Most voters still reject the idea and label of socialism. These extreme candidates still lose far more races than they win, and their agenda is broadly unpopular outside of blue bubbles.

Given a choice between any of the current republicans and a card-carrying DSA member, I’m voting for the latter. I like some of their policy positions, dislike many, but figure they wouldn’t get to do them anyway. Plus, like AOC (“woke 1 was crazy”) they will likely ease back on some of those naive ideas once elected.

However, I also believe the quote above. Most voters will not vote for the extreme left candidate. Put up enough of them and we get an empowered president Vance, who, since he has two brain cells to rub together and the backing of the tech-bro “nerd reich”, will likely do even more damage to our democracy than his current boss. Irreparable damage.

We need to win. To do that we need electable candidates. We have the electorate we have, not the electorate we wish we had.