Error of Margin: Left and moderate Democrats, argues E.J. Dionne, need to settle their differences and focus on Trump.

AuthorHalpin, John

Code Red: How Progressives and Moderates Can Unite to Save Our Country

by E. J. Dionne Jr.

St. Martin's Press, 272 pp.

As the interminable Democratic primary process heads into the phase of actual voting, serious questions remain about the Democratic Party's ability to defeat Donald Trump. Through more than twelve hours of televised debates, hundreds of campaign events, and nonstop social media and cable chatter, we still don't know if the party plans to end private health insurance, decriminalize border crossings, embrace reparations for the descendants of slaves, raise taxes on the middle class, and upend America's energy production and consumption systems. Since none of these issues are remotely popular with the wider electorate, you would think they would clearly be off the table. Yet, here we are.

The reelection of Donald Trump in 2020 will solidify the erosion of American democracy. It will further escalate inequalities and social divisions and undermine valuable governmental functions. And since the Republican Party has willingly surrendered itself to the corruption and enmity of the Trump regime, it is up to Democrats to save the country. This requires the party getting its act together--and fast--to build a majority.

The reelection of Donald Trump in 2020 will solidify the erosion of American democracy. It will further escalate inequalities and social divisions and undermine valuable governmental functions. And since the Republican Party has willingly surrendered itself to the corruption and enmity of the Trump regime, it is up to Democrats to save the country. This requires the party getting its act together--and fast--to build a majority.

So why are Democrats squandering their advantages and purposefully marginalizing themselves? Many of these off-key positions arise from a presidential nominating process that is far too long and focused on rewarding candidates who stake out positions that appeal to hard-core activists rather than the electorate at large.

But as the veteran progressive thinker and journalist E. J. Dionne Jr. argues in his highly engaging, intellectually sound, and morally grounded new book, Code Red, this year's primaries reflect serious intellectual and coalitional differences. The Democratic Party contains an increasingly restless left, which wants the party to be far more aggressive in attacking economic and racial inequality, and believes that the last two Democratic presidents did far too little to combat...

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