As 2020 candidates turn left, some Democrats worry about the center

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Candidates for the Democratic presidential election are eager to adopt the more ambitious proposals of the left, which worried some Democrats who feared to have a price to pay if they were trying to defeat President Donald Trump next year.

Party activists were encouraged when Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris and other candidates approved plans to provide Medicare coverage to every American, some form of college without tuition, a minimum wage $ 15 and the so-called "Green New Deal". defended by the American representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

But Trump and his Republican party allies have taken these positions to attack the 2020 Democratic field outside the US political mainstream – an assertion the president intends to make throughout his re-election campaign, sources know his strategy.

Some Democrats fear that the argument has power. They fear that the primaries will produce a candidate who will not appeal to the centrist and middle-class voters who voted for Trump in 2016 but the Democrats think they can win back.

"The big progressive programs are popular in a caucus or an electoral college, but probably do not move voters who want to find someone who will change Washington by tilting the system to favor the people in the middle, not the very rich or the most disadvantaged. very poor, "said Jeff Link, a Democrat from Iowa who worked for the campaign of former President Barack Obama.

A person familiar with the president's thinking told Reuters that Trump was looking for a "significant contrast problem" to help bolster his bid for 2020.

Her last Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, was widely known to the election public before her campaign. This time, Trump can face a newcomer on the national scene, and he seeks to score this candidate before he becomes the candidate.

In recent speeches, including his speech on the state of the Union and this week again in Florida, a key battleground for 2020, Trump used the crisis in Venezuela to equate Democrats with Socialists.

"There is no doubt that it is a deliberate strategy on his part," said Matt Bennett, a political analyst at Third Way, a centrist Democratic think tank. "It's a bit scary to think of what it could do for us in a tight and difficult election next year."

GO GREEN

Democrats have already seen the risks of satisfying the progressives.

Senators Booker of New Jersey, Harris of California, Gillibrand of New York and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts almost immediately supported Ocansio-Cortez in his campaign for the Green New Deal, an ambitious ten-year project to combat climate change and to reduce carbon emissions. and the modernization of infrastructure.

Senator Bernie Sanders, a Democratic Socialist who announced this week that he is running for the second time as president, plans to present his own version of the climate plan.

Ocasio-Cortez, who enjoyed a disproportionate influence for a congressman named for the first time because of his presence on social networks, was forced to step back when a document was published. The information contained political objectives not included in the plan, including the removal of nuclear energy and aircraft and income generation. Americans "do not want to work."

This did not stop Trump and other Republicans from viewing these goals as facts, suggesting that the Democrats want to destroy air travel and expand the scope of social assistance.

Republicans also jumped on Ocasio-Cortez's proposal to raise the marginal tax rate to 70 percent in order to fund its environmental initiative. Nevertheless, Warren then suggested a "wealth tax" to wealthy Americans to fund his child care project.

Democrats are "afraid to say what is practical at the grassroots level" and instead propose policies that are unlikely to be adopted, said Bryan Lanza, a former Trump campaign assistant, who regularly defends the president. on cable channels.

Recent Democratic presidential candidates, such as Clinton, Obama and John Kerry, have come forward as centrists. It is the first election of the modern era, according to Lanza, during which progressives "yearn for all oxygen and energy".

Democrats as a whole, however, have moved in a more left-leaning direction for years. According to Gallup polls, the number of Democrats who call themselves "liberals" increased from 32% in 2001 to 46% in 2018.

This change has largely affected the highly educated white Democrats. African-American and Hispanic voters remain more moderate – which could be a challenge if the party tries to mobilize these groups to vote more.

Until now, the moderate wing of the party is under-represented in the 2020 field. Some Democratic strategists are worried that the party has not learned the lesson of the parliamentary elections. Last year, when he took power in the US House of Representatives primarily through the medium of moderate candidates who defeated suburban voters by focusing on "pre-existing medical conditions table" issues .

Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota is one of the few Democrats in the presidential power who has shrunk from the progressive agenda. At a CNN public meeting this week, she called the Green New Deal "aspirational" and suggested that Medicare for all is only a potential goal at long term.

John Delaney, a former Maryland congressman and a centrist who has little success as a presidential candidate, said this week that the 2020 primary "will be a choice between socialism and a fairer form of capitalism" .

Antjuan Seawright, a Democratic strategist at the beginning of South Carolina's primary state, said the candidates were soon to reconcile ambitious goals with more pragmatic proposals.

"It must be a mix of what makes sense and will not cause us long-term political damage," he said.