PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP has issued his first veto, rejecting broadly bipartisan legislation that overturned his emergency declaration at the border. HERE IS WHAT’S NEXT: The legislation originated in the House, which means the House gets to try to overturn the veto first. They’ll do so when they return from their weeklong recess, which is now underway.

IN ORDER TO OVERTURN THE VETO, every House Democrat needs to vote yes — a certainty. But 55 House Republicans have to also vote to overturn it — and that’s not going to happen. After this process fails in the House, the Senate cannot take it up, and that’s the end of that.

SO SURE, this was an embarrassing episode for the president — and particularly his legislative affairs shop on the Senate side. But it’s done — for now.

THE LATEST FROM NEW ZEALAND — “New Zealanders reach out to Muslims in wake of mass shooting,” by AP’s Juliet Williams and Nick Perry in Christchurch: “New Zealand’s stricken residents reached out to Muslims in their neighborhoods and around the country on Saturday, with a fierce determination to show kindness to a community in pain as a 28-year-old white supremacist stood silently before a judge, accused in mass shootings at two mosques that left 49 people dead.

“Brenton Harrison Tarrant appeared in court amid strict security, shackled and wearing all-white prison garb, and showed no emotion when the judge read him one murder charge. The judge said ‘it was reasonable to assume’ more such charges would follow. Tarrant … to make a hand sign, similar to an OK sign, that is sometimes associated with white nationalists.” AP

— NEW ZEALAND HERALD: “Christchurch mosque shootings: New Zealand to ban semi-automatic weapons”

SPY GAMES … CRAZY STORY … WAPO’S JOHN HUDSON: “A shadowy group trying to overthrow Kim Jong Un allegedly raided a North Korean embassy in broad daylight”: “Days before President Trump was set to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Vietnam, a mysterious incident in Spain threatened to derail the entire high-stakes nuclear summit. In broad daylight, masked assailants infiltrated North Korea’s embassy in Madrid, tied up the staff, stole computers and mobile phones, and fled the scene in two luxury vehicles.

“The group behind the late February operation is known as Cheollima Civil Defense, a secretive dissident organization committed to overthrowing the Kim dynasty, people familiar with the planning and execution of the mission told The Washington Post.” WaPo

WEST WING READING … WAPO’S TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA and ASHLEY PARKER: “‘An easy target’: Pence takes barbs from both sides as he proves his loyalty to Trump”: “Nick Ayers, Pence’s former chief of staff, said the vice president sometimes finds himself a political bull’s eye because he ‘works hard’ to avoid taking credit for the work he does. ‘When his advice is taken, we don’t read about it,’ Ayers said. ‘More importantly, when his advice is not taken, we don’t read about it. It’s nearly impossible to find a friend like that in Washington, but the president knows he has that in Mike Pence. But that also makes you an easy target.’” WaPo

— NYT’S KATIE ROGERS and ANNIE KARNI: “Good Cop or Good Soldier? Mike Pence Is a Tempting Target for 2020 Democrats”

BANNON BEAT — “Steve Bannon flexes influence during Brazilian president visit with Trump,” by Franco Ordonez in the Miami Herald: “Bannon … will be a special guest of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro for dinner on Monday, the eve of the far-right leader’s meeting with President Trump at the White House. Bannon, who Bolsonaro’s team has sought out for political guidance, will be among a group of conservative guests joining Bolsonaro at his table for the exclusive event at the Brazilian ambassador’s residence, two sources familiar with the meeting said.” Miami Herald

Happy Saturday. TALKER … N.Y. MAG’S OLIVIA NUZZI: “Trump’s Phone Friends May Be More Important Than His Staff. So Who’s He Calling?”

