First Rule of Holes:
When you’re in one, stop digging.

Second Rule of Holes:
When your enemy has dug himself into one, don’t jump in with him.

Donald Trump violated Rule #2 when he tweeted that “The Squad” should go back to their dysfunctional countries and fix their problems, then come back to the U.S.A. and fix ours. It was stupid and mean. 

My old boss Dave Zweifel is flouting Rule #1. Maybe he has been reading too much John Nichols. 

In the tug-a-war for the soul of the Democrat(ic) party, the editor emeritus of The Capital Times assures the faithful that “Democrats’ ‘far left’ ideas aren’t so radical after all.”

Baghdad Bob is holding on Line #1

That’s what they call falling on your sword, Dave! It’s also how to re-elect Donald Trump, thank you very much. Zweifel writes:

It’s not only the “conservative” commentators who think it necessary to “advise” the Democrats about being foolish, forgetting their own foolishness in letting Donald Trump take over their own party, but many of the “liberal” commentators are chiming in, too, believing the likes of Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris and others who represent the “far left” spell doom. They wring their hands, claiming those “lefties” will blow the Dems’ chances.

Blowing the Democrats’ chances is pretty much the consensus — outside The Nation magazine and the sociology faculty at UW-Madison, anyway.

Zweifel denies that universal health care, “the so-called Green New Deal” (his term) and a new immigration policy are too radical and smack of socialism. On the latter, to the extent Democrats have any policy on immigration whatsoever, it is abolish I.C.E., open the borders, pay for “free” health care, college, and welfare bennies.

We learned from the two debates that Democrats are all in on:

• Completely open borders
• Welfare benefits for all comers
• Free college and forgiveness of past student debts
• Free government-monopolized health care
• Abolish private insurance for 177 million Americans
• Reparations for slavery.
• Banning fossil fuels and cows as part of the Green New Deal
• Packing the supreme court
• Confiscating guns
• New and higher taxes
• Socialist redistribution (Bill de Blasio: “money is just in the wrong hands.”)
• Abortion up to and just after birth (Julian Castro promised federally funded abortions for a trans female.)
• Forced school busing for integration
• Identity politics (You know it’s become an invasive species when The Squad accuses Nancy Pelosi of racism.)
• “America Was Never Great” political correctness (banning the term “manhole” in Berkeley; painting over a Depression-era mural of George Washington in San Francisco; seeking convicts to serve on a police oversight committee in Madison.)

‘Shocked by what we heard’

Trump would be his own worst enemy were it not for the Democrats. Take it from Thomas Friedman of the New York Times, as reliably Left-liberal as they get.

I’m struck at how many people have come up to me recently and said, “Trump’s going to get re-elected, isn’t he?” And in each case, when I drilled down to ask why, I bumped into the Democratic presidential debates in June. I think a lot of Americans were shocked by some of the things they heard there. I was.

I was shocked that so many candidates in the party whose nominee I was planning to support want to get rid of the private health insurance covering some 250 million Americans.

I was shocked that so many were ready to decriminalize illegal entry into our country. …

I was shocked at all those hands raised in support of providing comprehensive health coverage to undocumented immigrants. …

I was shocked by how feeble was front-runner Joe Biden’s response to the attack from Kamala Harris — and to the more extreme ideas promoted by those to his left. …

Friedman didn’t even get around to slavery reparations. Think of it: refugees from the horror of the Holocaust would be forced to pay in for reparations to Oprah Winfrey and R. Kelly (he being the rapper charged with 10 counts of child sexual abuse).

Blaska’s Bottom Line: You honestly don’t think that’s radical Left? C’mon, Dave Zweifel. I called out Donald Trump for his offensive tweet. Now it’s your turn to call out your fellow Democrats for their excesses. Then again, your newspaper demanded police be expelled from Madison’s troubled high schools. That was a bridge too far even for the Madison Common Council, so we are not holding our breath here at Blaska Policy Werkes.

Meanwhile, at John Nichols’ day job: Pelosi’s Feud Won’t Stop the Squad; If the Speaker wants to consolidate Democratic power, she should shift it — to the left.