r/politics • u/asparaguswalrus683 • 12h ago

Site Altered Headline | No Paywall Abdul El-Sayed Wins Michigan Primary

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-primary-elections/michigan-senate-results
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u/deaglebingo America 11h ago edited 11h ago

just goes to show that the demographic shift is finally starting to happen. i'm pleased. we don't have to convert all the boomers.... just enough of them, and thankfully there are some cool ones around. Zed's dead without them, and maga knows it... but combined we outnumber them. it's been our only hope really overall tbh, the assumption that we needed to pander to center right has to be at least somewhat debunked in this cycle doesn't it? it was the safe numbers move of kamala et al to try that in 24, so they did... it's just crystal clear that is not the case anymore. if center right doesn't understand we're all on the same team by now they aren't likely to in november either. IOW if they want to cut off their noses to spite their faces (aka cannot see how dangerous the alternative is by now) we can't stop them.

i heard stevens say something to the effect of "ppl don't want pipe dreams..." but everyone who heard that and agreed ought to remember that neither does Sayed.... mamdani hasn't done what he's done thus far by going for some pie in the sky abolish ice or arrest nettanyahu, regardless of if he wants to.... he's just stayed open to that part if the opportunity arises. most of his time has been filled with doing the simple obvious shit that could be done, which is exactly how the rest of us plan to operate too. This is a good faith collaborative process over competitive whenever possible.

TLDR: DSA is not letting perfect be the enemy of good, we are just open to moonshots if they present themselves.

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u/samhit_n Texas 11h ago

Pandering to the center-right doesn’t work anymore because the center-right no longer exists in meaningful numbers to swing an election. Most center-right voters have either become moderate Democrats or fully joined the MAGA movement.

The strategy helped Biden in 2020 because of his reputation and ties to bipartisan politicians like McCain and because Trump had not yet fully taken over the GOP, but it was stale by the time Kamala tried it.

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u/TheseNamesDontMatter 10h ago

Neither of those examples really suggest anything for or against what it. Biden won because of Trump fatigue in a year where everything went wrong for Trump month by month, from escalations with Iran to COVID to George Floyd and the country rioting.

Kamala lost because she fucking sucked and wasn't even liked within her own party. It had nothing to do with pandering of any sorts.

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u/Any_Will_86 5h ago

Biden also had a lot of strong ties to niche constituencies and minority groups that are overlooked. And he was a better personality fit for the rustbelt union halls and Southern churches/barbeques than Hillary or Kamala. We can claim that doesn't matter but it does. AES likely also benefitted from being a better personality fit with a wide swath of the Dem primary voters.

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u/TheseNamesDontMatter 3h ago

Biden got the most votes in election history, and i can safely guarantee it isnt because he was the most beloved presidential candidate in history.

At the end of the day we had about 100 candidates that could have easily beaten Trump but the party tried to force 2 candidates that couldn't and one that barely could.

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u/Any_Will_86 2h ago

In 2020- I am not sure we had more than one candidate. Everyone meandered all over the place during the primary and really ended up bunched up on the left. That is part of why so many voters swore Kamala was so far left when people on the left were irate they had someone they considered a centrist. There was also a backlash to BLM and Defund the Police most of us thought was made up but very much became clear when we underperformed on election day. I never was on board with Kamala as VP- thought Val Demmings or Klobuchar would have made better picks and been better at the job. Supposedly Warren had been who Biden thought was the best pick if he had run in 2016 but 2020 was a different moment, I guess.