I think it was both playing chicken against each other. Dem leadership refused to listen to “progressives”, I E.: things that most Americans wanted, and the voters refused to vote until the Dems listened to them.
So they crashed into each other and now the country is going to burn down.
If these last 10 years have taught me anything, it’s that most Americans are not progressives.
American politicians are not progressive. America has not had a true progressive in decades. Today’s democrat policy has been overwhelmingly stagnant. Status quo plus a tiny tax cut for the working class.
The millions of Democrats who didn’t vote shows a rapidly growing apathy towards the party and their inaction
They don’t identify that way but most Americans are in favor of progressive policies when asked
The best example is the minimum wage increase in Missouri that recently got put into law. Sinema killed the federal bill a few years ago but somehow deep, red state Americans are not progressive? People love progressive policies, they just don’t like the words associated with it.
That’s kind of a difficult thing to determine, when asked almost no one says they are, but if asked about policies, they tend to go for more progressive policies, even people that identify as conservatives will agree with more progressive policies. The people they vote for however, are definitely not progressive… Mostly, there are a few.
Then again, progressive in America is pretty much basic human rights and protecting vulnerable people which should be the minimum.