As AOC and Sanders Draw Crowds, 72% of Democrats Want Party to Abandon Centrist Approach to Trump

www.commondreams.org

As AOC and Sanders Draw Crowds, 72% of Democrats Want Party to Abandon Centrist Approach to Trump | Common Dreams

The two progressive lawmakers have addressed massive crowds in solidly red states including Idaho and Utah in recent days, as party of the national Fighting Oligarchy Tour.

A survey taken by Harvard's Center for American Political Studies and Harris between April 9-10 found that 72% of Democratic voters supported politicians like Sanders (I-Vt.) and Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), "who are calling on Democrats to adopt a more aggressive stance towards Trump and his administration and 'fight harder'," rather than leaders who are willing to "compromise" with President Donald Trump.

politics @lemmy.world

FenrirIII @lemmy.world

2mo ago

As AOC and Sanders Draw Crowds, 72% of Democrats Want Party to Abandon Centrist Approach to Trump

www.commondreams.org /news/aoc-democrats

124 comments

72%? That's CLEAR CUT that we MUST move MORE RIGHT!
-The DNC Literally!
- Yeah I’m expecting the dnc to double down with Kamala and maybe Pete as a running mate.
  
  I'd bet real money they'll try to run Shapiro. They dont see a terrible republican competitor as a must-win competition, they see it as a chance to run the worst dem they can possibly get away with.
  
  Please god let this be different than 2016
  
  Pete will lose the 2028 election to JD Vance using the Abundance Agenda strategy. Dems will say "I guess America is too xenophobic for a gay president."
  
  When you say DNC are you talking about tens of millions of registered voters? Because that's who picks the candidates.
- That's my entire expectation.
The actual question that 72% of Democrats support:
Do you support more Democrats like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who are calling on Democrats to adopt a more aggressive stance towards Trump and his administration and “fight harder”, or moderate Democrats who are willing to compromise on Trump issues important to their base?
The question is "do you want to fight Trump more" not "do you support AOC and Bernies progressive agenda".
Link to the actual poll results.
- It's interesting that they explicitly, rather than implicitly, chain compromise with Trump to the moderates, and fighting Trump to the progressives. Without that, that number might have even been higher. This reads to me like a solid condemnation of the moderates.
  
  Also of the democratic party by a certain reading since Bernie is an independent and AOC is a Bernie plant hehe 72% would prefer more people outside the current party line.
  
  The part Democrats are responding to is "fight Trump".
Kamala didn't lose by being "Too woke", she lost by saying "Maybe the Right can have a little fascism, ya know, as a treat?"
- This is why I want to see AOC as a candidate and NOT Harris. We need a candidate who is less, "reaching across the aisle" and more "boots on necks."
  
  America doesn't have a good track record for young, popular, progressive presidents.
- This is just wrong. Go look at what swayed voters. The fact is, she never broke from Biden.
  The border was a shit show.
  The stock market isn't the economy. Egg prices matter (it's ridiculous but true for voters, and yes, I know it was bird flu related)
  People trust R's more when it comes to the economy
  Many voters see Democrats as intolerable over educated snobs... That's how they address 'the deplorables'.
  She ran on a platform that speaks TO DEMOCRATS and not the greater population.
  Centrist is not evil, it's necessary to win elections. How many maps do you need to see to figure out you need to win some red districts? Support the fringe but run on a platform that speaks to the middle. Or.. keep doing what your doing and never hold more than a minor majority again.
  
  People trust R’s more when it comes to the economy
  I hate that you're right about this. I just saw an article yesterday that human intelligence actually is declining, and this is some of the strongest evidence. We truly live in the dumbest timeline.
  
  Centrist is not evil, it's necessary to win elections
  Oh really? Who is president again? Who won the popular vote? Between Harris and Trump, which was more "centrist"?
  Your logic is sound, but the model your working from is completely out of touch with how voters and elections work.
  First of all, the left to right spectrum is just one dimension of voter preference. Another, and currently more dominant, dimension is populist to establishment. What Democrats call "centrist" is really "establishment", and American voters hate the establishment.
  Voters also like leaders with conviction. Centrist Democrats cave on everything. After four years of attacking Trump's boarder policy, Democrats flipped almost entirely. After four years attacking Trump on LGBT rights, Democrats abandoned the issue entirely. Not only does that signal weakness to disengaged voters, it also destroys trust between the party and it's base. The base might show up on election day, but they aren't going to want to canvass or do all the other volunteer work that Democratic campaigns depend on.
  
