September 9, 2019

Former Republican, and Former Florida U.S. Congressman David Jolly joined Stephanie Ruhle's panel today to do what conservatives do best - tell Democrats how to win elections! Generally, though, I like David Jolly, and he said something I think ALL Democrats need to hear.

In talking about polls (Oy. Polls.) Ruhle asked Jolly if Trump is just loving the fact that Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are giving Joe Biden such a run for his money. Will it give him the chance he needs to label the entire Left "socialists?" Jolly correctly answered Trump will say that about Biden, too. Ruhle didn't believe it, but Jolly was insistent, and it's hard to argue with his logic.

JOLLY: Because truth doesn't matter, particularly in Trumpworld, right? What they're going to do to the Democratic nominee is make them a socialist, that's poll-tested, they're gonna label them a socialist...

RUHLE: And you think they will be able to successfully do that with Joe Biden. You go to the same cocktail parties I go to.

JOLLY: Because this is a turn-out election, not a persuasion election. They're playing to people's anger and fear by saying whoever the Democratic nominee is is socialist. And they're also going to inject elements of criminality. Watch this, it doesn't matter who it is, the Trump administration is gonna pull out the Hillary e-mail play book and assign elements of criminality to whoever the Democratic candidate is, so they hit them on liberalism, and you hit them on "you can't trust them." And the problem for the Trump administration, and the good news for Democrats, is go whatever direction you want in this primary. Go the Uncle Joe, safe, somewhat moderate route, or go the progressive Bernie Sanders route, because what poll after poll shows is you don't have to have the electability debate. All of your top four or five candidates beat Donald Trump in the general election. Bernie Sanders beats him, Elizabeth Warren beats him, Joe Biden beats him, so if you're a Democrat have the family conversation. And if you want to be progressive, go progressive, because you're gonna beat Donald Trump either way.

He is absolutely right that we can forget about debating whether our candidate is electable right now. Dems have this reflexive need to debate "electability" within an inch of its life, and it needs to STOP. If everyone falls in line once the nominee is clear, and does all they can for that nominee, they're ELECTABLE.

He's WRONG, though, about it not mattering whether we stay moderate or move more progressive. HE may not care, and to him, any one of the Democratic candidates is move towards greater progressivism. History has shown, however, that moderation is a tool of the oppressor. Remember how Martin Luther King, Jr. felt about the white moderate.

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