Ira Lacher: “If a major party candidate can’t rally registered voters around its candidate, it’s not the voters — it’s the party.” -promoted by Laura Belin

Michael Bloomberg is “actively weighing a president run,” according to The New York Times, and liberal Democrats are having a shit fit.

That’s because the former mayor of New York City, who changed his party from Republican to Democrat in 2018, describes himself as pro-business, anti-recreational pot and pro-stop-and-frisk. He doesn’t want to break up Wall Street, as Senator Elizabeth Warren has called for. He’s also expressed skepticism about some media reports of sexual harassment.

Bloomberg advocates The Notorious M. I. G. — middle-of-the-road, intelligent government. But Democrats seem to want their 2020 presidential candidate to tack far to port, offsetting the far-to-starboard Republicans, setting up an Avengers-style showdown.

That’s no way to govern; never has been. Successful government is government by compromise.

“Compromise is described in the Mouton-Blake Managerial Grid as being a win and lose agreement in which both parties get something of what they want but not all of what they want,” writes Dale Eilerman, an Ohio-based conflict resolution consultant. Or as Aaron Burr sings in Hamilton, it’s the way the sausage is made.

Most of Bloomberg’s positions seem to compromise between the big-government, liberal beliefs of most Democrats and the small-government, conservative beliefs of most Republicans (excepting the Trumpies, who are reactionaries, not conservatives). I hope he does run; we need someone who can persuade the party to strike a balance — it’s not a dirty word — between what works best for all Americans:

* a social policy that adheres to the Bill of Rights but respects traditional values;
* an economy that rewards innovation and investment but prevents unbridled profiteering;
* a criminal justice system that provides for the rights of the accused and victims;
* a fair, equitable immigration system and foreign policy that respect professed American values but keep America safe.

But Democrats are also quaking that if they nominate such a practical individual, a farther-left-leaning independent, such as Howard Schultz, will siphon votes away, as Ralph Nader supposedly did in 2000 and Jill Stein did in 2016.

Please.

If a major party candidate can’t rally registered voters around its candidate, it’s not the voters — it’s the party. Democrats simply need to convince more Americans in more states that the blue person can be a better president that the red person. They can start by abandoning the unrealistic proposals coming from the left — I’m talking about you, free college education and Medicare for all — and convincing the American people that The Notorious M. I. G. ain’t so bad after all.