Bernie Sanders addresses that point with some common sense:
The comments below the article are also interesting.
Great article.
Look, in 2016, the party insisted on running the most centrist and uninspiring candidate imaginable, and they lost.
In 2020, they ran another centrist, insisting “we only lost because the last centrist had too much baggage! Now we will crush the fascists!” But we didn’t. The fascists got millions more votes than ever before.
Next election we won’t have the fear of Trump to motivate us to vote. We actually have to get people excited about our candidate’s actual policies, not just who he isn’t (do you remember when democrats ran on their own policies instead of opposition to Republicans? There was a guy named Obama who was pretty good at that. Hope and change. Not “I am not a Bush!”)
They’re not “my” Romney or Kasich, I haven’t voted for a Republican this millenia. I don’t think most of the people that voted for Trump did so because they like authoritarians. They just thought what Trump had on offer was better than what the Democrats were offering.
Do you really think half the country was wholeheartedly embraces everything trump represents?
Did you wholeheartedly embrace everything that biden represents?
In 2020, the winner has, by far, the most votes in the history of US elections (10mil more votes than Obama got in 2008 and 15mil more than Obama got in 2012 or Clinton in 2016), with an eligible voter share much higher than anyone in recent history (you have to go back to LBJ in 1964 to find someone higher than Biden’s eligible voter share). He’s winning by 6 million votes in the popular vote (which is a higher amount than Obama won by in 2012). It’s just that the fans of the fascist also came out in droves - higher than anyone else aside from the 2020 winner (yes, including Obama’s both campaigns - which Trump has tried to highlight amusingly as he’s getting pummeled this year).
The trump vote isn’t about what he is offering. If you notice he never offered anything. (“Repeal” with no replacement plan at all even in a fantasy, not just for Health, but for the whole govt)
It’s very specifically about hating the “other” and has never veered from that for a second. Your electorate is not doing what you think they are.
I guess you are not up to date on current events. Biden won. Yes, this election had a great turn-out, which is good news.
And 'the party" doesnt run anyone. The voters do. The idea that the DNC chooses the candidate is both wrong and laughable.
And Biden is only a “centrist” in the Democratic party, he is quite liberal.
The dems only win when the voters choose a moderate liberal. Every time a very liberal candidate has been nominated, they have lost.
Oddly the same goes for the GOP, the need to choose someone more middle of the road- which most people thought trump was in 2016.
Most people thought Trump was middle of the road in 2016? 
Actually there was a number of folks who thought he was absolutely serious about his plans for massive infrastructure spending, passing child care programs, and maybe even having tax policies to help his white working class base - actual populist programs. It wasn’t long until he showed he was another tax cut and spend Republican.
Is that what you call ‘middle of the road’? I would call it ‘progressive’. 
Holy smokes. You think Biden is quite liberal? So how are things going in the alternate dimension?
Lets revisit this in 4 years and see how much of the progressive agenda is enacted over Biden’s 1st term, or really how much Biden even pushes for stuff. Things like UHC, climate change, livable wages, police reform. The only one I see making any progress on is fighting climate change. Biden seems big on that.
I am curious as to what people thought Trump did that was ‘authoritarian’.
From this Canadian’s viewpoint, what Trump actually did (as opposed to his foul personality) were:
- Criminal Justice Reform.
- A tax cut that disproportionally went to poorer people
- The Abraham accords, which may be the start of real peace in the middle east
- Didn’t start a single war, and brought soldiers home from several countries.
- Appointed solid constitutional judges, not right-wing partisans
- Renegotiated NAFTA, which most people think was an improvement
- Improved Republicans’ standing with Black and Hispanic people.
What else? What were the authoritarian things he did? Who did he oppress? Maybe I missed it.
The facebook/russia line in '16 for the dupes was that trump was a “wild card,” while Hillary was EVIL. I think if you google that you will get hits. It was propaganda all over. This enabled former dems who were on facebook and vulnerable to these appeals to vote third party and feel superior to anti trump voters and sane leftists.
Might want to start thinking about which of those things the President, and the President alone, can actually change.
