We still don’t know which Democrats (most of them?) will run for president in 2020. Nevertheless, from the vantage point of an ex-Republican and homeless political wanderer — one who has seen her party taken over by a right-wing populist, lose intellectual respectability and endanger democratic norms — I can say to Democrats that, if you don’t know what is truly important, you’ll wind up with someone you’ll regret nominating.
Before offering some suggestions about the criteria Democrats should apply to their search for a 2020 nominee, I’ll take issue with the conventional wisdom that “all the energy” is on the far left of the Democratic Party.