OPINION — The tone of the letter from the Columnists’ Guild I’m expecting any minute now will be as stiff as the old-fashioned stationery it’s printed on. It will note that I am “derelict in your duties” and “an embarrassment to the profession of opinion slingers” because I’ve failed to write a single column loudly lamenting the Democratic Party’s lurch to the far left.

We have all read versions of this column written by skittish liberals, nervous centrists and panicked never-Trump Republicans: “Don’t the Democrats understand that many voters like their employer-provided health care plans and will rebel over being forced into a rigid ‘Medicare for All’ system? Eliminating criminal penalties for crossing the border illegally would be an invitation for immigration chaos. And do Democrats really believe that Americans will sacrifice their lifestyles to comply with the extreme provisions of a Green New Deal?”

These Democrats-in-disarray columns invariably point out that only with sensible moderation can Donald Trump be defeated in 2020. As for Democratic congressional candidates, particularly first-term House members elected in the 2018 Democratic sweep, their political futures are jeopardized by the extreme antics of “the squad” and the unreasonable demands of these left-wing activists with safe seats.

These are fine arguments — and I would probably accept them in a normal political climate. I remember the wipeout years for the Democrats, like 1972 and 1984, when the party was crushed by veering too far from the center in an increasingly conservative political environment.