Democrats are "More diverse," drawing support from "a coalition of liberal whites, African-Americans, Hispanics, Asians, and mixed-race voters," in addition to "Liberal and nonwhite Christians, Jews, Muslims, New Agers, agnostics, Buddhists, and so onwinning the Democratic primary means winning liberal whites in New Hampshire and traditionalist blacks in South Carolina. It means talking to Irish Catholics in Boston and atheists in San Francisco." In contrast, Klein points out that the Republican Party is primarily comprised of white voters, with "Three-quarters of Republicans identify[ing] as conservative, while only half of Democrats call themselves liberals."
I'm intimately the narrative of the "Electable" neoliberal Democrat in my own line of work as a professor.
Bernie Sanders' rise in the 2016 Democratic primary provides more evidence to challenge traditional neoliberal notions of "Electability." As I've documented, the mainstreaming of Sanders' progressive agenda was revealed in polling at the time, which found that one quarter of Democrats in 2016 believed Sanders' identification as a "Democratic socialist" made him more electable, while less than one in ten felt it made him less so, and with two-thirds who thought it made "No difference." In other words, 90 percent of Democrats felt the "Socialism" stigma was irrelevant to their political calculations.
Such sentiment undermines the notion that only neoliberal Democrats can appeal to voters.
Looking at the 2016 election, we see the poverty behind the claim that Americans thirst for a neoliberal Democrat.
Looking at the 2020 Democratic primaries, we again see the limits of Democratic centrism.
Pete Buttigieg, a neoliberal Democrat if there ever was one, receives virtually no support from people of color and from the less educated.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/01/31/the-myth-of-the-electable-democrat-neoliberal-bankruptcy-2020-edition/
I'm intimately the narrative of the "Electable" neoliberal Democrat in my own line of work as a professor.
Bernie Sanders' rise in the 2016 Democratic primary provides more evidence to challenge traditional neoliberal notions of "Electability." As I've documented, the mainstreaming of Sanders' progressive agenda was revealed in polling at the time, which found that one quarter of Democrats in 2016 believed Sanders' identification as a "Democratic socialist" made him more electable, while less than one in ten felt it made him less so, and with two-thirds who thought it made "No difference." In other words, 90 percent of Democrats felt the "Socialism" stigma was irrelevant to their political calculations.
Such sentiment undermines the notion that only neoliberal Democrats can appeal to voters.
Looking at the 2016 election, we see the poverty behind the claim that Americans thirst for a neoliberal Democrat.
Looking at the 2020 Democratic primaries, we again see the limits of Democratic centrism.
Pete Buttigieg, a neoliberal Democrat if there ever was one, receives virtually no support from people of color and from the less educated.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/01/31/the-myth-of-the-electable-democrat-neoliberal-bankruptcy-2020-edition/
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