Pundits are quick to make assumptions about the nature of politics, and these assumptions imply what the Democratic priorities should be: to manage(no leading), achieve progress through ‘bipartisanship’, to give up on party-building(big money donors only.) Chait says that the Democrats have never been a ‘labor party’ but what he really means is labor has nowhere ‘left’ to go…”Pounding Sanders”
There are, Lord knows, forbidding obstacles to Democrats retaking majorities in both houses of Congress—not least among them the stunning lack of initiative and political imagination of the Democratic Party elite. But it seems perverse, as a matter of simple political persuasion, to mount a de facto case to elect a consensus candidate on the basis of her alacrity in instituting her own relative powerlessness. This is not the kind of strategic thinking out of which long-term majoritarian coalitions are made. Hell, it’s not even much of a case to argue for a Clinton re-election—Hillary in 2020: Your best choice to manage ongoing decline!