Now that Joe Biden has been officially nominated, Democrats will be tempted to focus the 2020 campaign almost exclusively on the history-making awfulness of President Donald Trump.

That would satisfy many and ring quite true, but it wouldn't move the needle. It would position the Democrats as out of ideas and create a vacuum to be filled with false yet damaging claims that Biden is in the pocket of the woke.

Political advisers say policy is for suckers and voters respond mostly to emotional appeals, and that can be true. But for the Democrats to go that way would leave low-hanging fruit unpicked, because they are actually in rare lockstep with society on how to approach some exceptional problems.

Gun control

America is the only wealthy democracy where extreme weapons are available with ease, boasting 120 guns per 100 people (Britain has three) and leading the developed world in gun deaths per capita. Mass shootings by maniacs who would have been flagged by background checks spark demands for change which are always scuttled by Republicans in service of the National Rifle Association. Yet Pew finds that 60% of Americans think gun laws should be stricter, up from 52% in 2017 (Gallup's tracking poll is similar).

Health care

You might think COVID-19 would lay bare the stupidity of having masses of people who might infect you at the pub being afraid of doctor bills, but Trump is busily trying to throw millions more people off the Obamacare rolls. Most other democracies offer a baseline of guaranteed health care to all, but Republicans stymie every effort at reforming an absurd system in which health care is strongly dependent on employment, while hyper-litigiousness and structural inefficiencies send costs through the roof. Pew finds that a majority of 53-to-44% of Americans now believe "government has responsibility for providing health care coverage for all" and the Kaiser Family Foundation found "Medicare for All" is favored by 56-to-41%. Even a quarter of Republicans back it.

Inequality

The U.S. ranks near the global top in income inequality and poverty. Sure, some level of inequality begets competition that drives progress, but it's a question of degree. If the top 10% owned 100%, the rest would starve or revolt, which would not be good for business. The top 10% now own over half the wealth, with the bottom 50% accounting for a blip. Some call it the American way, but the American Enterprise Institute's recent survey showed majorities now believe poverty is structural and not a person's fault, and 52% defined the existing inequality as "unacceptable." Furthermore, most Americans opposed the Republican tax plan of 2017, which was the most recent driver of inequality: Gallop found 56% disapproved when it was passed.

Global warming

It's a killer for our world standing, because climate denial harms not only America but everyone. In fostering climate denial and dragging the U.S. out of the far-from-sufficient but necessary Paris Accord, the Republicans put us at loggerheads with the planet and clashed with all credible science on the matter. Yet despite being pounded daily by harebrained climate conspiracy theories, 60% of Americans now see climate change as a "major threat" and that majority is steadily growing, according to a Pew poll from March.

Abortion

Republicans are busily appointing conservative judges with the evident goal of banning abortion even in the first trimester and overturning Roe v. Wade. Although the issue is fraught with moral quandaries, clear majorities favor the status quo. Pew found in 2019 that 61% believe abortion should continue to be legal in all or most cases compared to 38% opposing it. Support for overturning Roe v. Wade stands at 28% today and will fall further as the younger and more secular generation matures. Over a third of Republican-leaning respondents claim to oppose a ban as well.

This crushing disconnect from public opinion is why the Republicans have been trying so hard to fire up their radical base while suppressing voter turnout and gerrymandering to preserve fake majorities. It is why Trump spent a great deal of energy sabotaging the U.S. Postal Service to gum up delivery of mail-in ballots.

Republicans have been making America look ridiculous well before Trump started burning down the house. The biggest gift the Democrats can give them in the weeks ahead is to shy away from hammering home to voters that anyone wishing to make America great for real should yearn for a decisive wave of blue.

Dan Perry is the former Cairo-based Middle East editor and London-based Europe/Africa editor of the Associated Press, and served as the chairman of the Foreign Press Association in Jerusalem.