Monday, February 25, 2019

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

Liberal Democratic presidential contenders' rush to embrace the left's most ambitious proposals has some Democrats worried there could be a price to pay when they try to defeat President Donald Trump next year.

They worry the primary may produce a nominee who will not appeal to centrist working and middle-class voters who voted for Trump in 2016 but whom Democrats believe they can win back.

In recent speeches, including his State of the Union address and again this week in Florida, a key 2020 battleground, Trump used the crisis in Venezuela to equate Democrats with socialists.

GOING GREEN. Democrats have already seen the risks of catering to progressives.

Democrats are "Afraid to tell their base what is practical" and instead are offering policies that have little chance of being enacted, said Bryan Lanza, a former campaign aide to Trump who regularly defends the president on cable news.

Democrats as a whole have been moving in a more leftward direction for years.

Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota is one of the few Democrats in the presidential field to push back at the progressive agenda.

http://news.trust.org/item/20190223105012-nj3yp

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