There are some other things transpiring in American politics right now. But we must note that Democratic leaders are now unabashedly stating what Bernie Sanders supporters said over and over in 2020: the party pushed Joe Biden primarily to stop Bernie.
This was never in doubt, it was said from the beginning. The fear is that someone who refers to themselves as a socialist cannot win in the rust belt swing states. Pro-labor positions in general don't do well in the midwest, it's a central area in the fight to dismantle unions.
I lived in MAGA country in 2016 and when they found out I was a Bernie supporter they told me they liked him, both for his hatred of billionaires and for his steadfast adherence to his principles even if they didn't agree with him.
He was the most popular politician in America for YEARS after that election. He’s still more popular than either Biden or Trump.
I think that, if the DNC’s kneecapping of him had not succeeded, someone might have shot him. They just can’t have that shit. Think of how MANY people with how much power he was sticking the finger directly in the eye of.
That I agree with. Any certainty he would have won in red states is misplaced though, elections are not that predictable. He might have. He might not have. He certainly wouldn't have gained support from anti-communist types though, and that line of attack would have been employed heavily by the repubs. They do it anyway even with neolib dems.
I don't think you've ever spent much time in the rust belt if you think that region of Trump country wouldn't have a very negative knee-jerk reaction to just the simple word. They very much like the idea of income inequality, the whole "if I work hard enough, I can be Jeff Bezos too" idea. They do not understand things like systemic advantage, sounds too woke.