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Glenn Harlan Reynolds, Opinion columnist Published 5:00 a.m. ET Nov. 27, 2019

All Democrats have to do is be marginally reasonable, and they can't even do that. They shouldn't be surprised when another election passes them by.

If President Donald Trump is re-elected next November, hell owe a lot of his victory to the army of activists working tirelessly to put him over the top. No, Im not talking about the red-hatted MAGA crowd, tireless as they are. Im talking about the army of leftist activists whose nonstop craziness is moving moderates into the Trump column day by day.

Anti-Trump conservative Rod Dreher sharesa letter from a reader who notes the unpersoning of feminist Posie Parker (her crime: not believing that transwomen are women)and the recent attacks on the Salvation Army and writes: I have never voted for a Republican for president, and I cant stand Trump. But the 'Tolerant Left'is making me so angry with them that I am thinking of voting for him. Since I live in Massachusetts the Electoral College makes it irrelevant, but it would be a protest vote.

Likewise, since the Democrats the-mountain-labored-and-brought-forth-a-mouse impeachment circus began, Trump has moved to a net-positivein one poll, picked up a lot of moderate votersand moved into the lead in swing states like Wisconsin.The assault on Trump brings to mind the old saying about wrestling with a pig you get dirty, and the pig likes it.

All the Democrats had to do was not be crazy, and they couldnt even do that. They started out after the last election demanding that Donald Trump not be normalizedas president and then proceeded to act as abnormally as possible. Weirdly,this strategy seems to be backfiring.

The conventional wisdom has always been that when you lose an election you accept it thereby showing your loyalty to the American system and endeavor to show the voters that youre worthy of being elected next time. That involves working with the other party where you can, to show that you put the good of the country first, and acting sensible and responsible the rest of the time.That, to put it mildly, is not the approach the Democrats have chosen.

Mission High School students Hope Robertson, left, and Cat Larson yell as they protest with other high school students in opposition of Donald Trump's presidential election victory in front of City Hall in San Francisco, Thursday, Nov. 10, 2016. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu) ORG XMIT: CAJC116Protestors in San Francisco on Nov. 10, 2016.(Photo: Jeff Chiu/AP)

The current impeachment clown show was not made more credible by the fact that his opponentsbegantalking impeachment even before President Trump was sworn into office.

Nor has the endless talk of Trumps opposition as the Resistance,as if 2019 America were equivalent to France in 1940, done a lot for credibility. When much of the opposition to Trump comes across as fantasy role-play by people who didnt get enough validation in high school, it robs the entire enterprise of its seriousness.

Get real: If 2020 Democrats want to beat Trump, they shouldn't ignore moderates and indulge the left

Weve been told repeatedly that Trump is Hitler, even as he backed Israel in the UN and moved the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.Weve been told that Trump is a Putin puppet even as he soldanti-tank missiles to Ukraine(something Obama never did)and championed frackingin the United States, the success of which has done more to weaken Putin than anything the Obama/Hillary reset ever managed. (You could make a better case that the current Democratic candidates who vow to ban fracking are Putin puppets than you could for Trump.)

And even beyond the resistance, the left in general seems determined to move as many moderates into the Trump camp as possible. In left-leaningHoward County, Maryland, the school board adopted a 1970s style busing programover the objections of constituents.This despite the fact thatcomments on the bill were overwhelminglynegative. The board then scolded the community for its opposition.

All over the country, universities are going crazy over anonymous fliers that read, simply, Its okayto be white.This, were told, is a hate crime, and theFBI is investigatingto find the perpetrators.

At this years Harvard/Yale gameclimate protesters took over the field and delayed play.As double Ivy League alumnus (Dartmouth and Yale) Roger L.Simonwrites, the level of idiocy there is making him think we should abolish the Ivy Leagueas unserious.In the middle of this year's Harvard-Yale game, the greatactivistesspewed out onto the field to demand, what else, action on climate change delaying the game for over an hour. But all these Ivy League smarty-pants couldn't come up with a slogan more original than 'Hey hey, ho ho, fossil fuels have got to go.' Who'd they learn that from, their grandparents? Decades ago, during Vietnam, it was 'Hey hey, ho ho, LBJ has got to go.'"

