Sanders. His polling numbers were better against Trump than the last three Democratic candidates, but the party leadership organized to block him in favor of centrist liberals. Biden was the only one of those liberals who was able to eke out a win against Trump, and he was on track to lose worse than Carter lost to Regan when he dropped his reelection bid.
A) Poll numbers are all hypothetical. Non-hypothetical poll numbers are called election results. In every poll, Sanders was beating Trump by more points than any of the Democratic nominees. We’ll never know for sure if Sanders would have won, but our best evidence showed he would have performed better than the Democratic nominee.
B) Yes, a coordinated effort by the Democratic party blocked Sanders in 2016 and 2020. He couldn’t overcome this institutional opposition, so the Democrats’ preferred candidates won the primaries. One of those candidates lost in 2016, while the other won in 2020 but imploded before 2024. We are currently living with the results of the Democrats’ attempts to select a, “centre-left winger who actually has a chance of winning,” and it turns out those results are almost entirely losses.
Barack Obama beat Clinton by running an extremely progressive campaign, which included homeowner bailouts, universal healthcare, and ending our foreign wars. He then abandoned all of those promises and governed as a centrist.
It’s also worth noting that, despite being a centrist, Biden’s platform was very progressive. In fact, Bernie Sanders helped write it. Unfortunately, centrists like Manchin and Sinema killed that legislation, even though it was very popular.
A better question is how many times has a purely centrist message won? Because I’m struggling to think of an example besides Bill Clinton.
When was the last time a ‘far-left’ alternative had a chance of winning?
Sanders. His polling numbers were better against Trump than the last three Democratic candidates, but the party leadership organized to block him in favor of centrist liberals. Biden was the only one of those liberals who was able to eke out a win against Trump, and he was on track to lose worse than Carter lost to Regan when he dropped his reelection bid.
Sanders couldn’t even win a primary and you’re talking about hypothetical polling numbers?
A) Poll numbers are all hypothetical. Non-hypothetical poll numbers are called election results. In every poll, Sanders was beating Trump by more points than any of the Democratic nominees. We’ll never know for sure if Sanders would have won, but our best evidence showed he would have performed better than the Democratic nominee.
B) Yes, a coordinated effort by the Democratic party blocked Sanders in 2016 and 2020. He couldn’t overcome this institutional opposition, so the Democrats’ preferred candidates won the primaries. One of those candidates lost in 2016, while the other won in 2020 but imploded before 2024. We are currently living with the results of the Democrats’ attempts to select a, “centre-left winger who actually has a chance of winning,” and it turns out those results are almost entirely losses.
When has a far left candidate won?
It’s also worth noting that, despite being a centrist, Biden’s platform was very progressive. In fact, Bernie Sanders helped write it. Unfortunately, centrists like Manchin and Sinema killed that legislation, even though it was very popular.
A better question is how many times has a purely centrist message won? Because I’m struggling to think of an example besides Bill Clinton.
Are you actually using Obama as an example of a far left candidate and you think Biden was progressive yet Harris was centrist?
This is why I lean more and more liberal because leftists spend more time defeating themselves instead of building a movement.