The sharp left turn in the Democratic Party and the rise of progressive presidential candidates are unnerving moderate Democrats who increasingly fear that the party could fritter away its chances of beating President Trump in 2020 by careening over a liberal cliff. …
The sprint toward populism amounts to a rejection of the incremental and often-defensive brand of politics that has characterized the party’s approach to highly charged issues for 40 years. Yet when nearly half of voters indicate in polls that they will not support the president’s re-election, many moderates say the cautious strategy in 2018 that helped the party pick up 21 House seats that Mr. Trump carried two years earlier should be the playbook for next year. CONT.
Jonathan Martin & Sydney Ember, New York Times