A Dangerous Strategy, or Everyone Should Know Some History

Yesterday, the Washington Post reported that Democrats have spent $20,000,000 supporting Trump candidates in Republican primaries. The theory is that these candidates will be easier for Democrats to beat.

But this dangerous strategy was tried before: in Germany in the early 1930s. The Socialist Democrats decided to back Nazi candidates on the same theory, that they would be easier to beat. They also figured that people would be so repulsed by the Nazis that they would repudiate them. I think we all know how that turned out. Not only did the Nazis win, they then ousted the Social Democrats and all other liberal parties from all politics.

Gaming the system in this way is a very dangerous strategy. It’s far better to be straightforward and run good candidates. Our democracy is still in peril from the Trump era and this is not the way to save it.