An even more basic problem is that Democrats regularly conflate policy extremism with being a fighter. And because the polls do regularly show that voters don't want more extreme leftward policy shifts, Democrats essentially throw their hands up and say "Well, guess we can't fight back." - ThreadSky

jfloyd314.bsky.social • 7 hours ago

An even more basic problem is that Democrats regularly conflate policy extremism with being a fighter.

And because the polls do regularly show that voters don't want more extreme leftward policy shifts, Democrats essentially throw their hands up and say "Well, guess we can't fight back."

Reposted from Sharon ♨️🇨🇦

yeah i feel like a part of the problem is that elected Dems have Axios/Semafor/Politico brain and think that the base genuinely wants them to move to the center while the actual base wants blood

Comments

jfloyd314.bsky.social•7 hours ago

Putting up a strong rhetorical and institutional fight against Trumpism has nothing to do with being less moderate and everything to do with being less quiescent. It's possible to be loudly, aggressively moderate--to oppose Trump with everything you've got while taking a centrist policy approach.

jfloyd314.bsky.social•7 hours ago

If Democrats could understand how to be moderate in terms of policy and over-the-top aggressive in terms of messaging, they would be set for years.

bobbysegs.bsky.social•7 hours ago

What are 3 popular centrist democratic policies they could run on?

What specific policies are you talking about?

jamesdcos.bsky.social•7 hours ago

Enforcing the rule of law not just in the Congress but at the border too.

bobbysegs.bsky.social•6 hours ago

On border why would I trust democrats on enforcement on rule of law than republicans.

What are the specific policy differences?

jamesdcos.bsky.social•6 hours ago

Well, voters trust Republicans on enforcing the rule of law at the borders. And they have good reason too. And that's a problem for Democrats that a centrist Democrat could deal with politically that a leftist Democrat would not to answer your initial query.

bobbysegs.bsky.social•7 hours ago

The problem is if you run as republican lite people as just going to vote republican.

Just like when John McCain ran as a democrat lite in 2008.

You just sound like Jeb Bush in 2016 but for Dems.

vax-o-licious.bsky.social•7 hours ago

There is nothing "republican lite" or particularly "progressive" about:

1. Upholding US support for NATO, Ukraine and being against Moscow, which is our enemy.

2. Addressing widening inequality, unfairness and difficulty in achieving a middle class life.

3. Respect for the rule of law

vax-o-licious.bsky.social•7 hours ago

You can be VERY aggressive in demanding adherence to the rule of law, for example.

With foreign policy, the Russians have been our adversary for 100 years. You would think Dems would know how to turn that into political advantage.

sorblaze.bsky.social•6 hours ago

Addressing widening inequality *would* be progressive. It’s a shame no one is.

tancred1098.bsky.social•6 hours ago

Point 2 is often branded as extreme left wing policy the minute black people get any help.

gibberbabble.bsky.social•7 hours ago

Please define your terms. Moderate is what policies specifically. What the heck is extreme leftward policies? I think more people want what much of Europe has than you might think.

deanbooth.bsky.social•5 hours ago

It’s like we’re in a sinking electric boat with a shark nearby.

bbincleveland.bsky.social•7 hours ago

The polls can shift if a group shows it truly believes in something. Leadership, with commitment, moves people. Democratic leadership simply appears ambivalent. Who wants to follow them?

crazyeddie404.bsky.social•5 hours ago

The polls reflect how people FEEL about policy shifts, not what they actually WANT. It's never been about policy; it's about the people who proposed them.

The entire MAGA party thought "defund the police" was the worst thing ever until 5 seconds after Donald Trump tweeted "defund the FBI."

tkocreations.com•3 hours ago

At the end of the day, a distressing amount of sentiment in our politics has very little to do with what is said, and far too much with who said it.

kaiten9653.bsky.social•7 hours ago

For some reason the Midwestern governors get this and congressional Democrats do not.

sweethummus.bsky.social•6 hours ago

The DC political sphere is poison for the ability to understand the nuance of what people want. State leadership is so much closer to the activists and local leaders

jerrelxl.bsky.social•7 hours ago

The big tent is really too big for its own good. The right is far more streamlined and focused. The Dem calculation leans to moderates because the horseshoe theory is real. Protest votes in 2016 and 2024 will only cause them to lean into that more.

leonceg.bsky.social•7 hours ago

All the analyses break down to a party that won't fight because it has nothing to fight for. It stands for nothing -- save a broken status quo that has led a small majority of voters to opt for white supremacy and fascism in the form of a circus clown. How can you fight when you stand for nothing?

sobrienmusic.bsky.social•6 hours ago

I'm sorry, but wanting people to be fed, well educated, have (affordable) housing, a reasonable pay for a day's work and healthcare because no one should die of preventable disease is not "leftist" thinking; it's fucking decency; it's what society is actually for, not this goddamned perversion...

beckytroup.bsky.social•7 hours ago

"Extreme leftward" policies? Those policies would include free healthcare (Israel has while taking billions from the US). Anything less than "extreme leftward" means a lower standard of living than the rest of the industrialized world.

tancred1098.bsky.social•6 hours ago

and it is only "extreme leftward" in the US. It's centrist in most other places.

berserkerpiglet.bsky.social•7 hours ago

Do you want equal rights for everyone? Why yes, certainly! That’s American as apple pie!

Do you want EXTREME equal rights for everyone? No! That sounds terrible! Boo!

peterrb1961.bsky.social•7 hours ago

The voting public is terrified by the label 'extremist' but supports and wants practically all of the policies labelled 'extremist'.

tkocreations.com•3 hours ago

What I'd say (and I've seen this happen many times), is that the voting public supports (x) in theory... until actual details start being discussed, at which point support starts evaporating rapidly.