2020 WATCH …

— KEEP YOUR EYES PEELED FOR THE PHISH REFERENCE … NYT’S MATT FLEGENHEIMER in Keokuk, Iowa, and JONATHAN MARTIN in North Charleston, S.C.: “Beto O’Rourke is 46. Bernie Sanders is 77. Does Age Matter Anymore for Democrats?”: “The evidence was conflicting at Mr. Sanders’s South Carolina rally on Thursday. As unfathomable as it may be to the moderate wing of the Democratic Party, many in attendance made the case for Mr. Sanders as much on his electability as his liberal platform.

“‘I want to support someone who I think really has a chance of winning,’ said Brandon Greene, a 27-year-old student and pastor. “We can’t take a gamble on a new candidate.” And Tasha Horton, a 45-year-old real estate broker with college-age children who ‘love the Bern,’ allowed that her ‘love is for Kamala but strategically it’s either Bernie or Biden.’

“Ms. Horton, who went to the same church gymnasium to see Senator Kamala Harris earlier this month, added: ‘We have to think that way. You can’t think with your heart.’

“Yet even as Mr. Greene and Ms. Horton, who are both African-American, made the case for Mr. Sanders, the bulk of the audience reflected limits in his appeal: In a city where nearly half of the population is black, the rally attendees were overwhelmingly white. As a soloist sang gospel music that doubled as a filibuster for the tardy senator, some in the crowd noodled as if it were a Phish jam rather than an organ-backed hymn about joy coming in the morning.” NYT

— CNN’S MJ LEE: “Surprise phone calls and ‘selfie lines’: Inside Elizabeth Warren’s grassroots strategy”: “Warren made her way down a list of names displayed on her laptop, dialing one phone number after another on her cellphone. Everyone who picked up — it was evening, and a few of the calls went to voicemail — had two things in common:

“They had recently donated $25 or less to Warren’s presidential campaign, and they couldn’t believe that it was the Massachusetts Democrat on the line. ‘No way. Get out of town,’ Grace, a graduate student in Alaska, blurted out. ‘Oh my goodness,’ Matt, an Iowa resident, said with a laugh. ‘My wife is sitting here. Her jaw just dropped.’ …

“There is time set aside every week for phone calls and meetings with grassroots supporters and small-dollar supporters, according to advisers, who say Warren has made hundreds of grassroots calls so far this year. In an interview with CNN, Warren described these conversations as some of the best opportunities to get a raw sampling of the issues that are most pressing for voters. It’s the same benefit, she said, of the photo lines that she does after every campaign event.” CNN

— CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER’S SETH RICHARDSON: “Presidential hopeful Beto O’Rourke will visit Northeast Ohio Monday, sources say”: “O’Rourke will visit Northeast Ohio on Monday to hold a rally, according to sources close to the campaign. O’Rourke, a Democratic former Texas congressman, will visit the Buckeye State as part of a swing through the industrial Midwest, with stops planned in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin as well. Exact details on the Ohio visit are still to come.” Cleveland Plain Dealer

— @IsaacDovere: “in Washington, Iowa, @BetoORourke is asked again on whether he will be releasing his fundraising numbers for what’s come in since he launched. ‘I can’t,’ he said. You could, I pointed out. ‘You’re right — I choose not to,’ he said.”

— “Sanders cuts head on shower door, receives 7 stitches,” by Holly Otterbein.

— Alex Seitz-Wald (@aseitzwald): “Wow: The Bernie Sanders campaign becomes the first presidential campaign in history to unionize, per campaign. That’s a pretty big challenge to all the other campaigns.”

— WHAT STUART STEVENS IS UP TO — “Ex-Romney aide is working for likely GOP challenger to Trump,” by AP’s Hunter Woodall in Nashua, N.H.: “The top strategist for Sen. Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign is working for a likely Republican challenger to President Donald Trump. Former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld told The Associated Press on Friday that Stuart Stevens is his general consultant as he explores a primary bid against Trump.” AP

JEB BUSH on the AXE FILES, speaking about a primary challenger to TRUMP: “I think someone should run. Just because Republicans ought to be given a choice.” CNN

