Quickies: A Is For Arrogance

     And certain Democrats and their fellow travelers have plenty of it:

     Several candidates were in San Francisco for the California Democratic Party convention and a slew of other gatherings -- including MoveOn.org's Big Ideas Forum. [Former Vice President Joseph] Biden, who has sat comfortably atop the polls with a message anchored in more establishment Democratic politics, opted to stay out of the fray, skipping the convention and instead headlining the Human Rights Campaign's annual Ohio gala….

     Biden's leading challengers won those audiences over by using him as a punching bag….

     "Some Democrats in Washington believe the only changes we can get are tweaks and nudges. If they dream at all, they dream small," Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren said in her speech at the Democratic convention.

     "Some say if we all just calm down, the Republicans will come to their senses," she said. "But our country is in a time of crisis. The time for small ideas is over."…

     Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders on Sunday continued the barrage of criticism aimed at Biden, casting his 2020 rival as pursuing a "middle ground" ideology and blasting him for skipping the gathering.

     Warren and Sanders are about as far to the left as anyone in the Democrats’ ranks. They do not hesitate to call for completely socialized medicine, confiscatory levels of taxation, and other horrifying, anti-Constitutional measures. Which has caused your humble Curmudgeon to ask: What are the odds that they and their supporters will ever come to their senses? And if they don’t, whence goeth the Democrat Party, in 2020 and beyond?

     Joseph Biden would never get my vote for any office, much less the presidency. However, when compared to Warren and Sanders he looks like a fount of reason and judicious moderation. What do the party’s kingmakers, strategists, and major donors think of it all? It will be at least a year before we have a clear idea.

     Meanwhile, Americans in the Right: Remember that crack about “Republicans coming to their senses,” and ponder what it implies about how the Democrats would use whatever amount of federal power they might obtain in next year’s elections.