it’s honestly somewhat of a proven strategy with a certain type of liberal voter
Eh. Its a proven opposition strategy. But I’ve yet to see a Democrat win exclusively by being oppositional to other Democrats. Most successful Dems have some kind of platform, even if it is espoused insincerely. And liberals support the candidate for the platform, not for the left-punching.
It’s part of the toolset, I know he’s made it his whole deal, but there’s a reason they do it, it delegitimizes more left policy in the political discussion and makes Dems limp opposition seem more palatable
I definitely wouldn’t essentialize all lib voters at not finding the left punching appealing. It’s definitely not a hard and fast rule but a lot of libs hate the left bc we make them feel bad about not being morally superior like they think they are, among other reasons. This guy would be one such voter I’m sure if he wasn’t running for office
Also I very seriously doubt any but a small subset of voters in America are that conscious of policy when choosing who to vote for. most people generally employ a more vibes based method. Which is honestly why that kind of rhetoric works at some level bc it doesn’t matter that he’s or more successful Dems doing similar things are wrong, it’s good enough that people think doing stuff is impractical otherwise what a shit show the democrat party would be yeah?
