Gail: It does seem as if our president is bent on proving that he won the last race on racism. Do you watch his rallies? They usually start off with a recounting of how surprised the world was when he won Wisconsin — or some other 2016 triumph — then he brags about the size of the crowd. He moves on, sometimes rather briefly, to the greatness of the Trump economy. And then it’s off to the immigration rant-a-thon.

Bret: The immigrant bashing is dearest to his heart and central to his demagogic appeal. It’s what keeps his base faithful. Politically, his calculation is that a maximally polarized electorate works in his favor. And as our colleague Nate Cohn noted last week, he might be right: Trump can win the Electoral College vote again, even if he loses by as many as five million votes.

The question for me is whether the Democrats will play into his hands, as I fear they might, by moving too far to the left. George McGovern’s Democrats got tagged as the party of “Amnesty, Acid, and Abortion.” Today’s Democrats risk being seen as the party of open borders, socialism and all-around wokeness.

Gail: Many of the Democratic candidates seem ready to swing to the middle once the primaries are over. They often started out with minimal experience, but I think everybody’s figured out that it’s not a good idea to have debates where the moderator says something like: “All those who think illegal immigrants have a right to free health care, raise your hands.”

But right now they’re a little bit trapped between the agenda of the primary election base and their need to appeal to the vast populace who’ll vote in the fall of 2020. Actually, not the vast populace. Just that tiny special populace residing in a handful of swing states.

Bret: They’re the ones who’ll decide the election. Please go on.

Gail: All this reminds me of a funk I fall into every presidential season. Our system is a mess. Thanks to the Electoral College, it’s very possible the person with the most votes won’t win. And Americans sure aren’t guaranteed equality of attention. In the fall of 2020, getting black turnout in Milwaukee is going to be critical. But nobody cares how many black voters will turn out in New York or Massachusetts. It’s already a done deal that the Democrats will capture both states.

The Electoral College drives me nuts. It wipes out the votes of people who live in states where one party is dominant. It gives small-population states disproportionate power. And gives the Republican Party a big, totally unfair advantage. If we elected a president by popular vote, Democrats would have won six of the last seven elections.