The Editorial Board

USA TODAY

As Democrats prepare for the 2020 presidential election cycle, they are full of eager anticipation, if not outright confidence.

And why shouldn’t they be? Notwithstanding his continuing strong support from Republicans, Donald Trump is the most unpopular president in the history of polling, with an average approval stuck in the low 40s. While previous presidents have dipped below him for brief moments, none has stayed so low for so long. Trump has not once reached an average approval of 50 percent.

Some of his biggest weaknesses, moreover, are with independents and voters in the Midwestern states that elected him in 2016. In Michigan, Democrats just won the aggregate vote for the U.S. House of Representatives by seven percentage points and the governorship by nearly 10 points. They took three of four House seats in Iowa, a state that swung heavily to Trump in 2016.

Adding yet more to Democrats’ optimism is Trump’s penchant for putting himself in untenable positions, like the one he is in over border wall funding. He can either infuriate his base by compromising or alienate pretty much everyone else by continuing a cruel, unpopular government shutdown.

MOVEON:2020 nominee must be unapologetically progressive

Yet for all of this, and for all of the legal peril that Trump faces, the Democrats could blow it.

They could do so by nominating someone so far to the left that he or she could lose much of the swing vote and be cast as a liberal version of Trump. If Democrats really want to rid the nation of Trump, assuming he is on the ballot in 2020, they should consider their options carefully.

This is not to say Democrats should avoid issues such as climate change or immigration reform that Trump and his enablers have tried to marginalize.

It does mean that, at a time when the national debt is approaching $22 trillion, Democrats should steer clear of unaffordable government solutions to problems such as education and health care. They should also avoid hewing too closely to identity politics or the rigid liberalism of college campuses.

Consider what worked for them in November. Democrats owe their new House majority less to the celebrity liberals getting so much attention than to enterprising moderates such as Abigail Spanberger in Virginia and Colin Allred in Texas.

A relatively uncontroversial Democrat could win the next presidential election if he or she appeals to moderates, comes across as sane and competent, proposes practical solutions, and is competitive in key battleground states such as Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

For Democrats to choose a nominee on the far left bank of the political mainstream would cement their reputation as the party that never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity.

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