Democrats Must Seek Antidote to Trump in 2020

John Harwood: “However hostile the party’s feelings about Trump, their challenge may get even steeper the closer the nation draws to the 2020 presidential contest. David Axelrod, the chief strategist in Barack Obama’s breakthrough 2008 victory, notes a recurrent pattern: Voters seek qualities in their next president that compensate for what they consider defects in the last one.”

Said Axelrod: “In 2020, there will be a market for an antidote to him. There will be a market for a more healing and unifying figure who can speak to our common values and concerns as Americans rather than mining resentment and sowing antagonism. There will be a market for a more healing and unifying figure who can speak to our common values and concerns as Americans rather than mining resentment and sowing antagonism.”

“If he’s right, harsh denunciations of the wealthiest 1 percent won’t prove the most effective Democratic answer to Trump’s denunciations of illegal immigrants. That dynamic would give an advantage to potential White House candidates with a more consensus-oriented message, such as Joe Biden or Cory Booker, rather than Sanders or Warren.”