Though he has strayed from the limelight since his formal departure from the White House in 2017, former President Obama appeared to be firing a warning flare from across the Atlantic at his party. The Democrats could be killing their 2020 chances with this lurch to the Left, where adherence to left-wing orthodoxy will be the litmus test. So far, it’s a race over which candidate can out-crazy the other. Who can declare their affinity for abortion, abolishing ICE, opening the borders, killing the Trump tax cuts, and torching the U.S. economy first? On that latter part, the Green New Deal is the vehicle that the Left has attached itself to like a barnacle. The plan is economic idiocy at its finest, where farting cows and welfare for the lazy are laid out. Oh, and the abolishment of the internal combustible engine as well. So, no more visiting loved ones on the holiday because of …global warming or something.
You see the seeds of this with Joe Biden, who has gone on something of an apology tour as he preps for his 2020 bid. Biden has apologized to Anita Hill over the Clarence Thomas hearings and gave some weird lecture about white culture. Biden is getting ahead of all of it, even apologizing for calling Vice President Mike Pence a “decent guy.” Yeah, that’s how crazy the Left has become…calling good people “good people” is anathema if they happen to be Republican. Is this smart? As Karol Markowicz noted, Biden, who is known for putting his foot in his mouth, could be doing the same here…with his 2020 aspirations. Biden is still a hardcore liberal, but this need to accommodate the political correctness ethos of the Left is showing with him, and he’s looking rather awkward. I’m not complaining by the way—just pointing out that Biden’s original positions, while wrong, aren’t nuts. But you have to be “woke” to run in liberal-land. This is reason #34,563 why I’m proud not to be a Democrat.
From Berlin, Obama sees the first vestiges of the circular firing squad forming with his party and that could dash their hopes of beating Trump in 2020. We now have prominent Democrats in this clown car calling for the end of private health insurance. It’s madness. Oh, and if you’re not for that, then you could be a shill for the insurance industry and not really be all for healthcare for all or something. Everyone’s dirty laundry is about to be aired in the name of progressive purity (via The Hill):
Former President Obama expressed concern about the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, saying he feared it could end up undercutting allies.
Speaking at a town hall event on Saturday for the Obama Foundation in Berlin, the former president spoke about the need for compromise in politics, citing the Affordable Care Act as something that he said signified progress even though it did not achieve all of his aspirations for U.S. health care.
"One of the things I do worry about sometimes among progressives in the United States —maybe it’s true here as well — is a certain kind of rigidity where we say, 'Uh, I’m sorry, this is how it’s going to be,' and then we start sometimes creating what’s called a 'circular firing squad,' where you start shooting at your allies because one of them has strayed from purity on the issues. And when that happens, typically the overall effort and movement weakens," he said.
"So I think whether you are speaking as a citizen or as a political leader or as an organizer … you have to recognize that the way we structure democracy requires you to take into account people who don’t agree with you, and that by definition means you’re not going to get 100 percent of what you want," he added.
Now, the Left is going to ignore this. To them, 2016 was a winnable election (they’re not wrong about that) it’s juts that moderate Hillary Clinton was on the ticket. If Bernie were on the ticket, he would’ve won. If Hillary were more progressive, more left wing, she would’ve won. In politics, the losing side’s game of Monday morning quarterback is needless and for the Democrats, the Bernie and Hillary camps have probably quietly seethed at one another, the Bernie bros seeing the DNC’s antics to undercut Sanders during the primary and the Hillary folk wondering if the Sanders camp could’ve been more aggressive pushing Clinton on the campaign trail once the primaries were over. And it’s not like Obama is some moderate either, but even suggesting that the party could be going too far to the left too fast could be…problematic to some folks. The Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez corps, like Trump, wants to bash the D.C. establishment and if that includes torching old heroes, like Obama, so be it. I think a lot of popcorn-worthy moments from Democrats are on the horizon—all of them detrimental in the general election campaign. As for Trump, just attack and keep that war chest filled. And believe me—it’s going to be filled; that I can tell you.