Thread by @owillis

theres a weird strain of thought out there in democratic circles that its perfectly fine for republican candidates to promise their voters conservative things but if democrats do it with progressive things they'll lose. there's little to no evidence of it. but they believe it.

they think that democrats must always rhetorically confine themselves to poll-tested mush, and to advocate for a progressive idea is death. it reminds me of dems circa 04-08. in 04 kerry's message on iraq was muddled, at best.

it was poll-tested to make him sound tough but also sort of peace-ish. those of us who voted for him knew where his pov truly was, but it was a mess. and he lost. 4 yrs later obama ran on a much more direct message and hrc was closer to kerry's. he won the nom and the race.

do i think every democratic candidate can or should embrace the most left-wing position ever? no. that's not personally where i stand, at all. but on most issues a clear progressive message will motivate the base AND sway people that sway between the parties.

a clear and direct message, ideally a progressive one, will turn out more base and middle voters than some dumb message nobody can make heads or tails of that a pollster concocted based on a focus group.

because the unfortunate reality is most "swing" voters are not ideological and by using a clear progressive message its far more appealing. otherwise those same people will vote for a clear conservative message. they vote for clarity.

strong and wrong > weak and right

04
bush's message: i will prosecute the war. i will protect you.
kerry's message: i back some provisions of the war but not all, and ill end it, but not immediately, but rather through a structured and well-meaning process designed to protect you.

guess which one makes "sense"

08

obama: the war is dumb and wrong. ill end it.
hrc: i have a plan to end the war but i still defend my vote for it, sort of.

guess which one makes "sense" and was better vs mccain's "no, the war is good"?

on our side we tend to think people are more rational than they are. you had people who opposed the war who voted bush. why? cause he was much more certain in his position than kerry. makes no sense, but thats how a lotta voters think. millions.