Thread by @ChrisMu24469747

Okay, I feel like I’m writing this spiel every time I argue with BlueMAGA on Twitter, and it gets tiring and time-consuming - so I’ll just write this Twitter thread for future reference for myself and others:

Progressives didn’t hurt Democrats on Election Night: A Thread.

Even with Bernie Sanders and the Squad rallying progressives to vote blue; even with an incredibly reduced Third Party presence; and even with prominent Third Partiers, current and former, begging people in swing states to vote blue, Biden almost got slaughtered.

Even with John Kasich and the LinCON Project shitting on Progressives to get moderate Republicans to vote blue, 93-94% of Republicans voted for Trump. That’s an increase from the 90% that voted for him in 2016.

Kasich couldn’t even win Ohio - HIS OWN FUCKING STATE - for Biden.

Even worse? Compared with Hillary in 2016, Biden actually underperformed with every single demographic except white men.

That’s right - Biden was / is such a garbage candidate that more POC voted for the current racist, sociopathic accused rapist than the DEMOCRATIC one.

The Democrats repeated the same mistake down ballot, too. They spent a walloping $88 million on pro-Trump Democrat Amy McGrath’s senate campaign against Mitch McConnell, only for her to crash and burn in a race against one of the most hated men in America.

Every single congressional Democratic incumbent who lost was a centrist who decided to pull a Biden and run on substance-free platforms of hollow platitudes and “I’m not Trump,” instead of running on concrete policies that could actually help people, like M4A and the GND.

Is any of this even surprising? Polling has showed that while nearly 85% of Trump’s supporters were voting *for Trump*, nearly 55% of Biden’s voters said they were voting *against Trump* and not *for Biden* at one point. That’s a pretty massive enthusiasm deficit.

I mean, why would a conservative or moderate vote for a conservative Democrat when there’s already a(nother) Republican on the ballot?

Progressives, meanwhile, had a great night.

26 out of the 30 candidates endorsed by the DSA won their races.

Every single Democratic congressional incumbent who ran on Medicare For All won re-election.

Out of the 93 who ran on the Green New Deal, only one of them lost.

Look at the ballot measures that passed. Several states legalized weed. Oregon decriminalized it. CO voted for twelve weeks of paid maternity leave. FL voted to raise the minimum wage to $15 - and FL went solidly red and ejected two of its centrist Democratic representatives.

The lessons from election night are pretty super clear: if you pull a Biden, run on nothing but platitudes, and refuse to endorse programs that could improve the overall standard of living, then you’ll either very narrowly win, or you’ll lose.

However, if you campaign on popular policies that could improve peoples’ lives, like Medicare For All and the Green New Deal, then you give people a reason to be excited to vote for you, or even to volunteer for you - and you have a much better chance of winning.

Progressives saved the Democrats from a complete bloodbath on election night. That is an undeniable fact.

But please, keep on acting like an ungrateful and petulant brat by insisting that Progressives hurt the Democrats.

*more POC voted for Trump this year than they did in 2016 is what I meant to write - my mistake!