Don’t let Russia distract from other issues

Whatever the media and Robert Mueller turn up on Trump’s ties to Russia in the coming months, it appears highly unlikely that it will be good for the president. Whether or not the investigation produces severe legal consequences for the president (impeachment, arrests of close aides, etc), the political damage of the revelations is already clear.

It doesn’t appear so much that independent voters believe Trump is at the center of a vast criminal conspiracy as much as they now see him as incompetent, unhinged and ethically-challenged.

Naturally, Democrats are delighted. And they should be. There is a certain justice not only in revealing Trump’s misdeeds, but revealing the profound hypocrisy that underpins them. Drain the Swamp. Lock her up. What a load of crap.

But the Dems shouldn’t fall into the same trap as last year, when they let focused on Trump’s glaring shortcomings at the expense of explaining how they were going to help the average American.

The biggest domestic issue, of course, is Obamacare. But there’s also the enormous redistribution of wealth that Trump is seeking through a tax overhaul, the usurious cost of higher education(that Trump is doing nothing about), stagnating wages, a world record prison population, environmental destruction and 12 million U.S. workers who are forced to live in the shadows due to their immigration status.

If Democrats really want to believe the “demographics is destiny” mantra, then they have to connect with young voters on those subjects right now.

Unfortunately, because the midterm elections are typically dominated by older, more conservative voters, the short-sighted Democratic consultants will likely be encouraging candidates to focus on convincing middle-of-the-road voters to vote for a check on Trump’s power, rather than trying to win a mandate for progressive change.