Democratic Primaries
In reply to the discussion: Democrats Not Headed Too Far Left, Says Ocasio-Cortez, 'We Are Bringing the Party Home' [View all]Aquaria
(1,076 posts)FDR didnt run as a leftist, and neither did ANY of those victorious Dems after him. The furthest left any of them ever tried to run was moderate left.
If you want to know what happens when someone runs as anything further left than that, look no further than McGovern and Mondale. Those campaigns were disasters because they didnt tack back to the center after the primaries.
The sad reality is that Americans may love some leftish policies, but certain segments of the left are blind to the positions that the general electorate is NOT leftish about at all (like, oh, national security or crime). Even worse, too many of these blind lefties ignore the fact that what most Americans want in policies vs a leader are two very different things. In their leaders, most of them want pragmatism, stability and order, not wild-eyed dreamers and saboteurs. Look what happened when one of the latter got elected in 2016. Disaster. National embarrassment. Disordereven chaos. Instability.
The last thing most voters will want in 2020 is the feeling that more chaos is on the way. They want someone who promises to get everything to settle down and some semblance of sense and order restored. They want more along the lines of no-drama Obama than rabble rousers like IQ4.5 or someone further than center-left.
Thats why so many find Biden appealing of late, although I suspect he will self-destruct like he always has whenever hes run for POTUS. Its what he does. Then again, nostalgia for the tranquility of life under Obama that he alone represents could very well carry him to victory despite his self-destructive tendencies.
Its the person who can hold the outer corners of their base together without driving away the centrists and independents who will win in 2020or any other election year. No Dem or RepubXXX ever wins on their bases alone. And no one who caters to the left ever wins the White House.
That is the enduring reality of American elections. Anyone whos actually studied electoral history knows this.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden