies who survive abortions.
Dems dooming themselves?
The crabs-in-a-barrel dynamic of the Democratic primary has created a progressive purity spiral, in which relatively uninspiring candidates racing to win the nomination are doing their utmost to sound more radical than the next candidate. Potomac Strategy Group president Matt Mackowiak said that these far-left, fringe issues have become “litmus tests” that Democrats will need to pass to win the nomination, but was skeptical that the Democrats will be able to pull back from them in the general election.
“Reparations, legalized marijuana, Medicare for All, Green New Deal, these are simply not majority issues yet. Maybe the Democratic nominee can sell it to the majority of the public, we’ll have to see. I think Trump and the Republicans feel good about the direction the Democrats are going. They’re going so far to the left, it is going to be harder to track back unless they nominate a more moderate candidate.”
Despite all the hype surrounding more progressive candidates like Harris, it’s telling that the official frontrunner is, right now, a white male centrist, former vice president Joe Biden, who has not even officially declared his candidacy yet. Polls show that socialism, despite being a hot commodity on the Left right now, is deeply unpopular with the majority of Americans.
Infanticide is also deeply unpopular with most normal people with a conscience.
Democrats are becoming the Party of late term abortion, high taxes, Open Borders and Crime!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 31, 2019
Trump has gladly labeled the Democrats the party of “late abortion, high taxes, Open Borders and Crime!” Is he wrong? One can only hope the Democrats stay on this tack.
https://www.conservativeinstitute.org/conserv...aign=dc2-1
March 1, 2019
Democrats in a packed field of presidential candidates are struggling to stand out. Like crabs in a barrel, they’re adopting fringe, left-wing positions, from Medicare for All to slavery reparations.
However, some experts say that this hard-left turn will make it difficult for a Democrat candidate like Kamala Harris to trounce President Donald Trump in the general election.
Hard-left turn will hurt Dems
In just the last few months alone, the Democrats seem to have lost their collective minds as they have come to embrace socialism, open borders, and infanticide in everything but name. Trump and his Republican supporters have reacted to these developments with glee, joking that all Republicans need to do is let Democrats do the campaigning for them. Speaking with Sean Hannity this week, Trump joked that the Green New Deal was a gift, saying he loves the idea “as long as they’re the ones who have to sell it.”
So how will this radical turn play over in 2020? Not well, some warn. Speaking with Fox, former Obama for America spokesperson Zach Friend acknowledged that primary campaigns can be more ideologically driven, but whoever wins the Democratic nomination will have to transition to winning over middle-of-the-road voters who care about things like the economy.
“There’s gonna be a pretty strong movement to the Left in order to win this nomination. The question is going to be can you make the transition in the general election. Because ultimately it’s still going to be decided in a lot of those states across the Midwest, that still care mostly about these bread and butter issues, specifically the economy,” Friend said.
It’s not uncommon for candidates to run more ideological campaigns in the primary before transitioning to a general election campaign with broader appeal, but with candidates this radical, that may be hard to pull off. The present field of Democrats are not exactly taking a moderate path.
Several Democratic candidates have embraced expensive, unpopular policies, including Medicare for All, open borders, the Green New Deal, abolishing ICE and late-term abortion. Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke, expected to announce soon, did his best to stand out from other open borders Democrats when he called for tearing down existing border walls. Harris is one of the most radical candidates and the de facto progressive favorite, having embraced Medicare for All, an end to private health insurance, the Green New Deal, legalization of marijuana, and even reparations for slavery.
Harris has even defended abortion up to the moment of birth.
None of the Democratic presidential candidates in the Senate voted for a Republican-backed bill, the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, which would threatened criminal penalties against doctors who fail to attempt to save the lives of babies who survive abortions.
Dems dooming themselves?
The crabs-in-a-barrel dynamic of the Democratic primary has created a progressive purity spiral, in which relatively uninspiring candidates racing to win the nomination are doing their utmost to sound more radical than the next candidate. Potomac Strategy Group president Matt Mackowiak said that these far-left, fringe issues have become “litmus tests” that Democrats will need to pass to win the nomination, but was skeptical that the Democrats will be able to pull back from them in the general election.
“Reparations, legalized marijuana, Medicare for All, Green New Deal, these are simply not majority issues yet. Maybe the Democratic nominee can sell it to the majority of the public, we’ll have to see. I think Trump and the Republicans feel good about the direction the Democrats are going. They’re going so far to the left, it is going to be harder to track back unless they nominate a more moderate candidate.”
Despite all the hype surrounding more progressive candidates like Harris, it’s telling that the official frontrunner is, right now, a white male centrist, former vice president Joe Biden, who has not even officially declared his candidacy yet. Polls show that socialism, despite being a hot commodity on the Left right now, is deeply unpopular with the majority of Americans.
Infanticide is also deeply unpopular with most normal people with a conscience.
Democrats are becoming the Party of late term abortion, high taxes, Open Borders and Crime!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 31, 2019
Trump has gladly labeled the Democrats the party of “late abortion, high taxes, Open Borders and Crime!” Is he wrong? One can only hope the Democrats stay on this tack.
https://www.conservativeinstitute.org/conserv...aign=dc2-1