  People shouldn't trust R's any further than they can throw then.
  Anyway while I don't agree that the border was a shit show, yes I do agree that Neo Liberals are snobs who fail to understand that no the stock market is NOT the economy.
  You have some points but ultimately I find you misguided. After all Trump was about as centered as the leaning tower of Piza.
  
  American economy depends on immigrants for many reasons. Migrant workers are vital for food production. Immigrants keep America's birth rate at a healthy level. This is very important for the long term health of the economy. Native born are far more likely to commit crime than immigrants. This is a fact and lots of data supports it. Economy was vibrant and healthy until Trump came back to office. This year was supposed to be a growing economy. Now a few months after Trump returned, the economy is headed for recession, inflation will rise due to tariffs, and the stock market which holds all of our retirement assets plummeted. The economy has done its best under Democrats. Republicans are viewed as predominantly white Christian racists and bigots that want to take America back to the 1800s. They continue efforts to suppress voting to take advantage of the very undemocratic electoral college and Senate.
Centrist approach?
USA has a conservative Party and a Neonazi Party
- Sounds about White.
- Two old rich white men arguing over the proper way to do genocide against brown people. Then they both get upset when brown people stop buying their shitty products.
THEN FUCKING DO IT.
If the party “leaders” aren’t with it, kick them the fuck out.
- I think that's what's going to happen. AOC is taking on Chuck Schumer:
  
  Maybe if people show up to vote. The only poll that matters is in the voting booth.
  
  Theres no real taking on until they start calling for a new party
I want to abandon the centrist approach, period. No more reaching across the aisle, no more insider trading, no more letting capitalists dictate how society should be. America has given capitalism a nearly free hand to determine the nation's destiny, and it has lead to death camps, fascism, and stolen the prosperity that workers had earned with their sweat.
It is time to try a completely different approach to economics and an overhauled Constitution.
- I don't want to hate on it, but it's like we don't respect the Constitution as it is anyways. And the origins of this country was rich landowners. So technically we're all just kind of like livestock. I guess simply what I'm saying is we have to actually become a real country. And that will require kinetic input.
  
  It should have been a living document. This is how you know these idiots are a death cult.
- Earned with their blood*
Abandon centrist approach and take a hard right turn? The Democratic Party hears you loud and clear! But seriously I do see the Sanders people in places of power I previously have not in the party - this is a very good sign in a very bad time
Won't happen. There's long been a gap between what registered party members want and what those in charge actually do.
We saw the same thing in the UK a few years ago when Jeremy Corbyn got a huge swell of support from the party proper, but all the other Labour MPs collectively rounded on him and conspired to kick him out of the party altogether because he was going to put a stop to their gravy train.
- tone-deaf about the tone-deaf
- They kicked him out after he led Labour to it's biggest loss in ninety years.
DNC: LOL no, but can you please send us just $20 this one time, before it's too late!
- Please, [wrong name], we need $5 to make Chuck Schumer wag his finger at the republicans for arresting all LGBT people
  
  And then Cuck Schumer votes to send all LGBTQ+ folx to extermination camps
If we want leftist leadership we have to abandon the Democratic party.
I will be VERY surprised if the Neoliberals who have controlled the DNC for the last 50+ years would willingly give up control.
They proved in 2016 they would rather lose to Trump than allow leftists to change things at the expense of their rich doners.
- If we want leftist leadership we have to abandon the Democratic party.
  You mean take over the Democratic party? If we abandon it, what will we use as a party framework? I don't know of another that's already built and running (and I don't mean Libertarians or Greens).
  If you can't be associated to the term "Democratic" then that's a different story.
- Nah. We can and should do a tea party style takeover. The iron is hot, let's strike.
  
  Damn straight. They had their tea party; we need a Guillotine Party.
  