They want to take the party too far left: Progressive Democrats let their 'policy freak flags' fly

Like I said, its fantasy role-play, in this case by people sad that they were born too late for the 1960s. Anyway, if you care about climate, you should be protesting outside the Chinese embassy China is addingvast numbers of new coal-fired power plantsunlike the United States, which has actually seen carbon emissions dropthanks to fracking.

I could go on and on, but pretty much any random days survey of the news makes my point. The conventional, sensible way to beat Trump would have been to demonstrate the sort of sensible, competent, non-threatening approach that would win over moderate voters. The Democrats and the left have chosen a different approach. Lets see how it works out for them, but if they lose, itll be because their activists were actually working on behalf of the very man they purport to hate.

Glenn Harlan Reynolds, a University of Tennessee law professor and the author of "The New School: How the Information Age Will Save American Education from Itself," is a member of USA TODAY's Board of Contributors.

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Democrats just might reelect Trump, and they'll have no one to blame but themselves. - USA TODAY

Senator Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from Washington and ranking member of the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, makes an opening statement during a hearing in Washington, D.C.

Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Top Democratic senators revealed a new online privacy bill Tuesday that could mark a milestone in the lengthy push for a federal privacy law and would strengthen the Federal Trade Commission's ability to enforce digital privacy protections.

Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell, the top Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee, is leading the charge for the new bill as Congress has struggled to come to a consensus on what to include in federal privacy legislation.

Cantwell in a press release likened the bill's protections to "Miranda rights" for digital consumers. The bill would grant citizens the right to request their information from companies and ask for data to be deleted or corrected. It would also make companies responsible for getting permission to collect and share sensitive data, which includes biometric information and precise locations. Companies must not collect more information than they reasonably need to function under the bill's proposals.

Cantwell's legislation addresses two sticking points in privacy discussions that may stir up pushback from Republicans and tech companies. The proposal would allow for states to continue to issue their own privacy laws and give citizens a private right of action to bring their own lawsuits. The Commerce Committee is set to discuss privacy legislation proposals at a December hearing.

"The legislation released today reflects where the Democrats want to go," said Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., the chairman of the Commerce Committee, in a statement. "But any privacy bill will need bipartisan support to become law. I am committed to continuing to work with the ranking member and my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to get a bill that can get across the finish line. I expect that we will have a bill to discuss at next week's hearing."

Cantwell's bill, which is also sponsored by Sens. Ed Markey, D-Mass., Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, is not the first privacy bill to be floated in Congress. In the House, for example, two Silicon Valley congresswomen recently introduced a bill that goes beyond some of the measures in California's new privacy legislation. California's privacy law goes into effect in January and may serve as a testing ground for privacy ideas on the federal level.

The new Senate bill, dubbed the "Consumer Online Privacy Rights Act" or "COPRA" is significant because of Cantwell's standing on the Commerce Committee, which is heavily involved in tech issues. The committee has held hearings on automated vehicles, cybersecurity and social media in the wake of Facebook's Cambridge Analytica scandal. It also has oversight of the Federal Communications Commission.

The proposal would also further strengthen the Federal Trade Commission, which has been ridiculed by Democrats over its privacy settlements with Facebook and Google's YouTube this year, which some claimed were too weak to prevent further wrongdoing. Rather than create a new federal agency, as the Democratic House bill proposes, Cantwell's legislation would create a new bureau within the FTC to handle digital privacy enforcement. The bill mandates that bureau be fully staffed and operational within two years of its enactment.

State attorneys general could also enforce the federal law, as well as their state laws. Relief under the federal legislation would funnel into a consumer relief fund, according to the proposal.

The bill also places greater responsibility on company executives to ensure their adherence to digital privacy protections. Beginning one year after the law's enactment, CEOs of companies that hold large amounts of data would have to certify to the FTC on a yearly basis that they have "adequate internal controls" and reporting structures to comply with the law.

For tech companies, federal privacy legislation has been a top priority as Congress' stalemate has motivated states to take the matter into their own hands. Tech leaders have warned of the potential for fragmented platforms if states continue to impose varied standards, which would likely be more costly and less efficient for companies to comply with. Cantwell's proposal would not necessarily provide the relief tech companies have been looking for, as it would still allow states to enact and enforce their own privacy laws.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been among the tech leaders urging congressional leaders to move forward on federal regulation. Zuckerberg met with several representatives in September to discuss "future internet regulation" in closed-door meetings, a Facebook spokesperson said at the time.

