| Rab said: The reason Trump won wasn't because of Bernie's policies which have very high approval ratings with the working class (Trump Supporters) and the young (Universal Healthcare, College Free tuition, The Green New Deal), nore was it Bernie's supporters abstaining to vote for Hillary (Hillary supporters abstained in greater numbers from voting for Obama in 2008) Hillary was generally a despised figure, her approval was extremely low in many polls What killed it for Hillary was her lack of any policy that addresses the real systemic issues in America today all centering around income inequality and its repercussions, she was happy to pander to Large Donors and Wall Street CEOs to get support at the expense of the people that really needed her support Your analysis of the situation mirror nicely the EST Dems reasoning that lost them a shock election to Trump with his populous politics targeted working class America, the same working class America that the Dems are supposed to care about and fight for. The EST Dems have lost their way and people like yourself support their views, your all walking toward another cliff in 2024, oblivious to the real reason Trump became president The Dems must be honest with themselves and stop making excuses, America needs champions right now to lift the lower income workers and struggling or they will continue to be shocked as they continue to pander to the powerful by attacking anyone even in their own party that wants to change the status quo (Universal Healthcare, College Free tuition, The Green New Deal) |
The Republicans have been losing the policy war for years, but winning the messaging argument. Republicans are real good at messaging and this isn't something that can be addressed by simply embracing popular policies. For decades, Republicans have been stoking the flames of a culture war with wedge issues. That is why so many Democrats are so milquetoast. The right's reactionary politics works well at making people afraid of change by highlighting small bits that make people afraid. Take Medicare for All for example. You are right to say that it is popular among voters, so what do Republicans do? They talk about how Bernie advocates to ban private healthcare, which is largely necessary for M4A. The vast majority of voters don't support abolishing private health insurance, both Dem and otherwise.
So Democrats seek to find a policy position that will step on the fewest toes, which is largely what we saw from Biden. He does what he can to appeal to the M4A crowd, without wandering into issues that the Republicans can use as a wedge.
As such, I think this mindset of "just go left, stupid" is completely missing the point. There is a reason why AOC works so damn well for Republicans. As soon as you stop worrying about the toes that you are stepping on, you are giving the Republicans ammo in the messaging game. As such, at a federal level, politics is a war of messaging and that is the highest hurdle to climb, and it cannot be done with policy alone...
