I never understood the idiocy behind “Huh people keep voting for Republicans instead of us, what if we were just Republicans lite instead of actually supporting things that poll better than Republican positions!” It’s like New Coke. In the 80s, Coca Cola did some research and found that at the time, most people preferred Pepsi to Coke, and released a “new and improved” version of Coke that tasted more like Pepsi. It was a complete disaster. People who preferred Pepsi continued to prefer Pepsi because well you can’t out-Pepsi the real Pepsi. But people who actually did prefer Coke completely hated New Coke because it didn’t taste like Coke. In trying to beat Pepsi by being more like Pepsi, Coke created a product that nobody wanted because it was just a worse version of Pepsi to Pepsi fans and a worse version of Coke to Coke fans. I feel like the Democrats are doing the same thing here. People who love Trump are not going to vote for Democrats no matter how much like Trump they try to be because you can’t out-Trump Trump. Even DeSantis failed at this trying to go even harder right than Trump because fundamentally this movement is about personal dedication to Trump rather than any ideology. So to Republicans these weak spined Democrats will still be worse versions of Republicans, and to Democrats they will be worse versions of Republicans, creating a party nobody wants. Democrats have been trying and failing at this strategy for the past decade and refuse to give up on it, even in view of the success of Mamdani in the primaries for NYC Mayor on a democratic socialist platform. At a certain point one has to think the Democrats are doing this on purpose to maintain the status quo while presenting the illusion of an opposition. Otherwise the leadership are some of the dumbest people in the world and have no place in leadership.