Should the Dems Run Against Trump? Or On The Economy?

Lee Drutman was referenced in a Newsweek article about how Democrats should approach the economy during the 2018 elections.

To start on the left, consider Lee Drutman, an academic pundit with impeccable liberal credentials, who responded to the Democrats big election victories in Virginia this past November by telling Democrats that their "best bet [for extending the winning streak into 2018] will be to offer a sharper economic message."

Drutman is more than a bit vague about what his preferred "stronger progressive economic message" might include, but we can leave that aside here, because his main argument is that running on economic issues is better than running on anything else.

Drutman, however, frames the strategic decision as a choice between economic issues and cultural issues (presumably referring to issues like immigration and women's rights, although he again is not clear about this). Notably, he is not saying anything either way about whether Democrats can win by focusing on Donald Trump's never-ending circus of mendacity and incompetence.

He seems to be saying only that Democrats should talk about the minimum wage rather than abortion rights. (I am not willing to concede that he is right even about that, but again, that is a separate argument.)

But that third choice -- running hard against Trump and everything that he has handed Democrats as potential campaign issues -- would seem to be one of the most obviously promising strategies in the history of politics.