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Senate Democrats reveal new digital privacy bill that would strengthen the FTC's enforcement powers over tech companies - CNBC

Despite such caps and advances in public financing long a goal of progressive activists officials with good government groups were left shaking their heads at how the commission arrived at its decisions after fractious public hearings and what they say were secret back-room negotiations.

The public hasnt seen any language. This commission has been operating largely out of sight, and it appears that the only feedback they react to is from governor and legislative leaders, said Blair Horner, the executive director of the New York Public Interest Research Group.

Indeed, the commission often seemed to be changing its mind on issues mid-thought: At one point on Monday morning, the panel rejected a proposal to raise the contribution limit for races in the Assembly. Minutes later, after the arrival of one of Mr. Cuomos appointees, Mylan L. Denerstein, the commission took up the proposal again and passed it.

In one victory for small parties, the commission did not eliminate so-called fusion voting, which allows candidates to collect votes on multiple lines, including third parties, thus helping those parties meet the thresholds for staying on the ballot.

As the groups deadline approached and third parties existential anxieties peaked, Senator Chuck Schumer, along with three New York Congress members, urged the panel to leave the practice alone. Mr. Cuomo had expressed measured support as well, saying he had benefited from fusion voting, which is allowed in only a handful of other states.

Leaders of the state Conservative Party, which seemed better positioned to survive a new 2 percent threshold, nonetheless also attacked the commission, questioning its constitutional authority.

This is a classic example of government engineering a crisis and then presenting an impossibly bureaucratic solution to it on the backs of taxpayers, the party chairman, Gerard Kassar, said in a statement.

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Democrats Plan Will Suppress Third Parties in New York - The New York Times

Attorney General William Barr discussing the counting of citizens in the country and the legal issues surrounding that effort, behind him stands Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, in the Rose Garden at the White House.

Michael Brochstein | LightRocket | Getty Images

The House Oversight Committee filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross over the Trump officials' refusal to turn over documents related to the administration's decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census.

"President Trump and his aides are not above the law," Committee Chairwoman Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., said in a statement. "They cannot be allowed to disregard and degrade the authority of Congress to fulfill our core Constitutional legislative and oversight responsibilities."

The Supreme Court effectively killed the administration's plans to add the question in June, reasoning that the official reason provided was a pretext. The administration argued that the question was needed in order to better enforce certain provisions of the Voting Rights Act.

The committee's lawsuit was filed in federal district court in Washington, D.C. and asks the court to force the two top officials to comply with congressional subpoenas. The Justice Department declined to comment.

A spokesperson for the Commerce Department said in an email that the lawsuit was "fueled by overzealous Oversight Democrats" and "lacks merit."

"Moreover, the Department of Commerce has cooperated in good faith with the Committee," the spokesperson said. The spokesperson said the department made more than 2,000 documents available to the committee and "submitted hundreds of pages of additional documents since the Supreme Court's decision."

The lawsuit follows a vote in June to hold both Barr and Ross in contempt of Congress. At the time, Barr and Ross issued a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., urging her to postpone the vote because the materials sought by the committee were protected. Trump has asserted that the documents are covered by executive privilege.

In their lawsuit, the Democrats wrote that Barr and Ross "have identified no valid privilege that would justify their refusal to comply."

"Their unlawful withholding of information is injuring the Committee in carrying out two critical constitutional functions: conducting effective oversight of the Executive Branch and its officials, who have provided false testimony to Congress and misled Congress and the American public; and determining whether legislation is necessary, potentially on an emergency basis, to ensure the integrity of the 2020 Census," they wrote.

Earlier this month, Maloney issued a memorandum to the committee that said that the panel's investigation had collected evidence that the administration "may have been trying to stop immigrants from being counted in the Census or in legislative districts, which one Republican operative concluded would be 'advantageous to Republicans and Non-Hispanic Whites.'"

Trump backed down from his efforts to add a citizenship question to the census following the Supreme Court's decision, but said he would press on to obtain the information by other means.

During a July address, Trump said he ordered "every department and agency in the federal government to provide the Department of Commerce with all requested records regarding the number of citizens and non-citizens in our country."

"We will utilize these vast federal databases to gain a full, complete, and accurate count of the non-citizen population, including databases maintained by the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration," he said.

