Bernie's Super Secret Plan To Help Democrats By Debating Biden!

[Celerity]

29. I really worry about the near to middle term event horizon for our Party

Because of the first past the post plurality single member district system we constitutionally operate under (in other words, no proportional representation) there is basically only 3 real choices a voter faces in the US. Our Party, Rethug, or stay home and do not vote.

I see a 'let's purge as many of the further left progressives as we can' mentality alluded to (even if only hinted at, but have seen it inferred a bit stronger) on here at times. The rationale often given is that only centre left or actual centrists can win, which may be the case (actually is the case so far) in many districts, but those are also often barely blue, to pink, to purple, to red ones. If there really was a serious move to run out most all of the progressives in even blue and deep blue districts, the law of diminishing returns will kick in. The Party will drift even more to the right and when further left (and young voters as well, although there are multiple dynamics at play in terms of us) voters are told basically 'too bad,where are you going to go, to the Rethugs???' many will just (stupidly or not) drift away. In an effort to make up for those lost votes, the main remaining low hanging fruit is going to be harvested by eating into the slightly centre right moderate Republican and indy voters.

In an effort to outreach and garner those potential voters, the party will slide more to the right, which will, in turn, alienate even more on the left. It sets up a vicious circle. There simply is no way, in a 2 party only system, to have a House Democratic caucus composed of 95% New Democrat (yes that's how they spell it) Coalition and/or Blue Dogs, nor a Senate Dem Caucus that is almost exclusively composed of Sinema/Manchin/Hickenlooper (assuming he wins, which I am 95% certain he will) types. The Party's voting bloc nationally is simply too diverse to sustain that. I suppose some could counter that we simply absorb even of the centre to centre right voters, take them away from a batshit crazy ultra RW fascist, white nationalist (at core) Rethuglican party, but there will come an inflection point where a huge amount of the left simply schisms out in that was indeed the course we embarked upon. That would be ruinous for not just our Party, but the nation as a whole.

Our party prides itself on being a 'big tent' but being a big tent comes with a certain amount of compromise involved. We cannot just say 'like it or too bad, you have no options' as they do have the option to sit it out, which then will engender even more distrust and scapegoating from people remaining in the party. I know many on here detest AOC, but if she is (unlikely but I still have see so many posts cheering it on) primaried and run out, OR she is reditricted out of her seat post-2020 census, that will have a huge negative impact on the further left leaning voters, including a shedload of younger ones. This problem will continue on as long as the oldest Gen Xers, and especially the Boomers and old gens are still a huge part of the electorate (and they will be for years to come). They not only vote in massive numbers for the Rethugs, but a significant number who do vote Democratic self identify and very centre moderates or even conservatives. That is is stark contrast to the younger gens, especially the 2nd half of the Millenials, then the Zennials (my micro gen), and finally the older Gen Zers (obviously the younger Z'ers too, as they approach the age of being able to vote.)

Given that we only have two parties here by the very nature of our constitutional set-up, accommodations and compromise on SOME level needs to be the order of the day from both ends of the Democratic spectrum. I see the words 'purity test' tossed out (in some cases legitimately) towards the left as a pejorative, BUT it is a two way street, and it surely seems like a purity test going the other way to want to whittle down the left to as small as possible number (just enough to win control of Congress and the POTUS in some cases), and then to often try to block most any sort of legislation that might be somewhat to their liking, whilst supporting some legislation they dislike strongly, some even to the point of hating.

I hate to use the damn MFA as an example (as it has zero chance at passing for a LONG time given the overall tilt of the US electorally), BUT if it did, somehow, pass say 5 or 6 years from now, if it was indeed rammed through Congress (the circumstance to get it there are beyond the scope of this post) and a 2nd term Biden DID (as he said he would do) veto it, all hell would break loose. Given that it has NO chance of passing in the next 9 years or so, I do not see why Biden went full bore and said he would veto it, as IF it was actually passed, that would intrinsically mean it had truly MASSIVE popular voter support. Preemptively saying he would veto it even then is a bit of needless and somewhat provocative slap at the farther left folk IMHO (especially as we KNOW it is not going to get anywhere near to passing in his two potential upcoming terms.)

I know many (and they are not even Sanders supporters) people who would like to see it (some sort of government-mandated TRULY universal healthcare system that removes all or damn near all of the profit-motive from what is indeed a human right in the 21st century) eventually come to pass (I am NOT saying it has to be a mirror image Bernie's model of MFA at all, and I guess Joe could use that as a semi-out, but that is starting to venture into too-clever-by-half parsing territory that many simply do not hear) and to shut down even that theoretical seems to serve no constructive purpose. Many did not like his answer on that veto.

Now, I must add, NONE that I talked to will say that was make or break in terms of voting Dem at all, hell no, BUT there are millions of potential Democratic voters (yes, a tonne of them Bernie or Warren people, and yes, a lot of them lifelong Dems, not these indy bro disruptive types out there in the aether) for whom it is a far bigger deal (in theory for many) than my small cohort that I just alluded to.