In Reply to: Ya, no posted by TheHappyBurgermeister on April 03, 2025 at 12:24:41
How are parties supposed to have any dynamism and be able to respond to changes taking place in the world and the shifting of ideas in the public without regular primary challenges. Without having to counter any party internal challenges, all they need to do to continue to be a member of the congress is to maintain a political position that's better than the Republican they'll run against in the election. That gives them way too much space in terms of their alignment with their base.
If the challenger is not better aligned with the party's base, they'll be beaten by the incumbent. It should in principle be as simple as that.
I think the Democratic party needs to seriously move towards AOC's position on a lot of issues if it is to have any real chance to win any elections down the line. You can't let the fear of the left be so powerful that you wouldn't want the party to course correct even after they've veered too far off to the right (relative to what they're supposed to represent). In my mind, a healthy Democratic Party is at least half AOC style, half the usual milquetoast middle of the readers in it. And we don't get there unless every passivist, neoliberal, status quo defending Democrat is challenged in the primaries. You need to think push on all fronts to make any gains. That's just how things work.