In order to win, you have to get voters that are as close to your opponent as possible
That may have been the case in the 90s, but nowadays not many people occupy that space. Nobody wants an almost-Republican when they can get the real deal and if you’re morally bankrupt enough to ALMOST be a Republican, you’re usually willing to take that last step in exchange for a shitload of bribes.
without your base staying home in protest.
That’s just it: Dems arepretending that it’s always going to be 1992.
That Republicans are always going to be legitimate opposition acting in good faith rather than a fascist cult.
That just a little to the left of the GOP is the ideologically perfect Democrat and always will be.
This stubborn insistence on keeping up pretenses and never admitting they’re wrong or trying another way is costing them a shitload more people staying home than they’re gaining independents or wavering Republicans.
It’s why Democrats are only winning by the slimmest of margins and even lost the House at a time when winning by landslides should be easier than ever since the opposition is the most incompetent fascist party in history and the majority of the population is to the left of center. Not just left at where neoliberals pretend that the center is, left of ACTUAL center.
It is with great smugness but much greater exasperation that I confirm that article to be EXACTLY what I’d expect from a Politico article with a headline like that.
Basically rehashing a bunch of “why won’t the left realize that to question any Democrat in any way is to automatically become a Republican plant working against America?” type bullshit.
Hell, they use Mark Kelly (one issue demagogue candidate caught being a deeply corrupt liar) as an example of the perfect Democrat candidate and The Intercept exposing his lies and corruption as an example of a BAD thing to do! 🤦