Getting leftists on Dem ballots and winning an election against Republicans are completely different affairs, not the least because most people don’t vote in primaries (not to mention all the manipulation). If anything why do you think beating centrists in primaries is a prerequisite for being able to beat Republicans in elections? You need to justify that assumption.
You don’t think being able to win against an entrenched power structure in spite of legislative obstruction is at all relevant to defeating Republicans?
Not really, no. The US is heavily gerrymandered and there’s plenty of disenfranchisement to go around, but fundamentally Republicans don’t control general elections the same way Democrats control their primaries, and centrist Democrats have many tools (rhetorical and otherwise) to get primary votes that Republicans don’t in general elections. And, as I said, people don’t vote in primaries. Besides, this theory has already been tested in practice; according to election polling Bernie would’ve absolutely trounced Trump in 2016, even though he lost the primary.
Look, Bernie was the only political race ever where I donated money, so when I say this know where I am coming from. We have no idea if Bernie would have been any more effective than Biden if elected. Maybe the right would have reacted so hard that he would have been obstructed every step of the way, accomplished nothing, and we would have gotten Trump anyway. Maybe they would have just killed him in the first year and we would have ended up in the Civil War 2.
How so?
Getting leftists on Dem ballots and winning an election against Republicans are completely different affairs, not the least because most people don’t vote in primaries (not to mention all the manipulation). If anything why do you think beating centrists in primaries is a prerequisite for being able to beat Republicans in elections? You need to justify that assumption.
You don’t think being able to win against an entrenched power structure in spite of legislative obstruction is at all relevant to defeating Republicans?
Not really, no. The US is heavily gerrymandered and there’s plenty of disenfranchisement to go around, but fundamentally Republicans don’t control general elections the same way Democrats control their primaries, and centrist Democrats have many tools (rhetorical and otherwise) to get primary votes that Republicans don’t in general elections. And, as I said, people don’t vote in primaries. Besides, this theory has already been tested in practice; according to election polling Bernie would’ve absolutely trounced Trump in 2016, even though he lost the primary.
Look, Bernie was the only political race ever where I donated money, so when I say this know where I am coming from. We have no idea if Bernie would have been any more effective than Biden if elected. Maybe the right would have reacted so hard that he would have been obstructed every step of the way, accomplished nothing, and we would have gotten Trump anyway. Maybe they would have just killed him in the first year and we would have ended up in the Civil War 2.
I won’t respond to that, because now you’re moving the goalposts. That is not what we’re talking about here.
We are talking about beating Republicans and that doesn’t stop at the polls.