Progressives have tried to do that time after time. There’s always an excuse as to why progressive policy proposals aren’t being adopted. Now progressives are being sidelined for the Cheneys?
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I’m voting for Harris. If she loses, it won’t be the fault of progressives any more than it is the fault of the Harris campaign for not engaging progressives.
In fact, if she loses, we should immediately question the strategy of trying to peel off suburban conservative voters. That strategy failed once already in 2016. Progressives were also blamed for that loss though.
Somehow, no matter the outcome, it’s progressives’ fault. This tires people out who would otherwise be a reliably Democratic bloc.
First of all, nobody is "sidelining" progressives. That's your inherent progressive low self-esteem mindset taking hold again. Always the victim with you guys. Kamala has to make up some of the Biden coalition from 2020 that peeled off, particularly in black and latino voters. She does that by lessening Trump's margins in the red areas, and adding to her current coalition with disaffected moderate Republicans and independents. That's just smart politics. Her coalition will hopefully make up in breadth what it lacks in depth from 2020.
Second, in regards to the Cheney's endorsement, please list all of the concessions Kamala had to agree to in order to get that endorsement. Same with numerous other Republicans who have endorsed her. List all the ways she had to compromise on her core beliefs in order to appease those people.
I'll wait...
That's right, those endorsements came free, with no concessions, and no pulling back on her Democratic ideals. Those Republicans simply see Trump for what he is, and understand the inherent danger that he poses needs to be eliminated before they can ever hope to get their party back. Kamala is quite capable of accepting their endorsements while still sticking with her ideals.
You want our country to become more progressive? I'm going to let you in on a little secret how that happens. It doesn't happen by nominating a pure progressive candidate. That's the quickest way to get you crushed in an election. The majority of voters in this country still skew moderate. They want normal, don't rock the boat candidates. You can't run a progressive and expect to capture those folks. What you CAN do is back the Democratic candidates that are nominated, and then use your influence within your caucus to push for progressive policies in a piecemeal approach. I say that as someone who leans more progressive the older I get. I LIKE progressive policies. I want more of them. But they need to be introduced slowly. A bit at a time. Give the citizens of this country a chance to experience them working to make their lives better.
A perfect example of this is the ACA. The first iterations of it were EXTREMELY progressive for the time. So much so that many people were scared to death of it. So much so that they had to strip a lot of stuff out of it to make it more digestible just to get through Congress, which it barely did. Remember how much anger there was over the ACA? 15 years later, and now two-thirds of the country is in favor of it. During the time the ACA was cementing itself as popular policy in the U.S., you know what else was becoming a more a popular idea? Universal Healthcare. Medicare For All. The majority of the country now believe that the government should be responsible for providing healthcare for its citizens, and Medicare For All has an approval rating in the high 60's. This acceptance of socialized healthcare probably doesn't happen without the baby steps taken with the ACA.
Now quick...name the most progressive president we've had since FDR.
I'll wait...
His name is Joe Biden. He shouldn't be labelled as a "progressive," but he is legislatively the most successfully progressive president we've had in some time. He ran as a moderate "bridge" candidate, which is why he beat Trump in 2020. Had he run as a pure progressive like Sanders or Warren, he'd have been trounced, just like they would have been. Once in the White House, he surrounded himself with competent people, many of whom believe in a progressive agenda, and many of whom he listened to in enacting progressive policies. American Recovery Act, Build Back Better, Infrastructure Investment Act, Chips Act, gun control legislation, his various attempts at student loan forgiveness...etc.
I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility that Kamala will show the same willingness to adopt progressive ideals, do you? But the first thing she needs to do is win the election. To do that, she needs to lean into an approach that appeals to the most Americans, not one that will be demonized by half the country.
Incremental change, one policy at a time, is how policies STICK. That's how you shift the country left. Or, you can just complain that Democrat Nominee So-And-So isn't progressive enough all the time on every single issue, and sit it out for an election cycle. Then you get four more years of movement back to the right.
