Biden's play for the deplorable vote

But to win big, any Democrat is going to need the votes of those so-called deplorables. For that reason, the only useful thing about his comments was that he chose as examples not people whose views are still controversial, but people whose views are so thoroughly, utterly and rightly deplored by today’s Democrats (and, I would guess, by more than a few Republicans) that if they were still living they would be completely beyond the pale. The message can’t be missed: no matter how heinous your views, no matter how fervently I disagree with you, I will never consider you untouchable.

Is that the only way for Democrats to win the votes of people who voted for Trump because they thought Hillary Clinton’s Democrats held them in contempt? I don’t think so. I personally prefer Warren’s approach of going into deep red territory to articulate specific plans she has to help their communities. Showing up really is half the battle, and delivering is plausibly the other half. It’s very hard to believe that someone who does show up, and does deliver, also holds you in contempt.

If her strategy works, though, and brings along a host of new red state Democrats into Congress, some of those Democrats are going to hold views — perhaps on immigration, perhaps on abortion, perhaps on other issues — that most of the party finds deplorable.