That is in no way unexpected.
Exactly. And the other comments so far are pretty ignorant. All close elections are won by winning over independents AND people registered to the other party. Just because Republicans in Congress appear largely in lock-step with Trump doesn’t mean Republican voters are.
It’s fair to speculate that many Trump haters left the Republican party in 2016 and more in 2020. But certainly not all of them. And beyond the Trump haters are a swathe of people uncertain or uncomfortable with Trump who can be won over.
Not what I meant. Democrats will bend over backwards to try to appeal to Republicans before they ever consider appealing to alienated progressives.
Ah, too bad.
Elections are won by appealing to the center, where the majority of the populace sits, while not alienating (too many) people on your flank.
Two party politics is a lot of this problem. Ranked choice voting would help a lot. But even in parliamentary systems, coalitions have to gather support in the center without pissing off the edges too much.
It’s because progressives always vote blue anyway, when they do, and represent a small portion of the voter base. Most Americans are liberals
All close elections are won by winning over independents
Not true. It’s also possible to win by increasing your side’s turnout. And independents aren’t all centrists.
Republicans already have a major party catering directly to their interests. Meanwhile a full third of the country doesn’t vote. Obviously it’s a better strategy to give non-voters a reason to be engaged rather than trying to win over people who hate you and everyone who looks like you.
Joe Biden is courting an unexpected group of voters: the other half
That’s basically the headline.
… because that strategy’s never backfired on a regular basis for the Dems before …
What are you talking about?
This was definitely NOT a huge component of the Hillary Clinton campaign.
It also definitely did NOT play into the Democrat’s delusion that any left leaning voters they lost by shifting to the right would be replaced by the GOP moderates it would attract.
Oh, and Chuck Schummer also NEVER repeatedly made these claims in public, or during media appearances.
So yeah, this is a bold and definitely BRAND NEW strategy.
No way it goes tits up.
“What are progressives going to do? Vote Republican?! HAHAHAHA!” - The DNC
And if all the progressives in CA and NY and MA and WY and MT and UT vote for Biden and Trump still wins in the Electoral College all the liberals will blame them for the loss.
Democrats don’t appeal to progressives because we all live in high density areas and low-density areas define the government. It’s just like PotatoMcWhiskey exploiting the Diplomatic Favor trade hack in Civ; they’re at least attempting to play the actual game that we’re playing.
Also, I love the subtext of “Everyone should vote! [Democrat].” None of you would know that I just leave the ballot blank every year. Or if I did stupid write ins. But I voted, and that’s what’s important.
They can be mad at Biden for Gaza. Meanwhile, Trump will green light a full annexation of the West Bank as a quid pro quo for Miriam Adelson’s support. This is the same reason he moved the embassy to Jerusalem to lock in her husband’s support for the 2016 election.
Edit: run-on sentence
Yay. more joe manchins. hurray. I am so excited.
“For every blue-collar Democrat we lose in western Pennsylvania, we will pick up two moderate Republicans in the suburbs in Philadelphia, and you can repeat that in Ohio and Illinois and Wisconsin.” -Chuck Schumer, 2016
There are still blue-collar Democrats in Western PA? I thought they went extinct in the early aughts
That’s not unexpected, since Clinton and his DLC, the modus operandi has been to court the right wing vote, and as they do, the entire party shifts to the right to accommodate them.
See one party is doing it’s best to run a country with a Conservative government. I disagree but at least it’s respectable.
The other is doing it’s best to bring about a free market theocracy.
The Democrats assume the other guys are operating in good faith, and so happily follow along as everyone moves to the right.
We ask for healthcare and we give the biggest gift to the insurance companies in a century. We ask for student debt reform and we get a few handouts while millions of kids every year continue to sign up for predatory student loans. We ask that our children at least be safe in school, and crickets…
I’m not saying this is one guy’s fault, this is the result of a trend that’s been going on for decades. But the Democrats are attempting to curry votes from a group that will never support them and leaving the passionate base behind. And after January 6th I’m just left wondering why the fuck they’re negotiating with terrorists?
If nothing is getting done until you have a majority at least for the love of God, swing for the bleachers. Get people excited again.
And after January 6th I’m just left wondering why the fuck they’re negotiating with terrorists?
The alternative involves listening to progressives.
Politicians accommodating what voters want? What do they think this is, a democracy?
They wouldn’t have to shift so far right if the far left wasn’t too busy being angry that the politicians are doing what the voters want to go out and vote themselves.
Are referring to some silent majority? Conservative voters are historically an over represented voting block.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/27/us/gerrymander-explainer.html
Conservatives are just liberals but more racist. Change my mind.
If you lump together all the liberals you get enough to win an election. And that includes so-called “moderate republicans”
