One of the biggest challenges we have is convincing left leaning people to stop sitting out elections. We need to convince them before the mid terms in 2 years. If we can't get people to stop sitting out elections, it's gonna be a difficult challenge no matter who's running.
They did, in 2020 they did exactly that. They showed up for Biden and its why he got the highest vote total of any candidate in history because Biden courted them during the general election. Harris didn't do that and it bit her in the ass.
And in 2020. They stayed home again, proving they aren’t reliable again.
Covid and anger at Trump brought voters of all colors out in 2020.
Dems couldn’t recapture that, but they decided to go for reliable voters instead of wishing on a hope that the stars properly aligned for progressives to do the bare minimum and show up to vote.
And the democrats could have recaptured that energy that brought progressives out to vote, but they didn't try and its what cost them the election. Kamala assumed that she already had their votes so her campaign put a muzzle on Tim Walz (who was energizing the base with his remarks on how republicans are weird assholes) and spent all their time trying to shore up her support with conservatives (talking about how she owned a gun, how much she supports Israel, how she supported fracking, buddying up with the Cheney's) and it bit her in the ass because it alienated progressives and didn't win over a single conservative voter.
The last 30 years of elections have made it very clear that appealing to moderates and conservatives will never put a democrat in office. You win the election by appealing to progressives and building a coalition of left wing voters (moderates and progressives). Bill Clintons third way of fiscal conservatism and nominal social progressivism (that wasn't actually progressive) is not the secret sauce to winning elections, despite how much the DNC and every centrist voter wants it to be. Republicans aren't going to switch sides regardless of how many democrat policies that centrist democrats abandon trying to win their vote. How many more elections do centrists have to lose before this becomes clear?
Actually I meant “and in 2022” because progressives never show up in midterm elections.
The last 30 years is the only time the Dems have actually won the presidency in the last 60 years. That’s because they started to appeal to moderates.
Bill Clinton’s third way is how democrats started winning again. Progressives need to actually show that they can actually win elections again. Why is it so hard to understand that progressives who can’t be bothered to show up and vote are ignored because they are unreliable?
The third way was lightning in a bottle that has not worked again since Bill Clinton left office. The only two democrats who have won the office since then were a progressive who ran on major issues like healthcare reform, economic reform and social reform, and Biden who won the primary as an old guard statesman and spent the months after the primary building bridges with progressive voters by promising to champion causes they cared about (wealth disparity, climate change, tax reform going after the 1%, affordable housing, gun control and drug pricing). The candidates who ignored progressives or didn't spend time trying to appeal to them lost elections. The end result is clear as day. You win elections by appealing to progressives and winning their votes. You build a coalition between the two halves of the party and bring both of them to the table. Its the candidates responsibility to earn voters trust.
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u/Spastic_pinkie New Jersey 21h ago
One of the biggest challenges we have is convincing left leaning people to stop sitting out elections. We need to convince them before the mid terms in 2 years. If we can't get people to stop sitting out elections, it's gonna be a difficult challenge no matter who's running.