MARK PENN: ALWAYS BE GASLIGHTING

At FoxNews.com, Mark Penn is concern-trolling the Democrats again:

Mark Penn: Voters want RESULTS not resistance from new Democratic majority

Results not resistance. That’s what I think the American public was expecting when they brought Democrats back into power in the House.

But instead, echoing Hillary Clinton’s ill-fated 2016 strategy, the Democratic leaders so far have fully planted a flag in simply opposing legislation, funding and appointments under the theory that putting lead boots on President Trump is the best way to get him out of office, even if the country is put on pause for another two years.

This is a fundamental mistake....

(I'm not sure I understand that -- "putting lead boots on President Trump" was "Hillary Clinton’s ill-fated 2016 strategy"? Yes, I suppose she did run on a platform of trying to block Trump's agenda, but when the result you're seeking is that you get elected and the other candidate doesn't, blocking your opponent's agenda kinda follows inevitably.)

... suburban swing voters – voters who for a long time voted Republican – switched over to the Democratic Party. These voters ... fundamentally support progress and compromise. They are moderate, not liberal voters. They are not dancing in the hallway with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

The voters just a few days ago were asked in the monthly Harvard Harris poll if the president and Congress should compromise or stick to their principles – 66 percent of the voters said compromise. Asked a specific question about $2.5 billion in barrier funding, 51 percent said they would approve of that compromise. The polling shows that regardless of who is to blame for the shutdown (most said Trump), every swing voter who matters agree that “compromise” should be the rule of the day – the one word the Democrats left out of their televised response.

(Actually, the word "compromising" was in the Democrats' televised response, albeit with a different meaning: "And we can welcome legal immigrants and refugees without compromising safety and security." But that's a quibble.)

The idea that a few billion dollars for more walls, fences and border security rises to that moral level is overdone, especially since the Democrats supported nearly 600 miles of barriers across California not long ago. This is about politics, not policy. About the partisan bases, not the swing voters. And everybody knows it.

The Democrats should – and still can – get their shopping cart out and fill it with things they want like DACA work permits and turn this lose/lose stalemate into a win/win. Trump may preen, but the Democrats will be the real winners if they are seen as the ones who break the log jams and move the country forward.

I don't know if Penn is referring to the Harvard/Harris poll that was reported just after Christmas or a more recent survey, but in that late December poll, the real frustration seemed to be where it should have been -- with the president's refusal to compromise:

A majority of U.S. voters surveyed, 58 percent, said Trump should withdraw his demand for the border funding, while 42 percent said the president “should not give in."

Yes, 51% of those surveyed said the Democrats should accept $2.5 billion in wall funding -- but 49% said they shouldn't. In any case, it's irrelevant, because the president rejected the $2.5 billion figure on January 2. And as for a DACA-for-wall deal, Trump says he won't consider it while the court system is considering his decision to end the program.

Also, as recent NPR polling has shown, the one group that doesn't want a compromise is Republican voters -- the voters who are inspiring the president and congressional Republicans to take a hardline stance.

So polls, including Penn's own, suggest that Republicans are the problem. But Penn is good at lying, and gaslighting, with statistics.