Yes, he was previously a democrat, etc.
Yes. wiki " He has a lifetime liberal 72% score from the Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) through 2004, while the American Conservative Union (ACU) gave him a lifetime conservative rating of 13% through 2008.[405]"
In the Democratic party he is a moderate, of course, but over the entire USA Political spectrum he is definitely a liberal. Compare him to trump, Romney, Bush, etc- Biden is quite liberal.
Criminal Justice reform? With his Brownshirts beating heads in Portland?
No, it did not. Altho there were some nice cuts for the middle class, those cuts sunset, while the cuts for the rich were made forever.
That made the United Arab Emirates sign a treaty with Israel, the UAE is not a major player, a very minor nation. It did nothing.
Gorsuch was good, Kavanaugh is disgraceful and a hired hitman for Roe, and so was Barrett- but we have yet to see how she will turn out.
NAFTA was fine.
Not really.
Brownshirts? Really? They were federal agents there to protect federal property. And criminal justice reform was real whether or not you like protecting public buildings from rioters.
It is a fact that the largest marginal rate cuts went to the lowest income quintiles. By a factor of more than three.
You are downplaying this dramatically. It wasn’t just the UAE. It was also signed by Sudan and Bahrain so far. and most importantly it has the blessing of Saudi Arabia, which is now allowing overflights between those countries and Israel. The three signatories are opening embassies in Jerusalem, and negotiations are still going on to bring the Saudis formally jnto the deal.
If any president other than Trump had been involved with this, it would be treated as an historic accomplishment,
Has Kavanaugh made any disgraceful rulings? Have any of them shown a tendency to be Trump stooges or to rule in an authoritarian way?
The building was in no danger other than graffiti. Maybe a broken window. There was no violence or arson until the Brownshirts arrived.
Cite? Explaining the Trump Tax Reform Plan
For the wealthy, banks, and other corporations, the tax reform package was considered a lopsided victory given its significant and permanent tax cuts to corporate profits, investment income, estate tax, and more. Financial services companies stood to see huge gains based on the new, lower corporate rate (21%), as well as the more preferable tax treatment of pass-through companies.4 Some banks said their effective tax rate would drop under 21%…The highest earners were expected to benefit most from the law, while the lowest earners were believed to pay more in taxes once most individual tax provisions expire after 2025.
But the taxpayers who saw the largest refund increases had an adjusted gross income (AGI) of at least $200,000. Tax returns showing an AGI of less than $100,000 paid less income tax overall, but returns with an AGI just above $100,000 (many middle-class families) owed more tax, on average. Note that this AGI is per tax return, not per taxpayer: A married couple where each spouse has a salary of $65,000 could very well have an AGI of just above $100,000 if they file jointly.
On the whole, low-income families appear to have received the least savings, while high-income families saved the most. Middle-class families saw mixed results. The biggest winners from Trump’s tax cuts were probably businesses. Between 2017 and 2018, corporations paid 22.4% less income tax.
Sudan and Bahrain are also meaningless players. Get KSA, Syria, and Palestine and it will be meaningful.
BRETT KAVANAUGH’S RULING ON MAIL-IN BALLOTS IS ALREADY BEING USED TO SUPPRESS VOTES
On the D.C. Circuit, Kavanaugh dealt with a case involving efforts by anti-abortion zealots in the Trump administration to keep an immigrant in government custody from securing abortion services. Officially speaking, he just helped slow down the decision to free this anonymous Jane Doe to control her own body. But as Carmon noted, he sent some big messages, as Senator Richard Blumenthal pointed out in the Judiciary Committee hearings:
> In the end, Kavanaugh didn’t manage to stop Jane Doe, but he accomplished other things in that opinion. For one thing, he didn’t assert that Jane had a constitutional right to abortion. For another, as Blumenthal pointed out, he larded his opinion with code words like “abortion on demand” and referred to “existing Supreme Court precedent” and how lower courts, at least, had to abide by it.
Well, I did say gets enacted, or at least pushes for. But I doubt he even tries, except for maybe climate change.