It feels like a recurring pattern of getting momentum then giving up before the fight and declaring that the only way forward is to compromise with the GOP. This pervasive self-defeating attitude that people don’t want good things constantly undermines any attempt to sell a democratic vision. If you pre-emptively declare that centrism is the only viable path and attack anything that you think threatens your appeal to the center you will only ever be hurting your own position. To govern effectively you need to sell people on your vision, you have to have an idea of what you want the future to look like and then you have to convince people that is the right way. Going in with the only goal being to win, and adopting whatever mishmash of policies sounds popular to get there will never speak to people, and actively attacking the people with ideas and vision for being too “unelectable” is just self sabotage.
It feels like a recurring pattern of getting momentum then giving up before the fight and declaring that the only way forward is to compromise with the GOP. This pervasive self-defeating attitude that people don’t want good things constantly undermines any attempt to sell a democratic vision. If you pre-emptively declare that centrism is the only viable path and attack anything that you think threatens your appeal to the center you will only ever be hurting your own position. To govern effectively you need to sell people on your vision, you have to have an idea of what you want the future to look like and then you have to convince people that is the right way. Going in with the only goal being to win, and adopting whatever mishmash of policies sounds popular to get there will never speak to people, and actively attacking the people with ideas and vision for being too “unelectable” is just self sabotage.