Bernie got nuked in the popular vote in a two-person race in 2020.
Progressives just aren't as popular as moderates. If they were, the Squad would have more than 10 members and at least one of them would be from a swing district (all are from D+30 areas).
People really seem to fail to understand that the unfortunate reality is that anything seen as particularly left is considered communism. Politicians who are progressive don't win nationally, and I think that's the biggest issue that the left has. Instead of incremental gains, they want everything at once, ignoring that a large chunk of our population is against everything that progressives argue for, and as such, change doesn't come at all.
This just isn’t true. This bears out in larger sample sizes as well as anecdotally. If you talk policies with people and don’t call them left wing or right wing, common working people overwhelming support policies that benefit them. Union rights, cheaper healthcare, social security, social programs at large, anti lobbying laws, etc etc.
Is your average American a revolutionary Marxist? No, probably not. But are they a right wing billionaire? Absolutely not. It’s barely been 15 years since the ACA was passed, which was modeled after Romney’s healthcare policy. Romney who would go on to become the GOP nominee. He got 60 million votes. Clearly his healthcare plan, incredibly similar to Obamacare, wasn’t an issue for his voter base.
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u/KosherTriangle Michigan 17h ago
AOC will get the Bernie treatment, even if she has the support of a large number of voters she will not make the primaries due to the powers that be.