Thread by @JenniferGJob

Unpopular opinion: There is no moderate voter to be won in the 2020 election, and the response to the #DemocraticDebate shows just how little the Left understands this. (Thread)

I heard/read so many people say, "Oh, but Bernie/Warren shouldn't say Medicare For All/Green New Deal/etc. because we're going to lose the moderates/undecideds/on the fence-ers, electability, blah blah blah." This assumes two misunderstandings.

A) That we can change a (current) Trump voter into a Democrat voter and
B) That the choices are Trump or Electable Dem X

This is just wrong.

First, if someone has seen what has happened over the past two years and is still willing to vote for Trump, we've lost them. They are comfortable with a racist, oligarchical, fascist, criminal president in office for whatever reason, and NONE of our message is going reach them.

Second, the general election is not a binary. People are actually making one of at least FOUR choices, if not more. 1) Trump over Dem X
2) Dem X over Trump
3) Lean Trump but doesn't bother to vote
4) Dislike Trump but also doesn't like Dem X so doesn't vote

We've lost #1 outright. We have #2 in hand period. #3 we are risking driving to the ballot box by a close race or a bad candidate. But #4 is THE KEY TO WINNING. We canNOT win without turning out more people for the Democrat in 2016 than in 2020.

We (I'm talking to you, older White People) make the mistake of thinking that Trump is The Problem, and if we just get rid of the Problem, people will be happy. But the pre-Trump status quo was not working for the majority of people.

Black and brown and Millennial and female and LGBTQ people. They are not served by the status quo, and they will not come out for someone touting the status quo, especially for "moderates" (which is code for conservative white people profiting from capitalism, really).

Especially with voter ID laws and other voter suppression tactics, they are not going to line up for hours to vote for your Bidens, Buttigiegs, or Hickenloopers. Forget it. SO, stop thinking about electability with moderates. It's the out-there ideas we need.

As @SenWarren put it, don't go for the guy telling us what we CAN'T do. Go knock on doors for Sanders. Warren. Harris. That's who is really electable--and who should be. Enough of the status quo. The status quo sucks.

(And tell your "undecided" relatives and friends that they're either with us or against us. We're done playing nice with closet racists. #MakeRacismWrongAgain )