I think part of our problem is that "progressive" as a label seems to be applied to anything decently left of Manchin and there's a wing of elected officials that will recoil in terror at anything with said label.
The standout example I can think of is Walz. After he was chosen as Harris' running mate, there was some push back on how he w…
I think part of our problem is that "progressive" as a label seems to be applied to anything decently left of Manchin and there's a wing of elected officials that will recoil in terror at anything with said label.
The standout example I can think of is Walz. After he was chosen as Harris' running mate, there was some push back on how he was "too progressive" because of the policies pushed through in Minnesota, like the school lunches. When people at the top are equating free/expanded school lunch programs as equivalent to Medicare For All, it's going to be hard to get them on board with run of the mill working and middle class oriented policies. There's a wide swathe of ideology between Sanders and Manchin that is unfortunately conflated with one or the other.
I'm less rigid about the specifics of left vs. center because I've seen Democrats of both stripes connect with the working-class by traveling different lanes that seemed appropriate for the time. It's more about messaging than ideology....and not appearing to pander to special interests or the donor class. Without getting into the specifics of Presidential primaries as is forbidden, there was a candidate whose message really connected with the working class in 2016 but really did not connect with them in 2020 simply because of a shift in focus from kitchen table issues to cultural issues.
Wrong. Much of that candidate's 2016 "support" - particularly outside urban and college educated America - was due to genuine hatred for his primary opponent. With said opponent not running in 2020, said "support" disappeared. This notion that we'd be in contention in West Virginia if we were exclusively a "kitchen table issues" party is simply not based in reality. If it were, no way no how does "right to work" get passed there.
Regionalism and demographics. The Republican Party was embedded in power in Vermont because it was and is a very small, rural, homogeneous state who associated the Republican Party with Abraham Lincoln and the Democratic Party with Jefferson Davis. Essentially the opposite of most southern states.
The Democratic Party only started winning in Presidential Elections there when the Republican Party went full theocracy. They don't do that, Vermont probably remains a default Republican state.
I think Trump's general fuck ups played a bigger role than cultural issues in 2020. There was general exhaustion with his loud incompetence particularly during the pandemic. I think that was more responsible for turning out 81 million people to vote him out but otherwise I think your point has merit that left vs. center is less important than a specific platform/message that connects with the majority of voters and its fair to say cultural issues played some role in 2020.
I would still argue Biden's dumpster fire campaign/messaging the previous year and a half mattered more than anything Harris could say or do and I give her some grace having to walk a line of defending his record that he failed to defend while charting out what she would do differently in 100 days.
I'd also say Gaza mattered at the margins and the people who cared most about it over anything else on both sides were going to punish Harris for it.
I think part of our problem is that "progressive" as a label seems to be applied to anything decently left of Manchin and there's a wing of elected officials that will recoil in terror at anything with said label.
The standout example I can think of is Walz. After he was chosen as Harris' running mate, there was some push back on how he was "too progressive" because of the policies pushed through in Minnesota, like the school lunches. When people at the top are equating free/expanded school lunch programs as equivalent to Medicare For All, it's going to be hard to get them on board with run of the mill working and middle class oriented policies. There's a wide swathe of ideology between Sanders and Manchin that is unfortunately conflated with one or the other.
I'm less rigid about the specifics of left vs. center because I've seen Democrats of both stripes connect with the working-class by traveling different lanes that seemed appropriate for the time. It's more about messaging than ideology....and not appearing to pander to special interests or the donor class. Without getting into the specifics of Presidential primaries as is forbidden, there was a candidate whose message really connected with the working class in 2016 but really did not connect with them in 2020 simply because of a shift in focus from kitchen table issues to cultural issues.
Wrong. Much of that candidate's 2016 "support" - particularly outside urban and college educated America - was due to genuine hatred for his primary opponent. With said opponent not running in 2020, said "support" disappeared. This notion that we'd be in contention in West Virginia if we were exclusively a "kitchen table issues" party is simply not based in reality. If it were, no way no how does "right to work" get passed there.
Wonder how we ever won the state, except for 2 or 3 elections, from 1932-1996. I guess economic issues didn’t matter to most presidential voters.
Regionalism and demographics. The Republican Party was embedded in power in Vermont because it was and is a very small, rural, homogeneous state who associated the Republican Party with Abraham Lincoln and the Democratic Party with Jefferson Davis. Essentially the opposite of most southern states.
The Democratic Party only started winning in Presidential Elections there when the Republican Party went full theocracy. They don't do that, Vermont probably remains a default Republican state.
I was referring to West Virginia.
I think Trump's general fuck ups played a bigger role than cultural issues in 2020. There was general exhaustion with his loud incompetence particularly during the pandemic. I think that was more responsible for turning out 81 million people to vote him out but otherwise I think your point has merit that left vs. center is less important than a specific platform/message that connects with the majority of voters and its fair to say cultural issues played some role in 2020.
I would still argue Biden's dumpster fire campaign/messaging the previous year and a half mattered more than anything Harris could say or do and I give her some grace having to walk a line of defending his record that he failed to defend while charting out what she would do differently in 100 days.
I'd also say Gaza mattered at the margins and the people who cared most about it over anything else on both sides were going to punish Harris for it.