'2024 could be more like 2016': Journalist urges Democrats to revisit their 'formula'

01 May 2023

Many Never Trump conservatives, hoping to see President Joe Biden reelected in 2024, have been warning him against going too far to the left. Biden's path to reelection, they argue, is appealing to the Democratic Party base but also winning over independents, moderates and Never Trumpers who dislike the extremes of the far-right MAGA movement.

But progressive journalist David Sirota, who served as a presidential campaign speechwriter for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), has a different warning in an op-ed published by The Guardian on May 1. Sirota cautions that a Democratic "formula" focused on "centrism" won't necessarily be the key to getting Biden reelected.

"In 2016, the Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, publicly bragged that the formula would result in flipping enough moderate voters to secure a victory — just before the formula's epic failure handed Donald Trump the presidency," Sirota explains. "Four years later, though, the formula seemed to work; Democrats united to quash the primary against the quasi-incumbent Joe Biden, and Trump's horrific first term allowed Biden to eke out a win with a flaccid campaign based on a meaningless platitude about 'the soul of America.'"

Sirota adds, "Now, Democrats seem intent on using the formula again — only this time, it's even more risky because this is not a race against a sitting Republican president."

After Biden officially announced his 2024 reelection campaign, Sanders was quick to give him an enthusiastic endorsement and warn that putting Trump back in the White House — assuming Trump is the Republican nominee — would be a disaster for the United States. But Sirota has doubts that disdain for Trump will be enough for Biden.

"Democrats will presume that come general election time, disgust with the Republican nominee will cure all the discontent, demoralization and disillusionment sown by a feeble left-punching incumbent and by the party's heavy-handed primary suppression tactics," Sirota argues. "Maybe that's what ends up happening…. But there’s mounting evidence that the opposite could happen, and that 2024 could be more like 2016 than 2020."

The writer continues, "That's hardly surprising. As gross as Republican politicians are, Democrats' formula may not be sustainable over the long haul."

Read David Sirota's full op-ed for The Guardian at this link.

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