  And that's really the only way to do it in a two party FpTP system.
  Political parties that don't have enough support to run local candidates aren't serious political parties and never will be.
- Trump gets elected
  This poster: *surprised Pikachu
  
  I said I would be surprised if he didn't get elected.
  Neoliberals preventing popular leftist movements and blocking meaningful change will get Trump elected again yes. Just like it did in 2016, unless the Neoliberals go away
Doesn't matter what the people want, the democrat's corporate masters make the decisions.
72% of Democrats Want Party to Abandon Centrist Approach to Trump
Party: But who will help us become exponentially richer then?
- Mother fuckers just play the fucking market if you're so morally backrupt. Even when you're selling us out you fucking take the most low ball barely consequential amount to flush millions of peoples lives down the drain.
it's all about trump and nothing to do with ending the oligarchical regime that enables the genocide.
- Bernie Sanders has been fighting oligarchy since before Trump and is Jewish and pro-Palestine.
  Unfortunately MAGA runs every branch of the US government right now, so it's impossible to do anything without taking on MAGA first.
  
  Not only before trump, dudes been fighting for like the last 60 years or so
  
  Been a Bernie bro since the 2016 election and haven’t ever stopped. He’s a treasure like Dolly Parton.
  
  Bernie also put his literal flesh on the line for civil rights.
- Bernie and AOC's movement is literally called "Fighting Oligarchy". Not "Fighting Trump".
  
  Yup. Trump may be king, but his crown has the puppet strings of Thiel and company attached. There is no point in getting rid of Trump, if he is replaced with a more capable Pinocchio.
  
  Fighting oligarchy? What fuck-knuckle is doing their messaging?
  "Guillotine Party."
  You're welcome.
And the dnc won’t listen cos rich fucks run it
Democrats won't abandon their centrist positions as long as the Clintons live. If voters want a party to represent them, they need to get rid of the current ones.
Billionaires don't deserve a seat at the table.
We wouldn't let any other group of 3000 people contort our entire society to their will.
Surely you don't expect the Democrats to stop holding hands with nazis, do you?
Still getting bribery from AIPAC?
I want democrats to stop offering an olive branch. Stop trying to work with repugnicant MAGAts. They have shown you who they are deep down. They'll spit on you soon than help you.
AOC and Sanders ARE the centrists. That’s the key to understanding the issue here.
- Sanders?... Maybe. AOC... No freaking way.
  You want a centrist that Dems should listen to? See Adam Frisch in my state. Almost beat Boebert TWICE in her home county.
  
  Unfortunately in the situation, almost only counts in hand grenades and horseshoes... Lauren boebert is just...... Well it shouldn't be hard to beat someone that gave a God damn hand job at a theater show in polite company regardless of their political affiliation. Dude's got to figure out a better way to get his message across to people.
  
  They are in the exact center of the policial spectrum. I realize that is difficult to understand for some folks, but I will explain it as best as I can. AOC is approximately exactly the midpoint between me and Trump. That is what the political spectrum means.
  They are obviously among the most leftist elected politicians in the US, but that’s not saying much. We need to get our brains out of this mainstream media cesspool of “centrist” or “moderate” meaning “not a right wing extremist”.
Right: Genocide ALL undesirables without due process.
Left: Genocide nobody without due process.
Centrist: Clearly there is middle ground. So, lets genocide some people without due process.
- Can't i just have a little genocide? As a treat.
  
  Well since you asked so nicely and as a centrist I’m so conflict averse I prioritize harmony over any sort of moral compass then yes, have as much as you want. Just stay polite or I’ll gently chastise you and then give in to you anyway.
Bit late, innit?
Wow ya think
Then they will freaking lose and deserve it. They surveyed Democratic voters. You want reality? You lost to the worst candidate in the history of voting in this country. WAKE THE HELL UP!
Yes please
If 72% of Democrats want to drop centrist approach then go vote for a progressive in the primaries you bunch of non-voting assholes.
- The last time they even had primaries was 2016 and we all saw what happened then. Voters have had no choice for a long ass time.
  
  WTF are you talking about? We had primaries just last year.
  https://www.ncsl.org/elections-and-campaigns/2024-state-primary-election-dates
  That's the problem with progressives and democrats, they never seem to remember that there are other primaries other than presidential that actually do matter.
72% of democrats is like 72 people. The party is the least popular it has ever been, by the numbers.
- By the numbers
  You clearly don't know what any of the numbers mean
  
  https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/16/politics/cnn-poll-democrats/index.html
  https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/03/16/democrats-record-low-favorability-republicans-trump/82471412007/
  You'll trust those sources the most probably
They should just converse with each other rather than attack one another. Pointing fingers at each other while we're all in the middle.
But keep on attacking Trump while trying to gerrymander in the red states.
Just hope we get better choices in 2028 that's not Vance or AOC, and definitely not Harris again. I'd even settle for Tulsi.

124 comments