when teaming up left would mean almost certain victory
Except it demonstrably doesn’t. If that were so Bernie would have won overwhelmingly in the primary. Pretty much all the polling and research suggests that the majority of US voters are pretty center or center-left, with dems being pretty evenly split between center/moderate and progressive. (Eg https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2024/04/09/the-partisanship-and-ideology-of-american-voters/)
Saying “if we were just more left wing” completely ignores this reality. It’s frankly nonsense.
If you take a look at this chart from the article you sent, it sums things up pretty well. Bernie vs Clinton was just the blue. If all the liberals voted and all the progressives voted, Clinton wins. Obviously not all registered voters voted in the primary, but it still would have been pretty close. Also I won’t get into the fact that Clinton’s minions absolutely had their thumb on the scale.
However if you recognize that pretty much all the reds always vote, and the light blues always vote, then that leaves progressives (dark blues) left to sway. Except it’s just a matter of how many you can get to show up. IF they do show up, they vote blue. The Dems have to choose between dark blue and light red. They seem to think they can peel off more red than they could ever get dark blue. But they’ve never been able to peel off more than a percent or two… Meanwhile they basically tell the much larger group of dark blues to shut up and vote for them without ever actually courting them. In the end though… The difference between an R win and a D win comes down to how many progressives actually show up. That’s it.
So let me get this straight. Somehow you think that if Clinton went left she’d gain more progressives but NOT lose conservatives/moderates/independents? That is just not the way it works. tl;dr they are trying to thread the needle.
The difference between an R win and a D win comes down to how many progressives actually show up
No, it comes down to how many voters vote for one or the other. As in all voters.
I think she/Biden/Dems would gain more progressives than they would lose conservatives/moderates/independents… absolutely. The types of people who vote for Clinton/Biden ALWAYS vote… And they sure as shit aren’t going to vote for Trump or even stay home. They will vote for whoever is the Dem nominee every time. Which means a progressive would also get those votes. Maybe, big maybe, some of the more conservative Dems would choose Trump over Bernie, but I highly doubt it.
So everyone who would vote for Biden, would also vote for Bernie, but not everyone who would vote for Bernie would vote for Biden. The math isn’t that hard.
