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In reply to the discussion: Mary Trump tweet! [View all]Hortensis
(58,785 posts)is also what's best for all of us. But I think that's what Biden's been doing all along. I know when he decided to run he came in as a fresh breeze of principle.
The rest of the field was running on things they were told voters wanted and bashing each other over who could provide the best. If polling had said that was canned peas, they'd have been promising to provide better and cheaper canned peas and trying to outdo each other with promises of pull-off lids and no GMOs.
I think you're really onto something with fear of criticism and what hostiles would be able to turn into weapons of destruction.
That reminded me, though, of incompetent/possibly sabotaging polling as a likely factor. I remember 2010 when it seemed like almost every Democrat ran scared on not sticking his head up because polls said that was the best way to hold onto his position in the post-2008 reactionary storm. Supposedly that was what we voters wanted of them. I didn't understand. What had happened to us Democrats that we reportedly had little laundry lists of needs but no real dreams or aspirations, much less wanted to build on electing Obama and continuing the fight for big advances? Later, everyone, including political columnists and the polling industry, were "surprised" at the completely unforeseen excitement and flood of mainstream enthusiasm for Elizabeth Warren's calls for big, bold actions. And of course the broad wave of support for her to run for president.
Polling completely, completely failed to reveal that most Democratic voters really wanted strong, affirmative action. And polling questions and analysis had failed to reveal us for years. In retrospect it seems obvious that that election industry, like every other, was sabotaging Democrats, however and why it came about. We knew most MSM were biased toward electing Republicans but didn't look hard at a crucial industry that supplied them and candidates, and ourselves, with critical information about us.
So I believe we're on the mend but still recovering from being told for years that as a party we weren't who we thought we were and didn't really believe in what we once did, with great damage to our own convictions and strength of purpose. And, bringing us back to your thoughts, to the ability of pols to talk about those to us.
After all, if you ask any 5 Democrats what principles they believe in, chances are excellent all 5 won't be able to think of even one without prompting. "Oh, yeah. Equality. Sure." Then they'll wait to be asked the real, typical polling questions, such as what they want in healthcare for themselves, and if black about social justice for themselves.