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Fewer numbers than in 2020. Biden got 81,283,361 votes in 2020. Kamala only got 75,000,783 votes in 2024.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-elections/president-results
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-elections/president-results
The Democrats look at who votes. Democrats don't think about leftists, because as far as Democrats are concerned people who don't vote don't exist. The Democrats want political power and they are willing to chase voters, not non-voters, to get it.
They don't just think they can shift right, they think they have to shift right in order to win. If leftists can't be asked to vote for Republicans or Democrats then the Democrats thinks they are a lost cause.
It is not about leverage. It's about power. Voting gives people power not leverage. If a group votes for a political party then that political party caters to that group. If a group doesn't vote then political parties chase other groups that do vote. Grassroots movements can get better candidates between elections.
This whole idea of leverage has been demonstrated to be false in this election. There is no fulcrum on the political spectrum. Democrats should be clambering to get leftist votes right now according to the hypothesis of leverage, but the evidence shows the opposite, the Democrats are frantically looking for moderate and conservative votes.
Political parties have to be shoved in the desired direction. The way to shove political parties during elections is by voting for them.
No you don't get me. The party platform shifted to the right in 2024 despite getting progressive votes in 2020. By your hypothesis this shouldn't have happened. Progressives voted for the DNC in 2020 and yet were abandoned by them in 2024.
That aside your assumptions here are game theoretically false. You cannot get someone to act in your best interest if you promise to support them no matter what they do. It simply doesn't make sense, as we have seen from how the DNC treated progressives this election.The DNC doesn't follow leftist (or really working class) votes because they're behold to their corporate donors (and because they're led by fossils who should've retired or died decades ago), not because it's successful electoral strategy.
This ignores the incremental shift to the left by Biden after the 2020 election which supports my arguments and refutes your argument.
The Democrats won in 2020 when more people voted for them and shifted left.
The Democrats lost in 2024 when fewer people voted for them and shifted right.
The 2024 election is the evidence that refutes your argument's position. People didn't vote for Democrats and the Democrats are now looking for moderate and conservatives who voted. It was the people on the left claiming they wouldn't vote so it's reasonable that leftists are making up part of the difference in the popular vote count.
People always act in their self-interest. The goal is to get people to understand that voting for the viable mainstream political party that is the furthest to the left is the most useful strategy to forward their self interest.
The evidence from this election in fact demonstrates my argument to be correct. My argument is that if progressives don't vote they won't be catered to by Democrats. Progressives didn't vote and now they aren't being catered to by Democrats.
While both parities are beholden to the owner class, the corporate donors can only provide money to seek out votes. Democrats still need a voting base to cater to. The votes are still the essential resource to win elections as that is what is counted in an election. We still need to co-opt the Democrats to get a socialist and progressive agenda to get rid of the owner class.
The DNC doesn't seek out leftists because leftists don't vote. The DNC seeks out people who vote.