this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2024
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It works the same way the Republicans have been steered further right while not in power. When Democrats have to worry about moderates, they move to the right. If they only have to worry about liberals, they can support and back more progressive positions. If they don't, they are more likely to be primaried.
See also: the Tea Party takeover of the GOP which pushed them further down the path to the current fascism.
There's a lot of this assumption that democrats get more votes by going for moderates. Meanwhile they've alienated the entire left, and (I know, not a representative sample) but my Lemmy feed is jam packed with arguments about "you have to vote blue to stop fascism" vs "I really don't don't want to vote in favor of genocide". No one seems to actually like the democrats, they're whole appeal is basically "not fascist".
Bernie Sanders got people excited, and while not exactly a leftist, he did represent a move toward the left. But they couldn't let Bernie happen, he was too radical, apparently. You've heard the term "Bernie bro", but where are the Biden bros? They aren't, because Joe is boring.
So I don't think they "have to worry about moderates". The post here claims that if they could motivate people to go vote, they'd win. So offer something fresh. Present a real alternative to the inexorable right wing decline of all of US politics. Do you not think that would work? Why are they 0% willing to consider it?
You’re not at all wrong, except democrats absolutely do have to worry about moderates at the moment. A large portion of the GOP base is retired people who definitely will vote. After that are Trump diehards who also definitely will vote. Look at the last election. Biden is about as centrist as they come, and Trump still racked up record breaking support at the polls!
You’re right that Bernie whipped up a lot of excitement, but he also lost that primary. And others who have tried to do something similar (like Beto) have also come up short.
I think someone else said this, or maybe it was a comment on another post, but republicans took over 40-years to shift the country right and overturn Roe. Countering that won’t happen overnight, and probably has the best chance at succeeding if it’s done within the current political landscape.
Adding that both things need to happen for the country to reverse the rightward shift. More liberals need to vote, AND the party needs to recognize, or be shown in primary elections, that they can publicly embrace more liberal stances. On or the other and we wind up with the status quo.
Not "can". Need. Or else we, the voters, are at the whims of their donors. They "can" move left now. There is policy on the left that polls very well with the general populace, much better even than what they're running with now. It's just a matter of framing and defending good policy instead of limply letting the republicans run the show. Biden did it just a couple days ago "I never heard of getting lead out of the drinking water being a bad thing" (paraphrasing). That is what needs to happen, more broadly.
The only election that matters as to whether they as a party get to hold power or not is the general, thus it is the only election that can show them they need to do any particular thing to get a base of support large enough to get them elected.
They don't want a majority, or they would have it. Easily. They're playing the same game as Republicans, 50 + 1 to win. No less. No more.
The liberals will vote, and the left will too. If you motivate them with policy that actually stands up to criticism and makes voters more optimistic than cynical about a Democrat win.
The criticism of the democrats is that they think they are on the left but they aren't. They do represent a lot of Americans, but they don't represent the true left very well at all.
You’re absolutely right about the current Democratic Party, but that party’s been pulled to the right by moderates and former moderate republicans. If the country really is more liberal than our representation would indicate, as put forth by the meme, then a more progressive voting populace will eventually result in more progressive liberal party. Right now everything is skewed to the right because of the oversized influence of moderates and moderate conservatives who don’t want to vote for fascism.
I think its the social shaming from democrats and republicans to third party voters. It reminds me of some of the stuff church cults do to prevent people leaving the group. Let people vote how they want to, or at the very least attempt to win them over with discussions and policy rather than throwing them under a bus.