In 2008, Obama was the dark horse disruptor candidate. He ran on “hope and change”, promising to be a disruptor. It was McCain who was the establishment candidate running the milquetoast campaign trying to please everyone.
Of course Obama was elected and immediately started acting like a standard establishment Democrats, fucking over Unions, letting bankers off the hook for breaking the economy, and rebuilding that economy on the backs of the working class. Romney was another milquetoast Republican like McCain, but this time Obama came really close to losing - despite some serious missteps by the Romney campaign. Running for the middle almost lost Obama a second term.
Hillary was, of course, as establishment and milquetoast as candidates come, and look who she lost to. Biden was almost as bad, but he did manage to squeak by with a win, but he beat Trump in swing states by a much smaller margin than Trump beat Hillary. This was with 4 years of Trump and a failed pandemic response still fresh in everyone’s minds. Trump was far more responsible for losing that election than Biden was for winning it.
I’m certainly no fan of Hillary, but I think too much is made of the deplorable comment. She should never have made it but, once she did, the bigger mistake was trying to walk it back. That just made her look weak. There is absolutely a large deplorable contingent in Republican politics, and Republicans call Democrats far worse every day.
You can’t run a “please everyone” campaign on real policy. Any actual stance on any issue will piss of someone. Democrats who run this way trade off grass roots enthusiasm in exchange for a chance at appealing to Republican voters. They don’t lose a lot of Democratic votes directly, but it kneecaps the Democratic ground game. Campaign need volunteers to knock on doors and get people registered. Nobody is excited to volunteer their time for a Democrat that sounds like a Republican or promise to put Republicans in their cabinet. This is even more critical as Republicans step up voter suppression strategies.
I know that Waltz isn’t supposed to be front and center, but he brought a lot of really effective strategies that were working great and got pulled by the Democratic consultants.
