In only a few months as the majority in the House we have been treated to an avalanche of bad ideas ranging from the unserious Green New Deal to the dangerous abolition of the electoral college, taxing unrealized gains, wealth tax, packing the Supreme Court, asserting federal control of corporations to the purely pandering 70% tax rate, doubling of the minimum wage, free college, and Medicare for all.

I do not include the blatant anti-Semitism of Ilhan Omar and her supporters and the spineless response from her party including the 25 Jewish members of the Democratic majority.

What is wrong with floating ideas and feeding a debate on these issues? This would be fine in Punditville, but we expect more deliberate and reasonable thought from our elected representatives. Democrats become associated with these ideas even when they are crushed by tactics like Mitch McConnell’s vote on the Green New Deal, when not one Democrat voted approval. Even if this lunatic fringe is a minority it gets a majority of the attention in the media and has come to identify the party in the minds of the opposition and that nonpartisan middle third.

Moderate Democrats, which most are, discount these ideas and voices as a non-representative minority, and find equally repulsive ideas on the other side. “…we judge other groups by their worst examples and judge ourselves by our best intentions.” I may be guilty of this in this post.

These ideas frighten reasonable people and the sheer number and rate of their release will be hard to overcome if they wish to attract that middle third that decides election outcomes. Being seen as unserious and reckless with ideas will not engender the trust to retain political power.

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