2020 Presidential Election

[Allison W]

Originally Posted by cathexis

We also need to find one candidate that most Democrats and some people on the fence or passed off Republicans will vote for.

We don't need to follow the example of the Far Left and have a multi-candidate splinter resulting in a win for the other side.

I'd argue that "far left" is the only way out of this mess, but I'd also argue that what is needed is for one of our two most left-wing primary candidates to take the Democratic nomination and actually square off with Trump as one of the two Actual Candidates as opposed to trying to come in as a third-party spoiler.

As far as getting someone that "most Democrats" and "some people on the fence" or "pissed off Republicans" will vote for, I would argue that a move to the center can't do this effectively, because the center doesn't actually offer any reason to vote for it. It doesn't have a narrative or meaningful answers, and is associated with the maintenance of a toxic status quo. It can't convert people who weren't already onboard, and it also can't win over the massive chunk of people who are so disillusioned with the status quo that they won't go to the polls at all if the status quo and Trump are their only options. Moving left and offering an actual left-wing narrative and answer for our crises is the only thing with the power to do that. We live in times where, again, the traditional left-right distinction is ripe to be supplanted by a status quo-vs-populist distinction instead. The fash are already pushing right-populism aggressively, and the only thing that can actually defeat it long-term is left-populism.