I truly believe Sanders and all his like-minded colleagues in Congress are more powerful as an outsider to the party advocating for the most effective social policies than as Presidential candidates.
I disagree, establishment democrats didn't take leftist policies seriously until the progressive wing of the party and grassroots organizers threatened the status quo during the 2016 primary. Since then, it's been an uphill battle for the center/right wing of the party to accept the overwhelming popularity of universal healthcare, taxing wall street speculation, etc. Progressives like Sanders have taken a back seat and played activist for almost the entirety of their careers, don't forget how that primary went for Biden, if it wasn't for the moderate candidates falling in line Sanders might very well be the president today. I don't accept this 'activist democrat' role, you should go back and look at those polls and town halls, poor and working conservatives had a soft spot for Sanders, they were interested in expanding social security and cutting medical debt.
Truml is done, but the right wing propaganda media apparatus is stullstrong. Too much hype over "woke mobs" and bullshyt, and too much opportunity to push the narrative of young, cheeky, tax cutting, "guy you can have a beer with" conservative daddy Ron DeSantis vs. Old, college professor looking, pretentious, tax raising, America hating "socialist" Sanders.
The American public is just too stupid and ignorant to have someone like Sanders in their face and understand his policies when his opponent gets to rely on nothing but attack rhetoric, appeals to bigotry, and fearmongering over "spending" and "children."
It's gotta be a moderate. Whether we like it or not.
This is a centrist boogeyman, voters are susceptible to this propaganda because Democrats rarely have a strong convincing vision of the future and how it will impact Americans day to day. They enable this discourse by not having a counterargument other than 'normalcy', they could change that, but they won't lmao because of their establishment obligations. This opinion reminds me of when people would talk about how a Trump/Sanders debate would go, there's only so much shyt flinging you can do when the other guy is talking about policies that put money in your pocket and could potentially save your grandmothers' life.
I don't see the guy performing well on a stage with an incumbent President who has real accomplishments and results to tout when all he got to show for is a bunch of bigoted hate towards gay and lesbian people, "woke mob" fear mongering, hating on Disney, hating on the media, hating on teachers. All this while getting roasted by Trump day after day and probably going with some wishy washy "I supported Trump and won't attack him" nonsense, showing any potential moderate voter that this man is still a stooge for the guy and will govern just like him.
DeSantis is a troll and a clown who's every bit as lost without zaddy Trump and his failed white supremacist movement around anymore as his racist peckerwood voting base who refuse to pull back their extremism, see "America" doesnt revolve around them and their hatred, and dont recognize that "owning the libs" is no longer a great campaign promise after what we saw with Trump. It doesn't seem like the Russian troll farms are batting for him like that. He will be a polarizing figure among Republicans who still support Trump. Trump will not concede his campaign, inevitably obstruct DeSantis's campaign, rally hardcore conservatives against him, and spiral the party into infighting chaos.
In my personal opinion, DeSantis is attempting to chip away at Trump's base with extremism until he can openly challenge him, after that he'll tone down the rhetoric. Moderates are always looking to lean right, if he goes hard at Trump at the right time
and wins, their party will have a 'the king is dead' moment followed by a collective sigh of relief. If anything, a Trump revenge tour will only make DeSantis look like the sane alternative despite being farther right than him, it's all optics with these people.