BEN SMITH F.T.W. … PAGE SIX — “Gavin Newsom finds it ‘interesting’ ex Kimberly Guilfoyle is dating Don Trump Jr.,” by N.Y. Post’s Julie Gordon: “Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom finds it ‘interesting’ that his ex-wife, Kimberly Guilfoyle, is now dating Donald Trump Jr. In an interview for PROFILE by BuzzFeed Newsrunning Friday night, editor-in-chief Ben Smith asked Newsom if President Trump has ever brought up his son’s relationship with Guilfoyle during any of their conversations. Newsom’s response? A coy, ‘We may have had a private moment on that conversation, which in and of itself, makes life just interesting.’ When asked again about the relationship, Newsom reiterated, ‘Life’s interesting.’” NY Post

CASTRO BROTHERS ROUNDUP — “Julián Castro’s endorsement blunder,” by Nolan McCaskill: “Castro welcomed home-state colleague Beto O’Rourke into the crowded Democratic presidential primary field Thursday by releasing a list of more than two dozen elected and appointed Texas officials endorsing the former San Antonio mayor over the ex-El Paso congressman. The attempted show of force on O’Rourke’s launch day, however, may have fallen a little flat. The timing of Castro’s brushback pitch was viewed by some Democrats as unsportsmanlike.

“[A]t least one official on the list said he was actually neutral in the 2020 race. … Several officials among the 30 listed said they were given no heads up that the campaign would release their endorsements on the same day O’Rourke would launch his White House bid.” POLITICO

— “Joaquin Castro ‘All But Certain’ to Challenge John Cornyn for U.S. Senate, Source Says,” by Texas Monthly’s Carlos Sanchez: “A Joaquin Castro candidacy instantly makes next year’s Senate race competitive, observers say.”

NYT’S CATIE EDMONDSON: “In Most Diverse House, Aides of Color Join the Ranks of ‘Firsts’: For the first time, over a dozen top aides — from the speaker’s national security adviser to the majority whip’s chief of staff — are racial minorities”: “In September, 13.7 percent of top aides in the House were minorities, according to research by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a Washington-based research center. Bolstered by hires made by new members of Congress on both sides of the aisle, that number has risen to 20.9 percent, the center said — by no means transformative but a noticeable shift in halls of power that have always been disproportionately white. …

“[T]he Republicans have not kept the same pace. In their leadership offices, there are far fewer minorities. Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, who is white and is the Republican leader, employs an Asian-American deputy chief of staff, and Representative Gary Palmer of Alabama, who is white and the chairman of the Republican Policy Committee, employs an African-American chief of staff. Neither aide was available to comment.” NYT

THE JUICE …

— THE AMERICAN BANKERS ASSOCIATION PAC gave $15,000 to the NRCC and NRSC and $10,000 to the DSCC and DCCC in February.

DARREN SAMUELSOHN: “Mueller’s busy week offers new signs his report is coming soon”: “On Wednesday, a federal judge handed a second prison sentence to Paul Manafort. That closed the door on Mueller’s prosecution of the former Trump campaign chairman, which will put Manafort in jail through the end of 2024 if President Donald Trump doesn’t pardon him or commute the sentence.

“Meanwhile other clues emerged this week suggesting that Mueller’s probe is coming to an end. On Tuesday, the special counsel’s lawyers told a federal judge that they have all the information they need from former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who has been cooperating with Mueller’s team since he pleaded guilty in December 2017 to lying to the FBI.

“Two key members of Mueller’s team are also moving on. The FBI confirmed a week ago Friday that its lead agent tasked to the special counsel’s team has been reassigned to lead the bureau’s Richmond field office. And a Mueller spokesman on Thursday issued a rare public statement confirming that one the office’s prosecutors, Andrew Weissmann, planned to finish his assignment ‘in the near future.’” POLITICO

— CNN’S MANU RAJU, KAITLAN COLLINS and PAMELA BROWN: “White House and House Democrats battle over John Kelly, ex-officials in Trump probes”: “House Democrats, eager to investigate all aspects of the Trump White House, have identified former administration officials they need to carry out their probes. But the White House isn’t making it an easy task.

