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That Debate Showed Why Dems Shouldn’t Tack Rightward—Ever
(newrepublic.com)
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this post was submitted on 12 Sep 2024
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Almost half the country is right wing and the electoral college gives their votes much more weight. That's just a fact. That means you can't win a national election without tacking toward their views in some areas, mainly the areas of concern to those in the swing states that will decide the election. You can't win by pleasing only your own base. Until we either abolish the electoral college and move to popular vote, or liberals/left wing/whatever you want to call it, reach a majority of the population substantial enough to overcome the electoral college.
Neither of those things looks likely to happen anytime soon, so the only option is to deal with our current reality and develop a strategy to win under these circumstances, but at the same time we should also be working to create a movement to amend the constitution to decide national elections by popular vote.
edit to change "half" to "almost half"--gotta recognize there are some more in the middle.
Where are you getting that stat?
Of voters, almost half are registered or leaning Republicans.
In 2020, only 22% of the country voted for trump, the most right wing 2 party candidate in the modern era.
When you ask about specific policies that are seen as left or right wing, left wing policies poll much higher than dem votes at elections.
The reason Democrat leadership keeps tacking right has less to do with Americans and more to do with money and support from key centers of power. Dems stay right because US aristocrats and large interests skew righter than Americans. The money would dry up if their policies matched what Americans want.
per 538, the last two polls of "adults" (not likely voters or registered voters) showed trump support around 40%. And Harris' lead in those polls is basically the same as with likely voters and registered voters, around +3-4.
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-general/2024/national/?ex_cid=abcpromo
edit:
Also this gallup poll says 30% of people identify as Republican, and 40% as independent, with 46% of independents leaning Republican. So "almost half" as the top comment said.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/15370/Party-Affiliation.aspx
edit 2: for whoever downvoted, I would love to hear why. the person above asked for a source that says "Almost half the country is right wing", and I provided multiple. if you have better evidence to the contrary let's see it.
This feels to me like the best metric to judge 'right wing' by.
Voting for right wingers or being a Republican is not quite the same as being right wing - many people register and vote strategically. My grandparents in Alaska were left wingers who knew Democrats didn't stand a chance. I'm sure there are plenty of right wingers registered as Dems here in the PNW. Voting can also be about identity more than ideals - I've known Republicans who have mostly leftish ideals as long as you don't call them that.
But saying you personally support trump feels more unambiguously right wing to me. I've heard plenty of polls over the years putting trump's support at around 30-40%, so 40% right wing sounds believable to me.
Also, I acknowledge this is speculation, but I would guess that a significant portion of the undecided people in those polls are conservatives who can't stomach Trump and will never vote democrat. So it's almost certainly more than 40% imo.
Probably because you told/showed them what they don't want to hear.
Hate to break it to you but from anyone else Looking in all your politics and politicians are right-wing.
we know this, thanks.
WE is doing a lot of heavy lifting here ;).
Right? I call the Democrats a "right of center" party. I stopped calling myself a Democrat almost a decade ago. There is no party for me in the US.
Half the country is not conservative or right wing, the highest percentage of red votes are in low population density areas, so thats maybe like 35-37%, and that’s why the electoral college is important for republican wins
It is almost half. There's a spectrum on the right (as there is on the left of course). The hardcore maga cultists are a little over a third -- like you say, 35-37%. But then there are the conservatives who aren't extremists like them but are still very conservative, so yes, it's almost half the population. Trump has 42-45% who are definitely going to vote for him no matter what--the rest beyond the maga contingent are the conservatives such as the one-issue anti-abortion segment and the rich who want his tax and deregulation policies; they don't care about his character flaws or even preserving democracy for that matter.
There are also some conservatives, not many, who previously voted for him and would again, but have come to recognize that trump is so extreme and dangerous that they either won't vote for him or will hold their nose and vote for a Dem this time, hopefully enough to tip the election in her favor.
Those conservatives are ”moderates” and also vote democrat
https://news.gallup.com/poll/328367/americans-political-ideology-held-steady-2020.aspx
1/3 is almost half in the same sense that it is also almost nothing.
Yeah but a majority of voters want to fix climate change. The GOP platform is "let the planet burn so we can make our quarterly target" but if you take politics out of it a lot of gop voters are on the same page with Democrats.
Both of them couldn't give a single shit about liberals though.
FWIW, the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact is doing better and better: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Popular_Vote_Interstate_Compact