Support for progressive policies tends to be a mile wide and an inch deep.

peterrb1961.bsky.social•2 hours ago

Is that a function of the policy or a function of the concerted Republican opposition that gets a very wide reception in a largely sympathetic conservative media landscape? I'd also note a similar trend in conservative policies - cost cutting that fires 80,000 Veterans Affairs employees.

tkocreations.com•2 hours ago

I think it's a function of the American public simply not being as progressive as we want/need it to be.

tkocreations.com•2 hours ago

Conservative media works not because it's particularly subversive or somehow hypnotic.

It works because it's what a massive swath of the public wants to hear.

peterrb1961.bsky.social•1 hour ago

That is correct. But I think that's a feedback loop on policy assessment. Absent conservative media analysis, liberal policies achieve broad approval. Once it goes through the mill of the hard right echo chamber, support hardens into standard left right dynamics. The policy didn't change.

wyvern.bsky.social•7 hours ago

Even the Bluest of Blue Dog democrats should be screaming about what's going on, hell half of the Republicans should for that matter.

All of the congressional "leadership" are political elites too comfortable and not aware of just how bad its going to get until its too late

bobsyouruncle.bsky.social•7 hours ago

This is not true.
Harris’ policies almost all polled better than trump
Many people don’t vote on actual policy

jfloyd314.bsky.social•7 hours ago

Harris's policies were far more moderate than Trump's across the board. In fact, plenty have argued (though I disagree with them) that she should have gone far further left than she did.

Harris's policies, in other words, polled better precisely because of their moderation. Trump is a lunatic.

bobsyouruncle.bsky.social•7 hours ago

I don’t understand your comment then.
Democrats are asking their politicians to fight back
Not create extreme policy positions as you say

pfoxen.bsky.social•7 hours ago

These same voters also will, when stripped of "left/right" labeling, support policy shifts that get labeled "extreme leftward," sometimes by very wide margins.

I'm really starting to feel like focus grouping and over reliance on explicitly political polling is a big issue.

clhoffman.bsky.social•6 hours ago

I really believe that the emergence of the blunt, Bernie-tinged language of Chris Murphy combined with his moderate earnest white boy image is the kind of thing moderate voters can get behind. Like Bernie it’s not gimmicks and it seems heartfelt

janus303.bsky.social•7 hours ago

Polls have consistently shown that voters are turned off by “fight language” so I think the most basic problem might be tying ourselves in knots over the contradictory things people say to pollsters.

docjoe1986.bsky.social•3 hours ago

If that’s true, why do republicans win?

And also, even if this is true, democrats not taking their own side in arguments makes them look dishonest.

hellscapenavigator.bsky.social•7 hours ago

honestly someone who just stridently argues for "the laws should be applied evenly to all people" would be radical at this point. we're in the restore-basic-liberalism stage, we don't need to talk about fully automated luxury gay space communism. we're in the "the water should be safe to drink" zone

wreckedego.bsky.social•7 hours ago

Even then the system wasn't working incredibly well for everyone. We do require actual vision. You cannot lead if you are following all the time

maggiemarbles.bsky.social•7 hours ago

Exactly. Plenty of capitalist Democrats want Trump and MAGA out because they're bad for capitalism. Fighting doesn't mean being a tankie.

snowmein.bsky.social•7 hours ago

What policies are extreme? Most of the extremism is stupid rhetoric.

ogblockhead.bsky.social•7 hours ago

Trump is a coward and a bully. When you call him on his shit to his face he crumples. See, for example, Governor Mills.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/03/03/metro/gov-janet-mills-democrat-maine-trump-transgender-athletes-king-louis-xiv/

guruduck.bsky.social•7 hours ago

I’m fed up with the way the resistance to DOGE is being sold to us. “Well, we all know there’s waste, but we should go about finding it more deliberately.” Hold on pal, explain that first part. Do we all know that? What is driving this assumption? I want to fight back by challenging these things

moosewithablanket.bsky.social•7 hours ago

But let's consider that the news normalizes everything and how that likely factors into it too. Any message they try to make gets watered down if it's even reported on, just by how it's presented. Just like how anything Trump does is getting watered down and normalized.

moosewithablanket.bsky.social•7 hours ago

And that's me not getting into the policy issues that I don't think you're entirely right about.

foxdm.bsky.social•7 hours ago

Pritzker and Walz understand this isn’t the case and it’s no wonder that they’re being well-received. Policy is pretty irrelevant right now. We simply want people to stand up against what’s going on and fight for us.

elmobronowski.bsky.social•6 hours ago

This is a super important point and so many Democratic congressman don’t seem to get it that I think it’s used as an excuse for them not to do anything.

This is one reason why they regularly seem more clueless than the republican never Trumpers.

andybop78.bsky.social•7 hours ago

They are also white dudes. I like them both, but, honestly, white dudes get centered in the political discourse. There are people out there that think Trump is/was more moderate than Harris, and I'll give you one guess why.

elmobronowski.bsky.social•6 hours ago

OK, so the burden to be more outstated falls primary on white guys. I’m ok with that

andybop78.bsky.social•6 hours ago

Maybe yes and no. Once again, it's all identity politics, not really policy, per se. No matter what people say, it's all identity politics all the way down.

joellava.bsky.social•7 hours ago

Dems need to learn how to fight and stand strong!

TikTok
https://www.tiktok.com/@yeah.i.said.it4/video/7441791796872793390?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7319672290772485675

YouTube
https://youtu.be/VPzONhJTzMw

seattlejeremy.bsky.social•6 hours ago

Explain, again, whats extreme regarding calls from the left.

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