This is a good question. Republicans not moderating post-2020 cost them badly. It meant that they flopped hard in 2022 and failed to flip the Senate, because they pursued the most extreme abortion agendas possible and ran repellant J6 challengers in battlegrounds. Politics never only works one way.
@lauren-egan.bsky.social @lakshya.splitticket.org Wondering why there's so much ink spilled on how and why Democrats should moderate but when Republicans were in the minority post-2020, there was little (no?) such writing about the GOP. Is the GOP free from the need to moderate? Why?
The Democrats spill a lot of ink on electability and spend a lot of time wailing over their failures, but as a result, they also consistently picked the more electable candidates, especially in swing states and swing seats. Polls suggest Trump won by way less in 2024 than folks like Haley would have
If 2024 was a football (soccer) match, the Democrats basically played 2024 down a man, 11v10, given the macro conditions and how badly Biden crippled the party. They still nearly flipped the House despite Trump carrying 230 districts.
May 13, 2025 22:32Trump still convinced a lot of voters he was "more moderate" than Harris, especially because he triangulated on abortion and Medicare/Medicaid, which helped with lower-propensity voters who were furious at Biden/Harris. But he had his own baggage — data suggests another R would likely do better.
