I didn’t watch a minute of the two Democratic debates this week. That would’ve been four hours of my life I’d never get back, and anyway I knew I’d get all the highlights on cable news the next day and learn in detail what was said from the New York Times.
What’s interesting is that the cable news pundits are shocked, shocked, not like Captain Renault was when he found out there was gambling in Rick’s Place in the movie “Casablanca,” but genuinely astonished at the attacks on former President Barack Obama during Wednesday night’s debate.
From the New York Post:
“President Barack Obama wasn’t on the debate stage with the 10 Democratic presidential hopefuls Wednesday night — but his legacy was, and it was trashed by many of the candidates, leaving some Democrats scratching their heads in disbelief.
Obama’s record on immigration was widely criticized by the participants and his signature legislative achievement, the Affordable Care Act, became a casualty of the discussion around “Medicare for All”….
GOP strategist Rick Wilson chalked it up to Democrats being inept at politics. “People ask why I say Democrats are holistically bad at politics. I will always point to the fact that many of their leading candidates for 2020 spent last night taking a giant dump on Barack Obama. It’s almost as if they’re trying to re-elect Trump.”
I wasn’t the least bit surprised. For the last year and a half my progressive Facebook friends have been bashing Barack Obama as a “corporate Democrat” who didn’t do enough to move the country to the far, far left.
These progressives should be proud of themselves. Clearly they were ahead of the curve. Perhaps they influenced their brothers and sisters in the rest of the country.
If we’re cynical we can also assume the disdain for Obama is a result of his 2016 support for his Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, for president, and their assumption that if she hadn’t run he would have supported his Vice-president, Joe Biden. There was no way he’d support the irrepressible and perpetually angry socialist, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Attacking Obama makes no sense. As “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough noted, in a poll taken last year among Democrats Barack Obama had a 97% approval rating.
What I learned after Tuesday night’s debates was that my Facebook friends have “gaslighted” me. They had me convinced my moderate, centrist political views put me far out of the mainstream and that EVERYONE in America is on board with progressive policies. I was an outlier, a Republican posing as a Democrat, a man in a canoe on the ocean without a paddle.
Wednesday morning’s debate reviews demonstrated that half of the Democratic presidential candidates are dead set against progressive policies and view them as tantamount to political suicide.
For example, Ohio Rep.Tim Ryan said, “Democrats will lose 48 states on a ‘Medicare for All’ platform.”
Watching interviews with Democratic voters and reading comments indicate that at least 50% of them are centrists or moderates, and they’re not buying into delusional progressive promises.
They’re more interested in defeating Donald Trump and making this country sane again than pursuing a quixotic agenda that is ideologically noble but politically untenable.
I know progressives wait with great anticipation for my predictions, so as not to disappoint them here are a few: 1. A progressive will not be the 2020 Democratic nominee for president 2. Progressive policies will not be on the Democratic platform 3. The debates this week did not hurt Joe Biden’s chances for the nomination, and that will be reflected in the polls over the next few days.
Don’t shoot the messenger. I’m just telling it like it is.
by 
Absolutely correct. I don’t know what mental illness causes people to intentionally lose elections that are as important as the country itself, but it looks like there is an epidemic of it. Quarantine? Curfew? Just brainstorming a little bit.