(from guest blogger Tom Ward)
I think our goal should be to get Donald Trump out of office.
I don’t believe impeachment is the answer. I think it would be to painful for the country and provide more fuel for the divisiveness that currently exists.
We should have learned a lot from the 2016 election. A very powerful factor in the voting was the “dislike vote.”
Let’s face it, an awful lot of voters played the “anybody but Hillary,” card and this included many democrats and “borderline” conservatives. We cannot let that happen in 2020.
Trump’s base that just will not budge, especially the “undesirables” among them: racists, bigots, etc. We need not waste our time trying to move their vote.
Then there is a group of people who voted for Trump because of their conservative ideology. In many ways they already got what they wanted. Supreme court, tax relief (questionable), pro-life philosophy, etc. This is a very vulnerable, many of whom have abandoned the president. We need to insure these people don’t find their way back to him. It seems to me we lose this group if we produce an “anyone but him or her” candidate. And, this is where we need to think hard about a far-left candidate. If this group feels threatened that everything they have gained as a conservative under Trump may disappear, they may very well take the “anyone but” approach.
Of course, virtually every democrat will take the “anyone but Trump” approach. That was not the case in 2016. Many democrats did not want Hillary. Most of the reasoning was less about politics and more about “just plain don’t like her, don’t trust her.” What this means is that if the democrats can unify behind one candidate, the result should be a minimal loss of votes from the democratic bloc. However, if the candidate we rally behind is from the far left (most notably Warren or Sanders), we are asking for big trouble by presenting an “anyone but” candidate to the conservatives who might drift away from Trump.
Why not Sanders or Warren? Because only a more centrist democrat can win over hesitant Republicans.