One downside of the impeachment and Senate non-trial of Donald Trump is that it distracted media attention from the important bills passed by the House which are still sitting in the McConnell graveyard. Just because the media has focused on impeachment does not mean that the Democratic House has neglected important policy needs. In fact, the House has passed more than 400 bills.
I mention this as a prelude to a brief response to Daniel Henninger’s “Wonderland” column in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal in which he claims that normal political issues will not be relevant to the Democratic Party’s strategy in 2020. Instead, he hypothesizes, the Democrats will run against the person of Donald Trump and forego consideration of the normal political issues. All this to conceal the divisions in the Democratic Party.
Mr. Henninger’s column is aptly named except it is he who lives in wonderland. Of course, Democrats will run against Trump – the ignorant, lazy, corrupt monster. But the principal issue is 2020 will be the same it was in 2018. The Republicans want to take away the health insurance of millions, and they are in court trying to do precisely that. In 2018, the Democrats pushed kitchen table issues in their states and districts, and they have passed bills to speak to those issues including minimum wage, the environment, equal pay for women, election security, gun control, pre-existing conditions, prescription drugs, and the like. The reason those bills are not law is a do-nothing Senate led by a corrupt Speaker who won’t even let the bills get to the floor.
Of course, the Democrats are divided on issues of policy, but not so divided that they cannot hammer out agreements on policy in the House. And, we can be sure, that Democrats across the land will be forcing Republicans to justify their unwillingness to pass legislation the people want and need.
All of this is obscured by the fantasies of Wonderland. It will also be obscured by the media’s single-minded focus on the Presidential race. But when the campaign begins and Democrats all over the country are running, the dreams of Wonderland will be shattered and perhaps the mass media will broaden its horizons.
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