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Here's what's happening, honestly: Trump has cooked up some crazy campaign message that Biden is a socialist.
The Democrats, panicked as ever about being perceived as extreme, absurdly built the whole campaign around proving Biden isn't extreme. https://twitter.com/MattGrossmann/status/1297203616047075328
The Democrats, panicked as ever about being perceived as extreme, absurdly built the whole campaign around proving Biden isn't extreme. https://twitter.com/MattGrossmann/status/1297203616047075328
Democrats are completely strategically crippled by their 90s-era obsession with being perceived as moderate. They overreact to allegations of extreme leftism (even when those allegations don't pass the laugh test) while acting in ways that alienate their more ideological base.
It shouldn't need to be said, but:
-no one really thinks Joe Biden is a radical socialist
-Democrats don't need to go to great lengths to prove Joe Biden isn't a radical socialist
-Democrats' problem is THEIR OWN BASE, which is not enthused about Biden
-no one really thinks Joe Biden is a radical socialist
-Democrats don't need to go to great lengths to prove Joe Biden isn't a radical socialist
-Democrats' problem is THEIR OWN BASE, which is not enthused about Biden
By trolling Biden into emphasizing his links with the likes of Bloomberg and Kasich, Trump has actually tricked Biden into highlighting to his own greatest weakness: the suspicion of disaffected voters that he's just a centrist establishment hack indistinguishable from Clinton
If the nominee was Sanders, it would make a lot of sense to spend the campaign appealing to the moderates who are skeptical of him.
But the nominee is Joe Biden! Moderates love him! You need to campaign by focusing on his skeptics, the progressives! This isn't rocket science!
But the nominee is Joe Biden! Moderates love him! You need to campaign by focusing on his skeptics, the progressives! This isn't rocket science!
After decades of triangulation Dem strategists no longer seem capable of grasping that "Emphasize how moderate you are" is a means to building a broader coalition, not an end unto itself. So now, even when their weakness is clearly to the left, they mechanically perform centrism.
If Biden loses the election, it's not going to be very hard to figure out why:
-The progressive Democratic base is not very excited about him
-He has specifically avoided doing anything that would excite the progressive base
-The progressive Democratic base is not very excited about him
-He has specifically avoided doing anything that would excite the progressive base
