The perils of purity

One of the hardest things to do in politics is to tune out the loud voices of insiders so you can hear the real voices of real voters.

Used to be, the loud voices were hangers-on at headquarters and regulars at rallies and fundraisers. Now they’re on social media, Facebook and Twitter.

A report in The New York Times (“The Democratic Electorate on Twitter Is Not the Actual Democratic Electorate”) shows how the noise can be fatal:

Today’s Democratic Party is increasingly perceived as dominated by its “woke” left wing. But the views of Democrats on social media often bear little resemblance to those of the wider Democratic electorate.

The outspoken group of Democratic-leaning voters on social media is outnumbered, roughly 2 to 1, by the more moderate, more diverse and less educated group of Democrats who typically don’t post political content online, according to data from the Hidden Tribes Project. This latter group has the numbers to decide the Democratic presidential nomination in favor of a relatively moderate establishment favorite, as it has often done in the past.

This is why you do polls. They are the only objective way to truly understand public opinion. Without them, you’re only hearing anecdotal evidence, probably from people who talk only to people like themselves and have no clue what real voters really think.

Political insiders can be too close to the trees to see the forest. They’re not just in the weeds, they’re in the roots. All too often, they’re too angry and passionate to be objective.

That’s especially true with Democrats this year. And those loud voices on social media present a real and present danger to the chances of beating Trump. A candidate who succumbs to the online ideological purists could well be cutting his or her throat with the voters, certainly in the general election and possibly even in the primaries.

Take Medicare For All. Online, you’d think it’s a no-brainer. In the real world, it isn’t. It sounds great, until voters find out they’d have to give up their current health insurance plan. Remember Obama’s pledge, “If you like your insurance, you can keep it”? Medicare For All pledges: “Even if you like your insurance, it doesn’t matter, because we’re taking it away from you.”

How will voters like that?

Democrats should drop the purity tests, whether it’s Medicare For All or the Green New Deal or anything else.

Any Democrat who is elected President is going to work for Democratic goals and values: affordable health care for every American, a serious response to climate change, a fairer and more equitable economy, a humane immigration policy, relief from college loan debt, better educational opportunities and a commitment to gender equity, LGBTQ equality and racial justice.

Every winning Democratic presidential candidate since John Kennedy has been accused of being too vague, too general and not progressive enough – LBJ, Carter, Clinton and Obama.

Every one of them won not on a specific issue, but on a theme, vision and set of values. Kennedy promised to get the country moving again, Johnson promised to carry on Kennedy’s legacy, Carter promised honesty and decency, Clinton promised to put people and the economy first and Obama promised hope and change.

Every one of them did what they promised. And every one of them got very specific and very progressive things done after they got elected. Which is the point: getting elected. Not playing to the Twittercrats.