"[There's an] anxiety that animates an unease among some progressives about anti-Trump Republicans and conservatives. This has fostered a limited but vocal backlash against the idea that John Kasich, the Republican former Ohio governor, might address the scaled-back Democratic National Convention on behalf of presumptive nominee Joe Biden….
"To these progressives, I’d argue that the point of this election, besides defeating Trump, is to shift the country’s political dynamic as decisively in their direction as Ronald Reagan did toward conservatives in 1980. And doing so requires not only welcoming new partners, but also nurturing their second thoughts about a conservative project to which many of them dedicated their lives."
I wasn't aware of of the suggestion that Kasich speak on Biden's behalf at the downsized Democratic Convention. But the progressive "backlash" at this sort of creative thinking and bigger-tent philosophy surprises me not one whit. It's the same ideological narrowness and politics of purity and exclusion that put the Republican Party, with a large assist by Donald Trump, in its deservedly wretched state today.
And that's my long-term fear of the Democratic Party's future. Sen. Sanders brought many a convert to the unserviceable ultraprogressive side of Democratic politics, and they seem to be successfully pressuring Democratic leaders and backbenchers farther and farther to the left — in a centrist country. That, in the opposite direction, was poor strategizing by Republicans 40 years ago, and Democrats eventually would produce the same result.