DEMOCRATIC PARTY LEADERS STILL ACT AS IF TRUMP IS THE ONLY REPUBLICAN EXTREMIST

As soon as I saw the headline, I knew I'd find it painful to read this Washington Post story:

Vulnerable Democrats plan to run on kitchen-table issues, but some in party want voters focused on Trump, too

Prominent Democrats believe they have exactly two choices going into the midterms. One is to pretend that nothing insane is happening in this country and instead run on policy ideas (even if Democrats haven't passed bills yet that turn those ideas into law).

Democrats heading into turbulent reelection battles want to focus their campaigns on the bread-and-butter issues that appeal to swing voters, not Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Take Wednesday’s introduction of legislation that would suspend the federal gas tax for the rest of this year. Its lead sponsor is Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), with three other initial co-sponsors being Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) and Raphael G. Warnock (D-Ga.)....

“Things like the price of gasoline, the price of ground beef or groceries or prescription drugs, especially if they’re a senior,” Kelly said in a brief interview. “You know, they’re not looking back at an old — an election a year ago. They’re thinking about, What affects my family?”

The other choice is to talk about one guy who isn't even in office anymore.

But some Democrats fear that this is letting the ex-president’s allies off the hook. They believe that voters, both the liberal base and some swing voters in the suburbs, need to hear a message that links GOP candidates to the attempts to overturn President Biden’s victory and future threats to elections.

“Yes, Democrats need a positive narrative about the work we are doing for the American people," Stop Him Now, a super PAC formed last month, said in releasing its first ad. "Yes, we need smart, aggressive, localized campaigns against individual opponents. ... But it won’t be enough.”

It begins with video of rioters attacking the Capitol and transitions to various GOP candidates shaking hands with Trump, ending with the image of a police officer getting crushed by rioters on Jan. 6.

“Republicans in ’22 means Trump in ’24,” the ad reads in its final image, with shattered Capitol windows in the backdrop....

“Our concern was that lane three — the Trump lane — was being abandoned,” Mandy Grunwald, a veteran strategist who co-founded the Trump-focused PAC, said in an interview Friday.

It's not a bad ad. I agree that Democrats should remind Trump-averse voters that he's poised for a comeback. But Trump isn't on the ballot in 2022. Running against Trump didn't work for Terry McAuliffe in the Virginia governor's race last year because voters knew that.

And, more important, there are a lot of other extreme Republicans, many of whom are on the ballot in 2022. Why not talk about them? Marjorie Taylor Greene, Paul Gosar, Madison Cawthorn, Lauren Boebert -- they're all running for reelection this year, sharing a ballt line with many, many crackpots and QAnoners and other fringe-dwellers, except it's no longer the fringe because it's the Republican mainstream. Why not talk about book banning, book burning, abortion bans, physical assaults on mask wearers and flight attendants and store clerks, intimidation at school board meetings?

The parking lot after a school board meeting last night in Franklin, the wealthiest place in Tennessee. Parents harassed medical professionals who had spoken in favor of masks in schools. “We know who you are. You can leave freely, but we will find you.” pic.twitter.com/SzR0uvMeE7

— Natalie Allison (@natalie_allison) August 11, 2021

A Tennessee pastor live streamed a book burning event on Facebook after encouraging his congregation to burn their "accursed items," including titles from the Harry Potter and Twilight series https://t.co/ppebo8hcl8 pic.twitter.com/2ui07A5shs

— CNN (@CNN) February 6, 2022

But to key Democrats, there are only two choices: kitchen table talk and Trump talk.

“When I’m home and I talk to Nevadans, it’s the kitchen-table issues. It’s health care, access to health care, prescription drug negotiations,” said [Nevada senator Catherine] Cortez Masto, who served as chairwoman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in the successful 2020 elections. “It is the cost of prescription drugs. It is economy and jobs and education. Those are the top things.”

... Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Cortez Masto’s successor as DSCC chairman, wants his candidates to thread a needle.

“I think it’s incredibly important to clearly focus on things that are impacting families today, which are the bread-and-butter issues, and candidates need to lean in to those issues,” Peters said. “But they should also bring up the fundamental threat to our constitutional democracy being posed by all too many Republicans.”

He thinks a Trump-focused message can help energize liberal voters, so that ads and direct mail might be tailored to talk about the former president to that bloc of supporters.

“You always have to know your audience,” Peters said.

I'm not saying Democrats shouldn't talk about Trump, or kitchen-table issues. But a very dangerous GOP extremism exists on its own. It doesn't depend on Trump. And no one in the party seems to want to talk about that.