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House Democrats file lawsuit against William Barr and Wilbur Ross for refusing to hand over census docs - CNBC

Scott Jennings, Opinion contributor Published 11:20 a.m. ET Nov. 26, 2019

In 2016, Donald Trumps message of busting political correctness won him the White House. Rejecting the Democratic Partys identity politics run amok was a sneaky good strategy, working like a charm among working-class voters in Americas heartland. Trump, though he had just become a Republican five minutes ago, better sensed than the partys established leaders the emotional needs of rank-and-file Republicans.

For all his faults, this is Trumps superpower sensing cultural undercurrents and reflecting the emotions of histarget audience. He often says what regular folks are thinking but dont feel they are allowed to verbalize.

Today, a great many Americans feel angst about their children inheriting a country that allows for the indiscriminate destruction of reputations via cancel culture and promotes narratives over truths in the name of political correctness. In 2020, Trump can rekindle his old strategy by giving voice to these concerns to overcome serious political headwinds.

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Extreme uneasinessexists in middle America over cancel culture, the practice of journalists and woke activists unearthing old utterances of celebrities, athletes, and even some regular peoplefor the purpose of embarrassing them and ruining their lives.

Do some human beings say or tweet dumb things? Yes. Does it often happen when a person is younger, less experienced in the world and not enlightened enough to know that at some point in the future someone might find their thoughtless tweet offensive? You bet.

If theres anyone in America who could rally the canceled to his cause, it's Trump, who faces cancellation attempts every day. Heck, several Democrats have proposed taking his twitter feed for violating the platforms terms of service.

But thats the point why should we tolerate a society in which a group of inquisitors is given carte blanche to silence people they dont like, banish political thoughts that arent welcome in liberal enclavesand ruin peoples lives over things uttered years ago? Never one to eschew affiliation with the controversial, Trump is uniquely positioned to make this a voting issue in 2020.

In Washington, D.C., when a 12-year-old African American girl claimed that three white boys at her private Christian school pinned her down and shaved her dreadlocks, the media predictably fell for it hook, line and sinker, demanding answers of Vice President Mike Pences wife, Karen, who teaches at the school.

The account was too perfect for media types who crave stories confirming their own political biases: white-on-black violence, Christian school, connection to Trump. Instead of seeking the truth, however, the media just as it did with the Covington Catholic and Jussie Smollett stories was blinded by a narrative instead of approaching the fantastical claim with caution.

After a few days, the little girl confessed to making it up. I dont blame her; in America these days, a good narrative is better than the truth when you want attention. Just ask the liberal politicians seeking the Democratic nomination for president.

Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris, for instance, falsely tweeted a debunked allegation that Michael Brown was murdered by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, never mind that President Barack Obamas Department of Justice disproved the hands up, dont shoot narrative long ago. In doing so, Warren and Harriscravenly served their political ends without regard for the societal damage done by spreading falsehoods on such tragic stories.

Scott Jennings: Trump's no angel, but liberals with their ugly threats have become what they claim to hate

Warrens use of false narrativesextends to her own origin story, which now includes multiple fabrications including that she is Native American and was once fired from a teaching job for getting pregnant. Last week, she misled a voter about sending her children to private school (she did, but claimed she didnt).

Scott Jennings, columnist(Photo: photo courtesy Scott Jennings)

Warren is not a woman of color, despite allowing employers to describe her as such, nor was she fired in the 1970s for becoming pregnant, according to recently discovered school board documents. But being a plain old white woman who declines job offers and is wealthy enough to send her kids to private school doesnt sell in todays Democratic Party, so she conjured a put-upon alter ego and rocketed to the top of the primary field.

No wonder our kids are inventing plights of their very own.

Americans are rightly worried about their children inheriting a sick culture. President Trump can jujitsu his political problems by relentlessly focusing on the need to defeat this cancer; hell get a lot of Amens in flyover country (think Pennsylvania, Michiganand Wisconsin) if he does, and no Democratic contender has the wherewithal to stop him.

Scott Jennings is a Republican adviser, CNN political commentator and partner at RunSwitch Public Relations. He can be reached at scott@RunSwitchPR.com and on Twitter @ScottJenningsKY. His firm represented Nicholas Sandmann in the aftermath of the Covington Catholic story.

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Opinion: Trump can use his 'superpower' to defeat Democrats and their false narratives - Courier Journal