Should Democrats use the primary as a setting to discuss health care and other key policies, or are they not focused enough on combating Trump?
Not all of their ideas are popular. Photo: Paras Griffin/WireImage Ben: In a column today, the New York Times’ David Leonhardt writes that Democrats “should be casting Trump as a plutocrat in populist’s clothes, who has used the presidency to enrich himself and other wealthy insiders at the expense of hard-working middle-class families. It’s a caricature that has the benefit of truth.
Jon: The out-party’s primary contest is often a chance to attract media attention to messages, and a lot of the attention is going to questions like “Should we ban private insurance?” rather than “What kind of scumbag is Donald Trump?” Ed: I’d say the response of about 80 percent of 2016 Trump voters to that argument would be “they’re all crooks,” rather than “we thought he’d be different.” True, the other 20 percent are a pretty ripe target.
Jon: I don’t think exclusively — he’s saying their race to differentiate each other has driven them to embrace some unpopular positions. Jon: Ben, you might argue that a candidate seen as half-hearted can more easily walk away from an unpopular stance. That’s how Romney Etch-a-Sketched his way out of some of his unpopular positions from the 2012 primary. I’m not sure coming across as a true believer in an idea most people don’t want to happen is an asset
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