Okay now do swing states, the only states that actually end up mattering in presidential elections. Bernie captivated audiences on Fox news during his campaign, appeared in Republican town halls and listened to people. Id bet you dollars to donuts Bernie would outperform her by miles in the swing states.

I go back and forth, but I do think Sanders would have had good odds in 2020. We had the same "I can't vote for the status quo" non-arguments going around and a semi-populist candidate arguing for all the things people desperately needed (a socioeconomic safety net, basically) at the height of COVID and civil unrest would have done well. That said, an old white guy who was "warm and safe and was in the same room as Obama a few times" was probably still the right play.

But yeah. In 2024 when all people care about is "not the status quo" and "why eggs expensive"? A guy arguing for MORE government programs does not fair well against "Yo, what if we got rid of all taxes and government funding? Don't ask where the money is going"

They would have been coming from:

1. People who sat out the primaries because they were so disgusted with both parties failing to represent their interests
2. People who voted Trump in the primary as a "burn it all down" protest vote
3. Liberals, who would surely "vote blue no matter who" because they aren't hypocrites, right?

They should just run fake centrists in the Democratic Party and then turn all progressive when they get into office.

Like centrists did with the fake progressives Fetterman and Sinema.

How does that make any sense compared to moderates going to the Republican party?

Like, the current Dems are "progressives" who want what every other 1st world country got decades ago, and "moderates" who want what Republicans wanted decades ago...

Why are the "moderates" trying to moderate the Dem party instead of the one that's so far from center they're openly fascist?

If they had stayed where they were in the 80s, then the furthest right we'd have been in 2024 was Kamala

Do you understand how ridiculous it is to say everyone to the left of them should go R?

Absolutely best case scenario we end up with two modern Dem parties and that fixes nothing.

But if the moderates go to the Republican party?

They'd get what they want, they can be pro-fracking. They can be for genocide, they can be for politicians using insider knowledge to make millions off the stock market, they can be for the end of political donations regulations.

And have total party unity on all those topics, while moderating the Republicans so they run McCains instead of trumps.

But that's hard.

And moderates have never been fighters.

The only way they'll go moderate Republicans, is if Dems kick them the fuck out of running the party.

They did it in 08, they'll do it again if we get a progressive to the general. It's not a problem either because we'll gain waaaaay more votes than we lose.

They would last MAYBE one term before they were instantly primaried and removed from power.

The reason manchin and sinema are so destructive is that they were from INCREDIBLY purple states. Going up against them would just split the vote and guarantee the republican candidate one. fetterman is more of a special case and time will tell on him.

The other? To get elected as a magat you need to be a pretty hateful son of a bitch. And people are already turning on AOC for removing her pronouns from her social media bio.

Because... just look at the Bernie Bros. Democrats are INCREDIBLY good at purity testing each other. So someone who pretended they wanted to enslave women and then voted for progressive legislature? They would be forever tainted and vilified... and kind of rightfully so.

Trump is going to be the oldest presidenr we've had, why do you think Bernies age would make him less popular? 24 literally went to the old guy.