Democrats hate progressives. The two would be separate parties in a sensible democracy, but in the legacy first-past-the-post American system, splitting the party while Republicans exist is political suicide. There are more progressives than center Democrats, but they are not as united as the core establishment Democrats are, which made any one of them irrelevant in primaries up to now. RCV has given them a real chance for the first time. For example by giving Lander votes to Mamdani in the instant runoff. The moment RCV got implemented, long-serving Democrats started suddenly getting kicked out in the primaries. This terrifies them, so Democrats will continue to fight against RCV in the future. Just look how both Cuomo and Adams will try to commit political murder-suicide now by running as independent in the general just so that the "official Democratic party nominee" would not win.

Ha ha, whoops I should read the articles.

Wtf happened to Adams? Sure, he was under criminal corruption indictments, then cozied up to Trump and got "pardoned" (charges dismissed). But then he was supposed to be on the Democratic primary ballot, his picture was even in the official voter guide from a month ago, but on election day his name wasn't even in the list? Now he's apparently running as independent incumbent instead? What a booger!

EDIT: Both Cuomo and Adams are intending to run as independent in the general? WhyTF do we even have primaries then! If they are not going to play by their own rules of their special little club, let's just extend Ranked Choice Voting to cover the general and scrap the primaries altogether!

You are way understating his odds at winning the general.

Your implicit argument that so-called "centrist" Democrats are better at winning purple states because voters all exist along a simple left to right spectrum is absolutely wrong. The people in this country are fed up and they want revolution. Republicans offered it, and Democrats didn't. The rightward lurch was just an artifact of people rationalizing their vote and conforming to the stereotype on offer.

One big excuse the Democratic establishment gave was that the world is in an anti-incombancy mood. That's a correct observation, but what is really happening is the death of neoliberalism everywhere. The one big outlier to the trend was Mexico where an aging male President successfully handed the reigns over to his protege, a younger woman. The difference is, they were progressives. Mexico is also arguably a more religiously conservative country than America.

The wonky framing of the US electorate has been the standard Democratic perspective for decades. It's what led to the income inequality we have now. It's what led to Trump, and the complete routing of Democrats in both federal and state governments. For the love of God, wake up already.

The Democrats don't win because they aren't real people, they are characters on TV that people are sick of. Neoliberalism drains the blood and passion that people want to see in leadership. Republicans have it, and Democrats don't. It's past time that changed.