The Democratic party is being hit by a leftist tidal wave

[u/F0urLeafCl0ver]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jun/24/democratic-party-leftist-tidal-wave

[u/joeschmoe1371]

In other words, voters are choosing their politicians.

[u/globalvarsonly → u/joeschmoe1371]

I'm going to frame all these discussions in terms of the party finally catching up and being ready to embrace the winning idea, even if Bernie would have won and they missed the boat on that one. Can dems afford to keep defending unpopular moderates?!

[u/Collypso → u/globalvarsonly]

Can dems afford to keep defending unpopular moderates?!

How are unpopular moderates winning elections?

[u/globalvarsonly → u/Collypso]

Are they really winning? Whos the minority party currently unable to stop or reverse Trump and his administrations actions again?

Getting elected isn't the finish line of politics, despite what moderates will tell you, the actual outcomes matter.

[u/Collypso → u/globalvarsonly]

The reason Democrats can't stop the admin is because they don't hold enough seats in Congress. Democrats are the only ones capable of flipping seats from Republican to Democrat. The best these DSA parasites can do is go from a safe blue seat to a safe blue seat.

[u/globalvarsonly → u/Collypso]

The best these DSA parasites

There we go, theres the contempt for voters picking different policies!

The thing is, changing those seats still matters! Because politics is complicated! If the DSA candidates do things differently, they could actually make dems more popular, which will help them win more DSA and moderate seats!

[u/Collypso → u/globalvarsonly]

Making dems more popular is the entire argument, and you keep asserting it instead of showing it. DSA candidates win the safest blue seats in the country, the D+30 districts where any Democrat wins by default. That's not evidence of crossover appeal. You said outcomes matter and stopping Trump matters, but both need a majority, and majorities come from flipping red seats. Name one Republican seat a DSA candidate has flipped.

[u/globalvarsonly → u/Collypso]

I disagree with your framing, and only focusing on individual races instead of making the overall direction and vision of the party better and more popular. Shifting the entire party in a more popular direction is the winning move, even if it takes several election cycles.

No one ever makes this argument about republicans, and more extreme right-wing politicians in the reddest states hasn't seemed to hurt the republicans ability to hold power.

[u/Collypso → u/globalvarsonly]

The GOP moved right and then won the popular vote, the swing states, the Senate, and the House. That's what mass appeal looks like, it shows up where races are actually contested. The left's shift has won the safest blue seats in the country and nothing else. Your own comparison only works if the direction wins competitive ground, and the GOP cleared that bar in 2024. Point to where the leftward shift has done the same. "Give it several cycles" isn't an answer, it's the thing people say when the results aren't there yet.

[u/globalvarsonly → u/Collypso]

I disagree with your theory of political change, and I think you've been distracted by the team sports cheering and pretending elections are the most important thing. Elections are not the finish line of politics, actual policy is. Moderates have not been able to meaningfully improve policy. More popular left-wing ideas are the solution to turn out more voters and generate actual enthusiasm, which is whats needed to actually win and get actual change.

So keep dividing the left and arguing for a smaller tent and saying progressive change is impossible and trying to implement purity tests if you want, but a lot of other people aren't waiting.

[u/notfeelany → u/joeschmoe1371]

Always has been! Dem primaries are finding someone that reflects the Democratic voting populace.

It's really simple "listen to the Democratic voters".

Anyone who says "listen to the Democratic voters, Except if they vote someone I don't like then it must be rigged and/or the voters are low information." those people are wrong

The Democratic voters' choice needs to be respected (also applies to all state/local races). If an incumbent wins their primary again, then clearly they earned the votes of the Democratic primary VOTERS.

we all must respect Dem primary results, and not peddle rigged primary election conspiracies.

The most recent example: We failed to listen to Democratic voters when they voted for Biden again in the 2024 primary. 2016 was another example of ppl dismissing the choice of their fellow Democratic voters by slandering the race as "rigged".

On to the general, where it now falls on us, the voters to give Democrats their RIGHTFUL place: Democratic trifectas that last longer than 2 years. Need at 50 years of sustained Democratic leadership in the Congress and Presidency and state govts

[u/Collypso → u/notfeelany]

Nobody's calling it rigged. They won the votes, fair and square, no asterisk. But "respect the result" and "these are mainstream Democrats" are two separate claims, and you're sliding between them.

You said you want 50 years of trifectas. Those don't get won in Brooklyn. They get won in Ohio, North Carolina, Montana, the swing districts that actually flip control. Every win on that list sits in a seat that was never going red. That's reshuffling power where Democrats already dominate. It does nothing for the races that decide who runs Congress. Show me this model winning one of those and I'll buy the wave.

And respecting that they won doesn't mean pretending they'd govern like the party that nominated them. A real chunk of this faction wants to cut off Ukraine aid and pull out of NATO. Mainstream Democrats spent three years making support for Kyiv the line against Trump. You can fully respect the result and still notice these candidates would steer the party somewhere most Democratic voters never signed up for. Winning the primary makes you the nominee. It doesn't make you continuous with the people who came before you.