"Didn't even win the democratic primary" might be a bit of a misnomer if it's implying that winning the democratic primary should be much easier than winning the general. Bernie has positions that are popular outside of democrats, many people think that if he had won the primary, he would have had a much better chance of winning than Hilary or Biden, since he had less baggage and his policies were broadly popular.
>I’ve heard it frequently claimed, but where has a progressive Dem won where a moderate didn’t?
I'm not american but i remember looking into this because of all the drivel and distinctly remember polling finding bernie was actually more popular in notable swing states than his dem counterpart but actually a bit less popular in states that were going to vote dem regardless.
If bernie would take more undecided voters and republicans over to his side where it actually mattered I think it's not conclusive that he would have win but no far stretch to say he would have had a better shot at winning.
There is a huge market for populism in the US electorate.
You would be floored by how many Obama 2008 voters are now Trump voters. Obama beat Clinton in the 2008 primaries and people believed he did it by running to left of her. People thought he was going to burn for-profit health care to the ground and deliver a single payer system, and that he'd throw the bankers who triggered the 2008 crisis in prison.
The disappointment when he governed like it was a third Clinton term did major damage to the party, and it let Trump pick up the populist mantle.
Populism, however, is like candy. You can add it to something wholesome, like Sanders does, and get virtuous results. Or you can add it to antifreeze, like the Musk/Trump regime, and get what we're getting.
The market only seems for the hurting other people part.
Obama voters who voted for Trump didn’t vote for better healthcare. They voted to hurt healthcare insurance workers. They then voted to hurt someone else with Trump.
As they first seemingly voted for universal healthcare and then voted for abolishing what public healthcare the USA had. That’s not consistent with caring about it as an issue at all.
I can accept that politically, the Dems may need an enemy. Shared hating of someone is a potent bonding agent.
That’s true of Trump’s base, but I don’t know if it’s true of swing voters. A lot of them are just frankly ignorant and think they voted for “change” without understanding what that actually means.
