This is the editor’s letter in the current issue of The Week magazine.
A year from now, the 2020 primaries will be underway, with perhaps two dozen Democrats jockeying to take on President Trump. Democrats will face a critical calculation: Go big, or go safe? The young, progressive activists who are driving the party's policy discussions see 2020 as a chance to run on a leftist wish list that includes single-payer health care, tuition-free state colleges, a doubling of federal spending, a 70 percent top marginal tax rate, and the elimination of all fossil fuels in a decade. "Soaking the rich" polls well among the non-rich, as does making health care a right, but only 37 percent currently support eliminating employer-provided health plans to make way for "Medicare-for-all." If Democrats choose to embrace the full progressive agenda, they will be betting that Trump is so unpopular that virtually any Democrat could beat him — so why not take several giant steps toward democratic socialism?
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