Do Democrats want to lose?

There is a new wave of anxiety flowing through op-ed punditry.

The fear: Democrats are on track to nominate an unelectable, extreme candidate, whom Trump will humiliate and then defeat. 

Maybe America voters will validate demagogic authoritarian governance. Five more years.

Op-Eds in the establishment media, multiple podcast feeds, and even comedian Bill Maher are saying the same thing: Democrats are going over a cliff. 

The meme circulating: Democrats are trying too hard to appeal to the people in the "twitter bubble," the activist Democrats who gather on Facebook, at Indivisible rallies, and and issue-oriented group meetings. The activists are doing negotiation of their own, taking strong positions. The candidates are meeting their litmus tests, and then raising the bid. This activist energy represents the aspirations of the Democratic Party coalition: feminists, reproductive rights activists, climate activists, Green energy activists, anti-frackers, anti-gun activists, blacks, Latinos, Asians, Jews, immigrants, college professors, students, and labor unions.  

Click: Lots of articles along this line.

Sanders and Warren are clear spokespeople for a point of view. Biden is not making an effective counter-case, so Sanders and Warren are setting the mid-field of political discussion. 

Hunter Biden exemplifies swamp culture and Joe Biden does not have the rhetorical skills to reframe this. He is present enough to put younger candidates in a shadow, but doesn't come across as an articulate alpha leader. This leave a political vacuum.

In that vacuum Democrats take the following positions: 

***Sanders and Warren tell people the government and economy is rigged, and then urge people to trust government to socialize the health care payment system in America. 

***Sanders says people serving life in prison should have the vote. 

***Warren says we should pay for transgender surgery for people in prison and is going to try to win Pennsylvania telling them she will ban fracking on Day One in office.***

***Beto says yes, we will confiscate your guns and tax churches. 

***Many candidates say we should decriminalize illegal entry to the country and abolish ICE enforcement.

***They all say we should give free health care to people here illegally.

Those will be a hard sell for Democrats. They are positions designed to affirm that the Democratic Party is dedicated to coastal cities and college towns, that it reflects the values of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. It risks repeating the mistake of the 2016 election, nominating a candidate who is out of touch with the sensibilities of people in "flyover country," places like Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Minnesota. 

Donald Trump will not let this election be a referendum on him. We have four years observation and experience with how Trump frames conflict. He will make it a choice. "What about Biden?" "What about Democrats?" "What about. . . ."

The Sanders/Warren message on income distribution and health care access are designed to re-affirm that Democrats reflect the aspirations of working Americans. Democrats dream of re-capturing the votes of blue collar America. It may work. Trump is easy to dislike, and many people dislike him, but he has a gift for communicating contempt. The economic and social justice message may get lost amid attempting to defend providing gender reassignment surgery to prisoners and free college to the children of millionaires. 

Trump will see to that.