It has been a bad week for the Democratic Party and an even worse one for the press.

Prominent Democrats, including some 2020 hopefuls, came out this week in support of fundamentally radical positions. So, naturally, newsrooms are trying hard to make the story about the Republican efforts to take advantage of this.

And I’m not exaggerating when I say some Democrats have gone full radical. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., for example, advocated Monday for the elimination of private health insurance. She also endorsed banning private ownership of cars. Meanwhile, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., continued this week to defend her wealth confiscation tax, lashing out in response to criticism her plan received from former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz by accusing him of being a billionaire “ who [thinks he] can buy the presidency to keep the system rigged for” himself. Among the non-presidential candidates, Virginia Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam gave Democratic Virginia Del. Kathy Tran’s ultra-permissive late-term abortion bill an enthusiastic two thumbs up Wednesday. The bill removes current restrictions on third trimester abortions, allowing for the terminating procedure to be performed even when the mother is dilating.

On Thursday, after a week of Democrats going further to the hard left, the Washington Post published a headline that reads, “Republicans seize on liberal positions to paint Democrats as radical.” The print version of the headline reads, "As Democrats talk liberal positions, GOP pounces." The New York Times went with, “Trump, Pence Lead G.O.P. Seizure of Late-Term Abortion as a Potent 2020 Issue.”

There it is. There’s that dusty, well-worn “ Republicans pounce” trope. It never fails. In fact, newsrooms are so predictable when it comes to rolling out these “seize” and “pounce” headlines in the wake of Democratic debacles, that I’m convinced they do it now to troll right-leaning readers.

At the heart of these headlines is the belief that the real story is the reaction to radical policies championed by Democrats, not the fact that Democrats are championing radical policies. Imagine seeing a headline in 1979 that reads, “Critics seize on killing fields to paint the Khmer Rouge as brutal regime.” Well, yes. Acting like a brutal regime will win you that tag. Show me the lie.

The Post’s coverage of the Democrats’ continued descent into left-wing fanaticism is especially bad, so let’s focus on that.

“Sen. Kamala D. Harris is raising the possibility of eliminating private health insurance,” the Post’s story begins, softening the fact that the senator straight-up said, “let’s eliminate all of that.”

“Raising the possibility,” indeed.

The report adds, “Democrats, after two years largely spent simply opposing everything President Trump advocated, are defining themselves lately in ways Republicans are seizing on to portray them as far outside the American mainstream.” Yes, it is the GOP that is making Democrats seem like they’re “far outside the American mainstream,” and not Democrats themselves embracing things like abortions in the third trimester, which garnered support from only 13 percent of respondents in a Gallup poll from June 2018.

This is a shameless attempt to portray the Democratic Party as a passive victim of a vicious, political smear campaign.

“Abortion, taxes and health care have long been among the most combustible political topics,” the report continues. “But in the context of the energetic field of 2020 candidates and amid coarsening political rhetoric, they have taken on new gravity.” Ah, yes. It’s not that supporting late-term abortions and the elimination of private health insurance are extreme positions. It’s that our “coarsening political rhetoric” has made it even more difficult to embrace them!

The article then claims, “Democrats … were placed in a position that Republicans have grown familiar with over the past several years: trying to distance themselves from comments made by someone in their party. ... Unlike Republicans, who have been regularly called to answer for the remarks of their party’s leader, President Trump, Democrats face a more complicated dynamic. Out of power except in the House, they lack a single standard-bearer …”

First, the bit about Democrats being placed in a tough position isn't even true. Reporters haven't hounded them to respond to Northam, Tran, Harris, etc. The journalists who've tried to do this have been brushed off with feigned ignorance. Second, the Post story has exactly one quote from a Democratic lawmaker, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., whose version of "distancing" is literally her telling the newspaper that she is unfamiliar with the Virginia governor's remarks. Third, the way that the Post characterizes Democrats as trying to “distance themselves” from “someone in their party” is a bit cute, considering we’re talking about proposals championed by a governor and presidential candidates. Northam and Harris are not exactly fringe players who are simply making life difficult for mainstream Democrats. They are the mainstream Democrats. Lastly, who was the GOP standard-bearer in 2012 when Republican Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin talked about “legitimate rape”? Because I seem to remember every Republican, including the 2012 presidential nominee, being asked to respond to those remarks.

The report claims that “Some moderates argue that Republicans are overstepping voter sentiment and criticizing positions that are politically popular.” The article also claims that a "majority of Americans have long supported abortion rights, as well, although a majority also opposes late-term abortions, which are conducted amid dire medical problems.” And so on.

I could go on, but you get the general gist of the Post’s attempt to spin this week in a positive light for the party of restricted car ownership and up-to-the-moment-of-birth abortions. For fun, here are a few lines from the report. See if you can spot the common theme [emphases added]:



“There is legitimate concern among Democrats about policy and rhetoric that comes out of the very far left,” said Ed Rendell, the former governor of Pennsylvania and former chairman of the Democratic National Committee. “[Republicans] pounce on anything someone in our party says and make it seem like it represents the whole party.”



[…]



Republicans pounced on the governor as favoring infanticide. Northam on Thursday said he stood by his statement, which he characterized as having been taken out of context.



For the nation’s most powerful newsrooms, the real story is rarely the thing that may reflect poorly on Democratic officials or their allies. The real story is the Right’s supposed overreaction.