“The Democrats seem to be basically nicer people, but they have demonstrated time and again that they basically have the management skills of celery.”—Dave Barry

Sigh…

I shake my head a lot these days, about a lot of things, one of them regarding how so many people are apparently so ironclad convinced that I am a Democrat, and a liberal (oops, my bad, such a “progressive”) one, at that.

This, from the man who has rather consistently referenced, for years, in this very space, his often verified perception that Democrats are the political party of lemmings, perpetually in search of a cliff. Peoples’ memories are both short and selective, never more than when it comes to politics and their perceptions related thereto. The fact is, I am not a Democrat, nor am I a Republican, nor do I think much of either major American political party at any time, much less this one, as they both race headlong to the outermost posts of their bases at the respective extremes of the political spectrum.

It’s a tired old saw, but it still cuts: When it comes to choosing their respective candidates (and make no mistake, crazy as it may be, self-defeating as it almost surely will be, that process for 2020 is now fully underway), Democrats fall in love; Republicans fall in line.

Both parties tend to bristle when they hear that, but both were on full display Saturday. Today, however, we will focus on the Democrats, if only to once again prove my point.

On what appeared to be a very cold and snowy day in New York, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who has for years identified himself as a Democratic Socialist, but who caucuses with the Senate Democrats and who is, as he did in 2016, seeking that party’s nomination for President of the United States, took to an outdoor stage in a suitably populist parka and looking way too much like the late actor Sam Jaffe, delivered the latest laundry list of all things liberal, uh, “progressive.”

He promised:

Medicare for all.

Guaranteed jobs for all.

Daycare for all.

Family leave for all.

College for all.

Affordable housing for all.

There may have even been something about a chicken in every pot, too; I am not sure.

What Sanders offered up was a prescription, a blueprint for the pseudo-populist “progressive” wing of the Democratic Party from whence apparently stems most of its newfound energy and enthusiasm.

It is a prescription for disaster.

It is a blueprint for electoral defeat.

Contrary to the party conventional wisdom, which in this case is tanta-mount to saying contrary to the party wishful thinking, if the Democrats fully and wholeheartedly embrace the full flowering peacock of their liberal uh, “progressive” natures and chose a presidential nominee there-from, they will have once again found their cliff.

Want to once again snatch defeat from the jaws of victory?

Want to once again elect Donald Trump?

Fine. Nominate a socialist. Doesn’t even have to be a real one or even a modified, qualified one like Sanders. No, just nominate somebody that Donald Trump can manage to impose the name socialist upon, somebody Trump and his minions and friends at Fox can successfully brand a socialist.

Some of my Democratic friends may think it is time for a socialist America, but a majority of their fellow citizens don’t. Oh, they can try it; would not shock me if they did. But there are warning signs all around them they’d be ignoring, all of which read: “cliff ahead.”

This country took a dive off the deep end in 2016, electing Donald Trump primarily because the Democratic Party gave them no other realistic choice, save Hillary Clinton, who happened to be the single most polarizing political figure in the country. A lot, and I mean a lot of the people who cast Republican votes in the 2016 general election were not casting them for Donald Trump, but were instead casting them against Hillary Clinton.

And should Trump win re-election in 2020, it will have been the fault of the Democrats once again, for having given in, having once again been seduced by its looney left.

I suppose there is a certain sweetness within the promises of all things ‘progressive,” but I think it would be dwarfed by the bitterness inherent in all that it would mean to once again also be losers.

Ray Mosby is editor and publisher of the Deer Creek Pilot in Rolling Fork.