“On at least two occasions, the White House has pushed back on efforts by the House Oversight Committee to reach out directly to former officials, chiding the committee’s powerful Chairman Elijah Cummings for not contacting the White House first. Their contention: Topics pertaining to former officials’ work should be sorted out with the White House first — even if the officials are no longer federal employees.

“At the center of one of the disputes is former chief of staff John Kelly, whose cooperation is central to Cummings’ investigation into the White House’s handling of security clearances, including Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner. Cummings’ staff reached out to Kelly directly by phone on multiple occasions, which prompted a stinging response from White House counsel Pat Cipollone.” CNN

NYT’S KEN VOGEL and ALAN RAPPEPORT: “Russian Oligarch Sues the U.S. Over Sanctions”: “Oleg V. Deripaska, a Russian oligarch with close ties to the Kremlin, sued the United States government on Friday, demanding it lift sanctions that he claimed have cost him billions of dollars, made him ‘radioactive’ in international business circles and exposed him to criminal investigation and asset confiscation in Russia. In a lawsuit filed in United States District Court in Washington, Mr. Deripaska said that the sanctions, leveled in April by the Treasury Department, should be struck down because they deprived him of due process and relied on unproven smears that fell outside the sanctions program.” NYT

CLICKER – “The nation’s cartoonists on the week in politics,” edited by Matt Wuerker — 10 keepers

GREAT WEEKEND READS, curated by Daniel Lippman:

— “If Liberals Won’t Enforce Borders, Fascists Will,” by David Frum on the cover of April’s The Atlantic: “We need to make hard decisions now about what will truly benefit current and future Americans.” The Atlantic

— “I’ve Seen Civil War Destroy the Democrats Before. We Can’t Let it Happen Again,” by Stuart E. Eizenstat in POLITICO Magazine: “Maximalist ideology is a prescription for division and defeat.” POLITICO Magazine

— “Corbynism Comes to America,” by James Kirchick in Tablet Magazine: “Wondering about the future of the Democratic Party? Just look at Britain’s Labour.” Tablet Magazine

— “The Epic Hunt for a Lost World War II Aircraft Carrier,” by Ed Caesar in the N.Y. Times Magazine: “In 1942, a volley of torpedoes sent the U.S.S. Wasp to the bottom of the Pacific. For decades, the families of the dead wondered where in the lightless depths of the ocean the ship could possibly be. Earlier this year, a team of wreck hunters set out to find it.” NYT

— “Just Getting Started,” by Brittney Cooper in Marie Claire: “The controversial Georgia governor’s race spurred Democratic nominee Stacey Abrams to file a federal lawsuit calling for election reform. Scathed but unbroken, she has emerged as the future of the party—delivering the Democrats’ response to the State of the Union—with ever-growing calls that she seek the highest office in the land.” Marie Claire (h/t Longreads.com)

— “White Nationalism’s Deep American Roots,” by Adam Serwer in The Atlantic: “A long-overdue excavation of the book that Hitler called his ‘bible,’ and the man who wrote it.” The Atlantic

— “The Coffin Business Is Booming in Central America Due to Gang Violence,” by Matthew Bremner in Bloomberg Businessweek: “In El Salvador, Jucuapa is home to dozens of small factories that churn out what some locals call the ‘wooden pajamas.’” Bloomberg Businessweek (h/t Longreads.com)

— “Bill Hader Kills,” by Tad Friend in The New Yorker: “With ‘Barry,’ his bleakly funny TV show, Hollywood’s favorite impressionist reinvents himself as a writer-director.” The New Yorker

— “‘State Capture’: How the Gupta Brothers Hijacked South Africa Using Bribes Instead of Bullets,” by Karan Mahajan in Vanity Fair’s March issue: “It started with black market rations and ended with ‘the wedding of the century.’ Novelist Karan Mahajan travels to India and South Africa to understand how three small-time investors fleeced an entire country—aided by some of the world’s most respected consultants.” VF (h/t Longform.org)

