Some Democratic politicians and groups have come to the conclusion that Democrats should simply pretend to be more moderate than they are to win back voters. It isn’t going to work because voters can see exactly what Democrats believe in the policies they support.
A poll from the “center-left” group Welcome found that the share of voters who think Democrats are “out of touch” has jumped from 51% in 2013 to 70% this year. The poll also has 59% of voters claiming that Democrats do not have the right priorities, compared to just 39% who disagree. Among the issues voters think Democrats should be prioritizing: cutting costs, including healthcare costs, lowering taxes for the middle class, border security, and lowering crime. Protecting illegal immigrants and transgenderism are among the issues voters want Democrats to deprioritize.
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Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) sees what voters are thinking and is trying to get out in front of the more damaging issues for Democrats. In a recent podcast, Sanders tried to claw back trust for Democrats on the border issue. “Trump did a better job,” Sanders said, speaking of President Donald Trump, former President Joe Biden, and the border. “I don’t like Trump, but we should have a secure border. It ain’t that hard to do. Biden didn’t do it.” He even added, “If you don’t have any borders, you don’t have a nation.”
The problem for Sanders and Democrats is that no one believes that Democrats believe this. Sanders himself has a long history of supporting amnesty for illegal immigrants already in the country and supporting decriminalizing border crossings. Sanders opposes detaining the vast majority of illegal immigrants. The immigration policy from his 2020 presidential campaign was centered on disbanding immigration enforcement agencies and integrating illegal immigrants into communities across the country.
Put it this way: Does anyone really believe that a Sanders presidency would have secured the border and deported criminal illegal immigrants the way Trump has? Or would it just be the same de facto open borders policy of the Biden administration, which Sanders didn’t mind until it cost Democrats an election?
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Democrats have become far more radically left-wing in the past decade. Democrats are lining up to endorse the terrorist sympathizing socialist in the New York City mayoral race. They prioritize protecting illegal immigrants and giving them handouts over making life easier for everyday Americans. They want lesser sentences for violent criminals, men to be able to use girls’ locker rooms, and to eliminate border enforcement agencies.
Voters see that, and politicians such as Sanders paying lip service to voters’ concerns is not going to be enough to win them back. Those voters just witnessed four years of Biden pretending to be some kind of centrist while overseeing the most left-wing presidency of their lifetime, and they rejected Kamala Harris’s attempts to distance herself from her left-wing positions of 2019. Voters are smarter than Democrats think they are, and Democrats aren’t going to get away with faking their moderation while supporting wildly left-wing policies as they are now.