To win back support, the Democratic candidate must offer a positive and coherent vision centered on care and progressive policies, rather than relying solely on anti-Trump rhetoric.
You can look at this way: When they go left, they lose. Because the left doesn’t show up. So they go center and win occasionally. As in, they win more often when they go center. So the math is clear, go center. You know this, but you want to obfuscate.
When they go left, they lose.
They don’t go left at all. You just blame the left when they go to the right like you want and it fails.
Let’s pull up the history, I have this saved because I have to go over it with people:
Let’s run through the recent story.
Bill Clinton: After successive losses Bill figured out “it’s the economy stupid”. And when you run against an incumbent (Bush senior) you run from the center. So that’s what he did. And he won.
Gore: After the population hopefully warmed up with Bill Clinton, he stuck his head out left with climate change. And bam he lost the election. Thanks 3rd party protest voters!
Obama: So guess what Obama learned? Don’t stick your head out. He ran on vague “hope”, hoping the ambiguity would be enough considering Bush’s disastrous wars. And he won.
Hillary Clinton: After the population hopefully warmed up with Obama, she stuck her head out just a tiny itty little bit left on climate change (that thing all the leftists care about right?) with the Map Room. And guess what happened? Bam she lost. Thanks protest non-voters!
On to Biden. Just like Obama learned from Gore, Biden learned from Hillary that you don’t stick your head out left. And he was running against an incumbent, so once again when you do that you run center. He’s actually been governing more from the left, but he ran center.
And people are amazed that they don’t run an big left platform? Every time they stick their head out a little itsy bitsy tiny bit left they lose. And the next guy learns to go to the center to win.
Like I said.
So how do you get them to move left? By giving them victories. Consistent and overwhelming victories. Because when they lose, like they’ve lost 20 years out of the last 24 years, they will go to the center to find votes.
The left “doesn’t show up” when Dems go right BECAUSE THERE’S NO ONE TO VOTE FOR ON THE LEFT. If the Dems would go left, and not ‘tiny little peak out from behind big oil money’ left, but full blown ‘here’s the progressive version of project 2025 and we’re going to FIGHT hard for it, even if it means ditching some of our conservative members’ left, then millennials and zoomers would show up. Millennials and zoomers are overwhelmingly progressive and they show up in greater numbers than any generation before them at their age… and that’s WITHOUT ever having had someone on the left to actually vote for.
Sigh. That’s what I’m saying. If you want a big left platform, then you have to vote for the small left platform first. No one is going to run a big left platform when the small left platform loses time and time again. Not going to happen. When the small left platform loses, they will go to the center to find voters.
And if you think you can play Mexican standoff and wait for the big left platform, I have news for you. You won’t win. They will write you off as a voter and court the voters that actually show up, which is the center voter.