All Americans have to accept that our political system is defined by binary outcomes. I think too many people, especially those that grew up in a world of unconstrained e-commerce, think they can select political outcomes the way they fill their online shopping carts. Bespoke politics is not a thing. You cannot simply pick candidates that represent the exact bundle of policy/vibe preferences (idiosyncratic, undefined, odd, obscure, off-putting to many, ephemeral) that you cobbled together with "research" online. If they can't find "it", they throw up their hands, blame the system, and sit out elections.
So that is the Democratic demand side problem. On the supply side, Dem leadership is getting tied in knots trying to come up with platforms that will satisfy these bespoke voters. This is less an issue with the MAGA/Republican/Fox News/NewsMax political economy: instead of an ever-expanding and shifting basket of policy goods, that economy has largely coalesced around single policy "choice": Trump autocratic rule.
All Americans have to accept that our political system is defined by binary outcomes. I think too many people, especially those that grew up in a world of unconstrained e-commerce, think they can select political outcomes the way they fill their online shopping carts. Bespoke politics is not a thing. You cannot simply pick candidates that represent the exact bundle of policy/vibe preferences (idiosyncratic, undefined, odd, obscure, off-putting to many, ephemeral) that you cobbled together with "research" online. If they can't find "it", they throw up their hands, blame the system, and sit out elections.
So that is the Democratic demand side problem. On the supply side, Dem leadership is getting tied in knots trying to come up with platforms that will satisfy these bespoke voters. This is less an issue with the MAGA/Republican/Fox News/NewsMax political economy: instead of an ever-expanding and shifting basket of policy goods, that economy has largely coalesced around single policy "choice": Trump autocratic rule.