Okay, Dems: In one ring of the circus we have a major internal war over Anti-Semitism.
Absolute defenders of Israel-right-or-wrong will have to get used to the fact that there are legitimate criticisms to be made. And at the same time, critics of Israel need to take more care to avoid triggering stereotypes.
Is that logical? Yes. Is it easy? No. And AIPAC should please get down off its high horse and stop pretending that it doesn't play into the dual loyalty libel against patriotic American Jews by demanding fealty to the Israeli government. Good luck to that.
That's just one ring of the identity circus. In another ring, we have The New York Timesreporting on (and helping to stoke) demands that all Democratic candidates, in order to keep faith with African American citizens, agree to support reparations for the descendants of slaves. Would that reparations were remotely mainstream politics, but they aren’t.
And in another ring, illegal border crossings from Mexico are setting new records, and Trump's approval ratings, incredibly, are up. Trump's wall should be an easy win for Democrats, but how to talk sensibly about the rights of undocumented immigrants when Trump in his bullying way is addressing the rights of Americans?
It is never easy being the party of the rainbow. It's much easier being the party of hate.
Finally, how to have a clear message and winning message on all this when different constituent party groups are at each other's throats--and twenty different presidential contenders are sending twenty different messages?
I've always contended that the unifying theme is populist economics, but it's clear that these other, intensely felt issues are not going away. Somehow, people passionate about a dozen separate causes need to find a way to unite behind one overarching cause—ridding this Republic of Donald Trump.
Otherwise, Democrats will just keep playing to the script written by my pal Steve Bannon, and we can look forward to a second Trump term.
