If Hillary Clinton had won the presidency in 2016, there’s a high likelihood that Neera Tanden would have been her White House chief of staff. She has a message for you.

If you go to her Twitter page, you’ll see that she has a pinned Tweet. Presumably, it’s been there since she first posted it in July 2019.

It’s interesting that she chose Goldwater. I guess that’s the most recent Democratic landslide but it was a temporary victory. Goldwater’s troops came roaring back and by 1981 they were running Washington DC. A better example would be Herbert Hoover in 1932.

Democrats and progressives can get very nostalgic for the good old days when FDR was winning landslide victories and implementing the New Deal. But, remember, how many of FDR’s supporters have left the party to side with the Goldwater/Reagan movement? Without those voters, Roosevelt doesn’t win in such convincing fashion or have such robust majorities in Congress.

The conservative movement doesn’t die until a huge number of those voters come back to the Democrats. When you’re looking for a historical drubbing, you can’t get picky about who votes with your side.

That doesn’t mean you pander to bigots or embrace putrid policies. It just means that you give people permission to support you. Some people need to be pushed away, if only to help you define your values and platform, but the actual number in this category cannot be very big.

If you’re spending your time policing Twitter, you’re not part of the solution.