Which Democratic candidate will pull ahead as a real frontrunner in the primaries? I don’t know and neither does anyone. Maybe we’ll know more with New Hampshire results in. Maybe we won’t really know until Super Tuesday.
What I do know is that if I hear another person on TV hyperventilating about how bad all this “infighting” is, I’m going to scream. It’s a fucking contest, you idiots. The idea is that you compete to win and for that to happen others must lose and you do whatever you can do to get that result. Period. There’s no “problem” if a candidate says something unkind or unflattering about another candidate. This is the way it’s supposed to work. So stop clutching your pearls and saying that Democrats “need to unite.” We’ve only had one contest. One. And it was the shitty Iowa caucus that got all fucked up. Let some more people vote already.
Here’s the real question. Do we, collectively as Democratic primary voters, select a progressive like Elizabeth or Bernie? Or do we go with a more moderate choice like Pete, Amy, or Joe? Which of these two “lanes” has the best chance to win in November? Nobody really knows, but here’s what I think.
There are no swing voters. Or at least not enough to matter. Forget them. Running moderate candidates in an effort to win this voting bloc is a bad strategy. First, there aren’t enough of them. Second, and most importantly, your base (or segments of it) don’t turn up to vote in the numbers that they might have. You have sold out women of color or young people in an effort to court the six rural white men who voted for Obama and then voted for Trump. Congratulations, loser.
Stop overthinking it. Nominate the candidate that excites you. Yes, you. If every Democratic primary voter did this, you know what would happen? We’d have the candidate that excited the Democratic base the most. That is the candidate most likely to win because Democratic-leaning voters would turn up to vote in higher numbers. Simple.
Nothing is certain. But the progressive candidate is more likely to win.
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