Forget the ideological trinkets, Dems, and focus on the economy

I’m dismayed by the Dems.

The Nov. 6 midterms are still weeks away, but Democratic Party operatives are already plotting, planning and dreaming for the 2020 presidential primary campaigns. By pulling their party hard to the left.

Left-leaning Democrats have been wandering in the ideological wilderness for years, hoping to elect a new president on the volume of their rhetoric rather than the size of their tent.

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and her posse “have been reaching out to key Democratic officeholders in Iowa, Nevada and South Carolina — three states early in the presidential primary calendar — making introductions and offering help in the midterm campaign,” The New York Times reported this summer.

Last week, U.S. Sen. Corey Booker of New Jersey was barnstorming in Iowa, reportedly channeling the Rev. Martin Luther King and Maya Angelou in a 45-minute speech to the converted.

Later this month, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, the failed 2016 presidential aspirant from Vermont, will swing through delegate-heavy California as he considers another run.

By my count, at least 20 Democrats will be in the hunt, many touting liberal-to-left agendas.

What’s stirring the pot? Recent political trends, from Sanders’ 2016 presidential crusade to the Black Lives Matter and Me-Too movements, to the debacle over the Supreme Court nomination over Brett Kavanaugh.

In These Times’ November cover story laid out the soupy agenda. In “The Race to the Left,” Theo Anderson asserts that “progressive movements are advancing bold ideas. Potential 2020 candidates are vying to keep up.”

The Chicago-based magazine and bible of the left details the “gets” top 2020 contenders are embracing. They include Medicare for all; a $15 national minimum wage; a jobs guarantee; public financing of elections, tuition-free college; 100 percent renewal energy; and union election protections.

Those are nice, shiny baubles, but they hang 10,000 feet high on a Christmas tree loaded with over expectations.

Yes, the hard-core Democratic base is desperate to see President Donald J. Trump face down in the electoral mud. However, exciting the base is not the same as winning the election.

Swing voters and moderate Democrats will be looking for more than lollipops and cotton candy.

The loudest voices don’t appeal to middle-of-the-roaders, the voters that Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama brought into the fold. Those voters will choose electability over ideology every time.

Those voters are looking for a pragmatic candidate with a track record of governing, who can appeal to blue-collar voters and resist pandering to the party’s myriad interest groups.

Most important, the American economy may be booming now, but many experts predict a downturn by 2020.

Consider Dustin Gardner, a 30-year-old, Obama-Trump voter who works at an auto parts store in Canton, Ohio. In September the political web site Axios interviewed Gardner at a focus group of “quintessential swing voters.”

“On paper, Obama-Trump voters think America is moving in the right direction, citing things like new trade agreements and low unemployment rates,” Axios reported. “But they told a different story when asked to elaborate.”

Gardner is “still living paycheck-to-paycheck,” he told Axios. Trump has “backed out on so many of his promises,” Gardner said. “Like trying to bring back the jobs to America, that would’ve been fantastic. There’s a lot of manufacturing jobs, but the wages just aren’t there.”

Democrats, forget the ideological trinkets. Put a laser focus on the economy.

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