No, the hippies aren't scarier to the normies than the red-hats
by digby
Laura Ingraham excitedly tweeted out this article in Reason this morning:
On the one hand, a new Fox News poll spells doom for Donald Trump, with a fistful of Democratic presidential candidates beating the incumbent. Former Vice President Joe Biden cleans Trump's clock by 10 percentage points, 49 percent to 39 percent. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (I) wins 49 percent to 40 percent. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D–Mass.) ekes out a 43 percent-to-41 percent victory. And Sen. Kamala Harris (D–Calif.) and South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg both squeeze out a 1-point margin, 42 percent to 41 percent.
On the other, more consequential hand, that same poll underscores why Trump is almost certainly going to win reelection in 2020. One of the questions asked Democratic voters whether they will vote for a candidate with a "bold, new agenda" or one "who will provide steady, reliable leadership." Fully three-quarters of respondents want the latter, with just 25 percent interested in the sort of "bold, new agenda" that virtually all Democratic candidates are peddling so far. This finding is consistent with other polling that shows that Democratic voters are far more moderate than their candidates. Even allowing for a doubling of self-described Democrats who identify as liberal over the past dozen years, Gallup found last year that 54 percent of Democrats support a party that is "more moderate" while just 41 percent want one that is "more liberal."
The article (from this libertarian site) sees this as a huge advantage for Trump because the Democrats are almost certain to nominate a socialist extremist (or something) Trump is likely to win.
This is nonsense. Presidential elections are between two people. Donald Trump is the extremist. By that I mean he's extremely unhinged, unfit and incompetent. Democrats know this. The majority of Independents know this. The person the Democrats nominate will be judged by comparison to Trump.
It's possible that after a hard-fought campaign, enough people in states with more cows and rocks than people will end up allowing Trump to eke out another win as he did in 2016. But the idea that very many people will look at Trump vs the Democrat to be named later, no matter who it is, will choose him because he is the staid, respectable, safe one is completely daft. If they vote for him it will be because they like his extremism.
And yes, that entirely possible.
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