pjwestin

It's probably easier to count the ones where the DNC didn't have their thumb on the scale. First, it's been way less than 100 years since voters even determined who the candidate was; before 1976, primaries were basically just opinion polls, and delegates picked who they wanted regardless of voter input. Also, after the Carter team blamed Ted Kennedy for their loss, the DNC started ostracizing candidates that made primary challenges, so they definitely put their thumb on the scale for incumbents. So off the bat, we're looking at less than 50 years of primaries, and only in non-incumbent years.

Then the party definitely put its thumb in the scale for Clinton in 2016, Biden in 2020, and they literally just picked Harris in 2024. So, that means that the unbiased primaries would be Carter in '76, Mondale in "84, Dukakis in 88, Clinton in 92, Gore in 2000, Kerry in 2004 (though personally I think they kinda did a hit-job on Howard Dean) and Obama in 2008. Out of 12 primaries in over 48 years, 7 have been open and fair contests. About 58% successful in keeping their thumb off the scale.

"We can't give everyone a trial!"

Smash cut to 250 years of giving everyone a trial.

Reducing the proposed capital gains tax from 44% to 28% and abandoning Medicare for All for medical debt easement are objective metrics that show the Democrats becoming less progressive in 2024. If you want to delude yourself into thinking the opposite is true, i can't stop you, but I'm bored of proving you wrong.

Her capital gains tax proposal was 28%, much lower than Biden's proposed 44%; abortion rights and legal Marijuana are comfortable center-left territory in 2024; easing medical debt instead of abolishing it is the definition of a centrist solution, and she doesn't get credit for supporting Medicare for All when she abandoned that position in the middle of the 2019/2020 primary.

She absolutely did not have the same things. Biden's BBB had Medicare expansions, universal Pre-K, and the expansion of the child tax credit. Harris ran on small business loans and first-time homebuyer's credits. Biden ran a working class platform that Sanders helped write, while Harris ran a middle-class campaign with Mark Cuban.

That's the cool thing about denial; no matter how much information I give you, you just say, "Actually, that progressive thing is centrism," and continue your delusion.

Yeah, if you say it enough times, maybe it'll become true. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I will give him credit for trying fairly hard to get his agenda through, especially in the first 2 years. He kept trying to find ways to get student loans forgiven without Congress, even when the courts repeatedly blocked him, and he did try to get some parts of Build Back Better that got cut in 2021 into the Inflation Reduction Act. He certainly tried harder than Obama to deliver on his platform.

He then abandoned the populous economic platform in 2024 and tried to pretend that letting most of his agenda get blocked by his own party was a huge accomplishment. He also tried to get to Trump's right on immigration, materially supported a genocide, and refused to step down despite clear cognitive issues, so all-in-all, 2024 was a bad campaign.

Again, nonsense. He ran in 2008 in things like direct homeowner bailing outs, then passed things like HAMP, which tried (and failed) to inventivize lenders to refinance bad loans. Even in 2012, when he made less bold and specific promises, he made income inequality the center of his campaign. He always ran as progressive, not a centrist.

I once read a tweet that was something to the effect of, "The number of Democrats needed to pass meaningful legislation is always (N-1), where N=The Current Number of Democrats in Congress." I think about that a lot.

No, this was the liberal policy.