— “Wall Street Has Been Unscathed by MeToo. Until Now,” by NYT’s David Gelles: “Days in court have been rare for the movement — and rarer still for Wall Street, where grievances are typically dealt with in private, and by wire transfer, when they are dealt with at all. [Sara] Tirschwell’s battle with TCW is changing that, offering an uncommon look at how sex, money and power really work in a supposedly rarefied industry.” NYT

— “The Tragedy of Baltimore,” by ProPublica’s Alec MacGillis: “Since Freddie Gray’s death in 2015, violent crime has spiked to levels unseen for a quarter century. How order collapsed in an American city.” ProPublica

WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Marisa Schultz, White House and Capitol reporter for the N.Y. Post, and Peter Mayer on Monday welcomed Maxwell. “Marisa, Peter and baby Max are all doing well, happy and healthy.” Pic … Another pic

BIRTHDAYS: Amy Shuster, coordinating producer at MSNBC … Jeff Nussbaum, partner at West Wing Writers … Brittany Pedersen of the White House … Art Collins … Jason Rosenbaum, founder of Seward Square Strategies … Andy Lewin, VP at BGR Group (hat tips: Jon Haber) … Rebecca Coffman, SVP for political and advocacy ads at UPFRONT Strategies (h/t James Davis) … Patrick Appel, EIC of Traffic magazine, is 35 … Julie Pace, Washington bureau chief for the AP … Denis Sgouros is 27 (h/t Nihal Krishan) … WaPo’s Ellen McCarthy and Dalton Bennett … Ian McCaleb … Neil Vigdor … Endeavor’s Alex Stabler is 3-0 … Eric Avram … Darren Martin … Rep. Ron Kind (D-Wisc.) is 56 … former Rep. Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.) is 57 … Sandy Weill is 86 … Bobbi Bosch … Stuart A. Smith is 78 …

… Scott Simon is 67 … NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg is 6-0 … Mark Carney is 53 … Jordana Cutler … Kaveh Waddell … Mike Valerio is 31 … Sarah Feuer of the Washington Institute … Kevin Varney, COS for gov’t operations at Boeing … Riccardo Reati … Steven CF Anderson … NYT’s Brian Rosenthal … GPG’s Adam Blickstein … Kate Brown … Gary Emerling … Brian Young is 52 … Elly Pickett … Kathy Prendergast … Bradley Everett … Ajay Kuntamukkala … Neil Romano … Ky Griffin … Carl Holshouser … Jim McCray … Kimmie Lipscomb … Christopher Swift is 43 … Maura Brueger … Seth Boffeli … Jed Hastings.

THE SHOWS, by @MattMackowiak, filing from Austin:

• NBC

  “Meet the Press”: Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) … Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.). Panel: Yamiche Alcindor, Arthur Brooks, Jose Diaz-Balart and Susan Page

• CNN

  “State of the Union”: Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) … Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.). Panel: Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), Karen Finney, Mia Love and Waleed Shahid

• ABC

  “This Week”: Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) … Kayleigh McEnany. Panel: Matthew Dowd, Chris Christie, Caitlin Dickerson, Mitch Landrieu and Alice Stewart

• CBS

  “Face the Nation”: Mick Mulvaney … Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) … Preet Bharara. Panel: Mark Landler, Ramesh Ponnuru, Jamal Simmons and Amy Walter

• Fox

  “Fox News Sunday”: Mick Mulvaney … Pete Buttigieg. Panel: Karl Rove, Jerry Seib, Katie Pavlich and Mo Elleithee … “Power Player of the Week”: Thomas Denny Sanford

• CNN

  “Inside Politics”: Panel: Julie Hirschfeld Davis, Toluse Olorunnipa, Lisa Lerer and Manu Raju

• CNN

  “Reliable Sources”: author and father of murdered TV anchor (Alison Parker) Andy Parker (“For Alison: The Murder of a Young Journalist and a Father’s Fight for Gun Safety”) … panel: Dan Rather, Katie Rogers and Nayyera Haq … attorney for former Fox News employee (Diana Falzone) Nancy Erika Smith … David Zurawik

• Fox News

  “Sunday Morning Futures”: Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) … Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.) … Rep. Harley Rouda (D-Calif.)

