The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com.

Democrats find themselves in an unenviable position for the 2020 election: they have to convince the American public that they don’t know how bad they have it at a time when we have it pretty good. Their task is like me trying to convince my 2-year-old daughter that she doesn’t really like chocolate ice cream – an impossibility. But when the alternative is to run a campaign extolling the virtues of socialism and the need for government to take life decision-making powers away from individuals, talking people out of believing reality seems like an easier task.

The economy is churning along, Democrats have to make people believe it’s not. They’ve seized on GDP growth being only just over 2 percent last quarter, thinking this will help them. It won’t. GDP is a helpful indicator, but when you have record low unemployment, a booming stock market (hello, 401k!), and wage growth being disproportionately reaped by low income workers (hello, power of full employment), the public isn’t buying it.

The one thing Democrats don’t understand about the American people is everyone doesn’t want to be a billionaire. It’d be nice, no doubt, but the vast majority of people aren’t seething with anger that they have to fly commercial while liberal elites have a Gulfstream at the ready. We notice the hypocrisy but don’t begrudge their success. They’re happy with being able to afford to fly more than they’re obsessed with the method of flying.

Most people just want to be secure in their lives – be able to pay their bills, take care of their families, and have some money left over to have fun with friends and family. They wouldn’t turn down a trip to the Swiss Alps for a ski vacation with the rich and famous, but they’re content with going to the Grand Canyon or to visit loved ones for a few days. Not everyone wants to be a Kardashian.

The politics of jealousy works on some, but not many and certainly not many in the Heartland of the country. But jealousy is what Democrats are offering, and when that offer is rejected they turn vicious.

Politicians are too skilled at manipulation to frame their contempt in blatant terms, but chunky TV sidekick Andy Richter wasn’t. “I’m from the supposed Heartland, and in a political context ‘the Heartland’ does not mean not-Washington. It means the place where white people run things,” Conan O’Brien’s joyless laugh track tweeted this week in response to comments from Pete Buttigieg about needing leadership from flyover country. “And if he doesn’t know that he’s far too naive to be President,” he concluded.

If you aren’t them, you are their enemy.

“Mayor Pete,” for his part, is no better. The progressive mindset is not dependent upon geography, it is an arrogance every bit as contagious as the coronavirus. And Pete is just as infected as every other Democratic candidate.

The New York Times had a story this week entitled, “How People of Color Inside the Buttigieg Campaign Sought to be Heard.” In it, it was revealed that the campaign was surveying “off-white” campaign staff to find out if they’ve been subjected to “microaggressions” by white colleagues. If you don’t know what a microaggression is it’s only because you’re sane. It’s a term created to compensate for the fact that the US is not the racist hellhole it was before Democrats were defeated in both the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement.

Essentially, a microaggression is racism from a white person to a non-white person so subtle that the person doing it and the “victim” of it may not realize it’s happening. It can only be detected upon reflection or by a “woke” third party observer, usually a non-conforming pansexual who only answers to made-up pronouns with a mouth full of granola and a gender studies degree.

In other words, it’s garbage. (For a more detailed explanation of “microaggression and why liberals embrace is, see my book, “Outrage, INC: How the Liberal Mob Ruined Science, Journalism, and Hollywood”.) But it being garbage doesn’t stop the left from embracing it. In fact, the Buttigieg campaign did a staff survey of only non-white employees to see who’s been a victim of it. Some of the “signs” include whether they’d ever been interrupted by a white staffer or “been called the name of a different staff member of color.” Basically, if you’ve ever been treated like everyone else is treated because sometimes people are rude or in a hurry, and people sometimes mix up the names of others.

What is part of normal human interaction is racist when it’s a white person doing it to a non-white person (though Asians, for some reason, don’t count – just ask the Harvard admissions board), but it’s not racist when the races are reversed or the same. Separate, but equal ways of treating each other…sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

Democrats may have abandoned their overtly racist tactics of the past, but their goals remain the same: divide to conquer.

That may work in small pockets, but nationwide it is a recipe for disaster. “You’re a racist, now vote for me” or “You’re a moron, now vote for me” may resonate well on CNN or when spoken about others in the third person at high-dollar fundraisers on the coasts, but they aren’t slogans that will win you many votes from the rest of the nation in between.

While a “news” story entitled, “Coronavirus task force another example of Trump administration's lack of diversity,” sounds great in the echo chamber of a CNN staff meeting, you’d have difficulty finding anyone sane who gives a damn about the race of their doctor when they’re sick. No one with a heart condition is walking out of the office of the best heart surgeon in the world because their skin color isn’t “diverse” enough.

But this seems to be what Democrats are pinning their 2020 hopes on – that people will ignore or discount how good they have it because “Orange Man Bad.” It seems unlikely that people they need votes from will, after 4 years of being called racist, sexist, homophobic, fat, stupid, rubes controlled by their fear, will go out and support candidates who promise to reverse the gains they’ve made under the Trump administration and embrace the policies crippling economies from Venezuela to France. But Democrats are going to try. Good luck with that.

Derek Hunter is the host of a free daily podcast (subscribe!), host of a daily radio show on WCBM in Maryland, and author of the book, Outrage, INC., which exposes how liberals use fear and hatred to manipulate the masses. Follow him on Twitter at @DerekAHunter.