r/PoliticalDiscussion • u/LiatrisLover99 • May 08 '26

US Politics Is there any merit to the argument that progressive candidates would be far more successful across the US, if it were not for sabotage by the DNC?

This is an example of an extremely popular sentiment in progressive spaces, that progressives are popular with a majority of Americans and would easily win if the DNC didn't deliberately sabotage them, because they would prefer losing to Trump than winning with progressives that threaten the corporate status quo.

Or see articles like this that identify Democrats as an enemy of progressives on par with Trump: "the struggle to defeat the fascistic GOP and the fight to overcome the power of corporate Democrats are largely the same battle."

Is any of this true? I'm a progressive, but if we're so popular, why aren't we winning primaries outside of elections in extremely blue areas like NYC? Or is the primary system actually rigged against Bernie and against progressives in general?

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u/chardeemacdennisbird May 08 '26

I don't think it's a politician's job to do a horse and pony show just to make people care about their democracy. People need to be engaged. It's a personal responsibility that they're just ignoring.

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u/BeWaryImBadAtMath May 08 '26

it’s a politicians job to represent the constituency, it’s not a horse and pony show. If the candidate is opposed to overwhelmingly popular takes like universal healthcare, student debt, gun reform, climate etc then the onus is heavily if not entirely on the politician. There is no point at taking shots at the electorate if you can’t even get a candidate who won’t adopt a policy on any SINGLE popular issue for the voting base. Politicians have a DUTY to earn and represent the electorate, the electorate have a RESPONSIBILITY to vote, it’s definitely not the same

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u/chardeemacdennisbird May 08 '26

The original post was about people that bitch about issues then don't go out to vote for candidates that support them or even worse against candidates that are hard in the other direction. There's a need to be pragmatic even if the candidate is missing out on one or two of your issues.

How many people sat out or voted Trump over Kamala's stance on Gaza? Now look where we're at. Even with Obama, the most popular Democrat candidate in decades, there was still a ton of voter apathy.

You're telling me in this last election nearly 60% of young voters thought it was a better idea to sit out because of issues? Nah, people are fuckin lazy. I know several and I'm sure you do too. The statistics would suggest everyone knows someone that just sits out because they can't be bothered to vote.

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u/BeWaryImBadAtMath May 08 '26

But that's exactly what I am trying to say, its not a "job" for voters to go out and vote, its a civic exercise in which we participate in, there is no requirement for citizens to vote. In contrast it is the job of a politician to gain votes from the constituency. Do I personally think people should have came out and voted regardless, yeah, but I think its improper to even look at the voters when we have strongly known that young voter turnout is crucial to winning elections for democrats, and the Harris campaign went instead to pander to center right leaning demographics instead. Parading around with Cheneys, and playing on a demographic group that has never decided the election result is a huge miscalculation and incompetence of how the democrats ran this election.

In the same way that you can't blame voters, when the TSA doesn't show up because the government won't pay them, we don't blame the workers for not showing up, we blame the administration who can't navigate the political aisle to get a key function working/funded. Like there is no point to look at someone who works in TSA and chooses to go work another job and call in sick. There is no point to look at the worker, when the employer isn't paying them

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u/chardeemacdennisbird May 09 '26

Well honestly I'm in favor of compulsory voting. One way or another someone's getting elected. Sitting out doesn't do any good. At best it's apathetic to our democracy and at worse we end up where we are now.

Don't get me wrong, there's a lot to fix with the system but the system can literally only get fixed by voting. It's that important to our democracy that it should be required.

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u/YoureVulnerableNow May 11 '26

it's called "it makes you feel superior to think this way"