• Fox News

  “MediaBuzz”: Beverly Hallberg … Capri Cafaro … Mollie Hemingway … Buck Sexton … Jessica Tarlov … Carley Shimkus … Sara Fischer

• CNN

  “Fareed Zakaria GPS”: Panel: Ian Bremmer, David Miliband and Anne-Marie Slaughter … “Hotel Mumbai” director Anthony Maras and Dev Patel … Jared Cohen … Dr. Sanjay Gupta

• Univision

  “Al Punto”: U.S. Border Patrol chief in the El Centro sector Gloria Chavez … Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.) … Denise Dresser … Gilberto Hinojosa … “Captain Marvel” actor Algenis Pérez Soto (guest host: Felix De Bedout)

• C-SPAN

  “The Communicators”: Rep. Mike Doyle (D-Pa.), questioned by David McCabe … “Newsmakers”: Larry Kudlow, questioned by Damian Paletta and Nancy Cook … “Q&A”: Matthew Hoh

• MSNBC

  “Kasie DC”: Rep. Andre Carson (D-Ind.) … Rep. Donna Shalala (D-Fla.) … Anthony Scaramucci … Yamiche Alcindor … Tim Alberta … Eli Stokols … Julia Ainsley … Ali Vitali … Matt Gorman

• Washington Times

  “Mack on Politics” weekly politics podcast with Matt Mackowiak (download on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify or Stitcher or listen at MackOnPoliticsPodcast.com): Luke Rosiak.

• Anna Palmer @apalmerdc
• Jake Sherman @JakeSherman
• Daniel Lippman @dlippman

View all our political and policy newsletters

I’ve lived through a Democratic Civil War before. In fact, I’ve been in the middle of two of them. The first was in 1968, when I was the research director for Vice President Hubert Humphrey’s presidential campaign. The second was in 1980, when I was Jimmy Carter’s policy director.

Both times, I watched pressure from the party’s liberal wing tear the party apart and bring down a Democratic presidential candidate. Both times, the Republicans took the White House. Both times, liberal dreams were shattered.

Story Continued Below

Today, I fear it could all be happening again.

As President Donald Trump moved the Republican Party sharply to the populist right, early entrants to the Democratic Party presidential contest have veered sharply to the left, along with several energetic new Democratic members of the House. The left’s new avant-garde has properly identified the need to confront serious national challenges, from rising income inequality and inadequate health care coverage to climate change.

But successfully dealing with these problems demands pragmatic solutions that can gain support from a majority of Americans and do not play into Trump’s false narrative that Democrats are socialists. Speaking from experience, by demanding the moon, their proposals will crash on the launching pad and lead to nowhere good.

In 1968, I smelled the stink bombs that anti-war protesters tossed into the lobby of Humphrey’s convention headquarters. He forlornly watched from the window of his hotel suite as the Chicago police cracked down on the demonstrators with tear gas and clubs. Humphrey’s challenger from the left, Senator Eugene McCarthy, who had castigated Humphrey for the Johnson administration’s handling of Vietnam, didn’t get the nomination that year. But McCarthy failed to reconcile with his fellow Minnesotan and led his supporters back into the fold only after it was too late. Richard Nixon exploited the divisions in the party and the country and was elected by the thinnest of margins in November. His election led to an extension of the war Humphrey would have ended; during the next four years another 21,000 American soldiers were killed.

