The two progressive lawmakers have addressed massive crowds in solidly red states including Idaho and Utah in recent days, as party of the national Fighting Oligarchy Tour.
A survey taken by Harvard’s Center for American Political Studies and Harris between April 9-10 found that 72% of Democratic voters supported politicians like Sanders (I-Vt.) and Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), “who are calling on Democrats to adopt a more aggressive stance towards Trump and his administration and ‘fight harder’,” rather than leaders who are willing to “compromise” with President Donald Trump.
Oh really? Who is president again? Who won the popular vote? Between Harris and Trump, which was more “centrist”?
Your logic is sound, but the model your working from is completely out of touch with how voters and elections work.
First of all, the left to right spectrum is just one dimension of voter preference. Another, and currently more dominant, dimension is populist to establishment. What Democrats call “centrist” is really “establishment”, and American voters hate the establishment.
Voters also like leaders with conviction. Centrist Democrats cave on everything. After four years of attacking Trump’s boarder policy, Democrats flipped almost entirely. After four years attacking Trump on LGBT rights, Democrats abandoned the issue entirely. Not only does that signal weakness to disengaged voters, it also destroys trust between the party and it’s base. The base might show up on election day, but they aren’t going to want to canvass or do all the other volunteer work that Democratic campaigns depend on.
My model is based on what won the last election.
You make a good point. There are many factors at play, but if Democrats think centrist is establishment then we need to change that because your right, that won’t win anything
Your examples of caving… Attacking Trumps border policy - but… Biden was president?! And Democrats did nothing to fix the problem. Yes, border control is a problem. We needed a leader and got nothing.
LGBTQ rights. I’m sorry to have to say this, but that’s not going to win you an election. Democrats (and me personally) can continue to support LGBTQ rights, but you can’t make it one of your primary platform.
Look at it this way… You need a sales pitch for purple and red districts that speaks on their issues. And go there and sell it!
…and so on.
Hell, watch Fox news for a few hours a day, take a shower, then build your plan to beat the Republicans on their own turf.
Both Biden and Obama before him deported far more undocumented aliens than Trump could manage. Biden completed more of Trump’s wall than Trump did. Family separations started under Obama and continued through Biden - with the caveat that people who go through the effort to understand it know that it was much worse under Trump because it was vindictive and intentional instead of being done on a limited bases to streamline cases.
The fact is that, no matter what the Democrats do or say, Republicans will always be seen as “tougher” on the border. They will always be willing to use more racist language and false narratives than Democrats. Trying to out-xenophobe Republicans is a losing fight for Democrats. What Democrats need is fewer xenophobes, and they don’t get that by running to the middle, or trying to ignore the issue. They get it by telling the truth boldly and consistently, and mocking ridiculous Republican talking points instead of playing into them.
Republicans don’t shape their policy to what polls tell them voters want, they shape what voters want through effective rhetoric, Democrats seem to think that voter opinions are immutable and that they need to find a well tuned platform to please more voters than they piss off until they get to 51% in each district. Republicans destroy them by constantly shifting the poles under Democrat’s feet.
This is part of the anti-incumbency global tidal wave narrative that Democrats have been using to explain away their loss. I don’t argue that it wasn’t a factor, but I think they owe us a better explanation. The guy they lost to was Trump. The race should never have been close enough for that to tip it over. The one glaring exception to that global phenomena was Mexico that had a very similar election with an aging left wing male president attempting to hand power to a much younger female protege, in opposition to a far right candidate. In their case the left candidate won, and they did it with a social-Democrat platform, not by running to the middle. This is in a country that is far more conservative than even the US, with a much more firmly established cultural patriarchy.
Oh, I agree wholeheartedly. What we needed was immigration reform and a whole lot more judges to clear the backlog. The Democrats proposed a viable plan (far too right for me, but an understandable compromise to get Republicans on-board) and the Republicans rejected it to keep the issue alive for Trump. Then the Democrats assumed voters would see that and, what, stop being concerned about the border? All that did is send the message that electing Trump would get legislation passed because Biden couldn’t do it. The Democrats didn’t even try to convince anyone that the Republican plan was wrong-headed and would do far more harm than good. It was a disaster, and the kind of disaster that Democrats create for themselves on a regular basis.
The whole reason that the anti-woke movement gained so much traction is that Democrats have abandoned the issue or made compromises for years. I agree that standing for LGBTQ rights is not going to win elections, but giving up the high ground can certainly lose elections. Democratic (and corporate) tokenism also played a huge role in driving the anti-DEI narrative. Standing boldly and consistently for minority rights is politically a defensive strategy for Democrats. Democrats can’t win elections if they lose the culture wars. That just lets Republicans control the narrative.
You spoke earlier on how Democrats are seen as “intolerable over educated snobs” and I agree, but I see this as a perfect example as to why. Democrats act like policy preferences are some kind of unalterable genetic feature of “some people” and those people must be pandered to. People in red districts are first and foremost people. Look at how Bernie talks to right wing audiences. He doesn’t cater even slightly to right wing ideology, but he does speak directly to their issues with an integrity that they are not used to seeing. And, it works. Bernie is consistently the most popular Democrat in red districts, not the centrists who pander.