… With a full embrace of liberal positions on hot-button issues from immigration to health care, taxes and abortion, the Democratic presidential field has effectively abandoned the strategy that propelled the party to a landslide victory in the 2018 midterms, when Democrats flipped 43 GOP House seats and won 31 districts that Trump carried in 2016. The sharp shift to the left, laid bare over the course of two nights last week on the Miami debate stage, has scrambled the country’s political dynamics headed into a 2020 campaign in which Democrats hope the 2018 results, combined with Trump’s relatively low approval ratings, would put them in a strong position to retake the White House. …
The molting of party identity during presidential elections is a perennial feature of American politics. But the historically large Democratic field, continued economic frustrations of many Americans and the passions stirred by President Trump appear to have set up the Democratic Party for a particularly transformative year. CONT.
Michael Scherer, Washington Post