In 1980, the Democratic chasm opened again. I had been Jimmy Carter’s policy director during his 1976 campaign and went on to serve as his domestic policy adviser in the White House. A former Georgia governor running as a moderate in the Democratic primaries, Carter nevertheless had decidedly progressive accomplishments as president. I worked under Carter’s leadership to develop all the major ethics legislation still in place, requiring disclosure of assets and potential conflicts of interest for senior officials coming into office, restricting gifts while in office and curbing lobbying when leaving, and creating the office of special counsel to investigate wrongdoing by high officials, among many other measures. Carter encouraged affirmative action and directed more government contracts to minority companies. He increased the minimum wage by the largest amount in a decade, doubled the number of public jobs and expanded youth employment programs. He reformed and greatly expanded funding for food stamps and education with a new Department of Education, saved New York City and Chrysler from bankruptcy, and appointed more women and minorities to senior positions and judgeships than all his predecessors combined.

Carter showed what moderates can accomplish. But, throughout his four years in office, Carter never got full credit for this record. He was criticized by women’s and civil rights groups, social welfare advocates and the party’s union leaders for not doing enough. Consumer groups failed to mobilize for him even though he appointed many of their leaders to regulate big business. The “greenest” president in American history got little credit from environmentalists even as he doubled the size of the national park system, made conservation a centerpiece of his energy policy and championed solar energy, even installing a solar panel on the White House roof.

But the big sticking point for the liberal wing of the party was health care. To obtain support from liberal labor unions in the primaries in 1976, Carter agreed to broad principles for national health insurance, but in office refused to accept Senator Ted Kennedy’s single-payer, government run bill at a time of raging inflation. Over many days of negotiations I had with the senator in his Capitol office, we came close to agreeing on a bill that would have substituted a government-run program for a privately managed program and full coverage phased in over many years. But in the end, Kennedy bowed to labor’s demands and refused to back Carter’s own bill, which looks much like Obamacare today: employer-mandated insurance, health care for children, catastrophic coverage for major illnesses and a major expansion of Medicaid. By asking for too much, health care reform stalled for decades.

In 1980, Kennedy decided to challenge Carter from the left. The senator’s liberal supporters gummed-up the 1980 convention with more than 50 minority floor amendments to the party’s platform, demanding more and more spending and full-blown national health insurance. Kennedy lost, but the damage was done. His challenge irrevocably split the party. When finally defeated, the senator stole the soul of the convention with a dramatic speech promising that “The dream will never die.” He refused the ritual joint hand clasp with the renominated president, offering only a tortured long-distance handshake, and backed away from full participation in the campaign against Ronald Reagan, who coasted to victory in November.

It is, of course, impossible to know how much the liberal split affected the general election results. The bad luck of having record inflation (which Carter’s courageous appointment of Paul Volcker to head the Federal Reserve ended, but too late for his reelection), long gasoline lines from the shutdown of oil production during the Iranian revolution, and especially the Iran hostage crisis were also key factors in his defeat. But I believe that party infighting also played a significant role.

And Kennedy himself came to regret his inflexibility. Years later, as the senator continued his futile efforts to reform heath care, he wistfully said: “Where’s the Carter bill now that we really need it?”

Will the liberal wing this time around realize the damage a similar split will do to Democratic chances of regaining the White House? Maximalist ideology is a prescription for division and defeat.

So, what should the party rally around? While Medicare for All may be a useful campaign slogan to focus the Democrats’ priority of reforming our inefficient and expensive health care system, a totally government run program is not a solution; efforts to obtain it would do more to undermine Obama’s signature Affordable Care Act than the Republicans have done. Democrats should focus on strengthening Obamacare by making its private exchanges function more efficiently, by lowering drug prices, expanding Medicaid for needy Americans in all states and allowing earlier eligibility for Medicare.

Income inequality cannot simply be wiped away by wealth taxes, confiscatory tax rates for corporations and breaking up large banks. The country needs a fair tax system (Carter called our tax system then, as it is now, “a disgrace to the human race”) in which the middle class gets a larger share of the cuts, the super-wealthy pay a fairer share and companies cannot wriggle through loopholes and pay nothing. Workers also need a flexible education and apprenticeship system for non-college bound students, similar to those in Germany and Switzerland, to prepare them for the 21st century 5G economy.

As chief U.S. negotiator in the Clinton administration for the Kyoto Protocols to reduce greenhouse gases, I am painfully aware the clock is ticking on the time we must act to save our planet from catastrophic damage. But the answer to climate change is not a Green New Deal that would have the federal government prescribe all of our power needs through renewable, zero-emission sources, retrofitting every building, removing all greenhouse gases from transportation and guaranteeing a job to every American. Pragmatic programs should use market-based incentives, including a carbon tax, which would be made politically palatable by recycling part of the revenue into lower taxes for the middle class and into renewable energy programs.

A two state solution for Israel and the Palestinians is essential, but it will not be achieved by blaming Israel alone for the impasse or failing to back legislation that builds on the 1977 anti-Israel boycott law Carter signed into law, as many Democratic presidential hopefuls did, or worse, defending those who single out American Jews for dual loyalty for supporting a strong U.S.-Israel relationship.

Several candidates have revived an even more provocative and politically undeliverable proposal for taxpayers to pay reparations to African Americans for their ancestors’ slavery, and the discrimination they have since endured. I have extensive experience in trying to rectify another historic injustice: for victims of the Holocaust. As the chief negotiator for both the U.S. government in several administrations and for the Jewish Claims Conference, I have negotiated tens of billions of dollars of compensation for Holocaust victims from Swiss and French banks, German and Austrian slave labor companies, European insurance companies, and for Nazi-looted property and art. These were arduous negotiations over many years, and continue to this day. They were also possible because they are limited in scope: Generally, we could only exact payments for living survivors or in some cases their immediate heirs. Compensation for looted property, such as art and bank accounts, was paid only when it could be traced and identified. No one could devise a workable or politically palatable solution to identify and pay tens of millions of African Americans for what Abraham Lincoln called “the bondsman’s 250 years of unrequited toil.”

Americans of color still face systemic discrimination in education, employment and housing. And millions of Americans white, black and brown, still have no health care coverage, which virtually every other industrial democracy in the world provides to all of their citizens. It would be better to focus on policies that can gain broad public support: Expand health care under the framework of Obamacare, encourage more investment in low-income neighborhoods, endorse affirmative action based on socioeconomic need, offer more government contracts to minority companies, repair the shredded social safety net, increase funding of Head Start for poor children and elementary and secondary education in poverty-stricken districts, and broaden Pell Grants to help make college affordable.

It is a misreading of last November’s midterm elections to believe the House was flipped to Democratic control by the election of a few arch-liberals, most of whom displaced centrist Democrats. The greatest gains were made by moderate Democrats capturing Republican districts. A successful Democratic presidential candidate might take a leaf from Carter’s playbook, even more successfully accomplished by Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, to appeal to both sides of the party’s coalition to attract and hold moderate Americans tired of partisanship—Americans who want the highest ethical standards in the White House, who will respect and strengthen the institutions that represent our values—from the FBI to the press to our public schools. A successful candidate will eschew identity politics and want to unite Americans rather than divide the country into warring tribes, will strengthen, not weaken, our worldwide network of alliances, and will recognize there is a big country with its own problems that must be addressed between the two coasts.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a liberal pragmatist and a political master at herding cats, has readied programs that can lay the foundation for a presidential candidate who can articulate a clear and acceptable message on health care, economic equality and a positive role for government that has wide appeal in the country, while simultaneously capturing the energy of the newcomers of the liberal left—if the liberal left will only listen. The Democrats must iron out their differences and present a united front against Trump, who will have the advantages of incumbency, a positive economy and the support of a united Republican Party. If these progressives keep their eye on winning in 2020, they can be part of a broad coalition to shape their politics into laws which tackle the problems they have identified—which is why they took up arms and won their way to Washington in the first place. Otherwise, we could witness another divided Democratic Party leading to another Republican victory. And the progressive left will have accomplished nothing.