Who’s trying to apply leftist definitions? There is nothing in any definition of “liberal” that aligns it with leftism. It gets misused constantly in multiple ways, not to mention being confused with neoliberalism.

"I'm not trying to apply leftist definitions, I'm just completely ignoring the common usage of 'liberal' in US politics that both the deeply-involved and the apolitical recognize"

Okay.

Tell that to Andrew Cuomo, or Joe Crowley.

What does that have to do with what I said?

Not true. Republicans (and some Democrats) are working hard at removing ballot initiatives because they work so well for the left.

Of those listed ballot measures, voting rights was the only one that was an unpopular issue at the time, and it had distinctly mixed results, as Jacobin noted.

Why would you assume Bernie being left is why he lost?

I said

Likewise, having a positive view of a politician is not the same as voting for them,

Clinton had way more large money donations than Bernie, and she had corporate media in her pocket.

Okay? How does that at all contradict my point about how people vote?

Bernie wasn’t even making a serious run until he started doing far better than he thought he would. Half way through he completely reorganized his campaign to be a real candidate instead of an issue candidate. The fact that he was able to make that a race against someone with Hillary’s name recognition and the party blessing shows just how powerful left messaging can be.

Yet he still didn't win, again, even in the more left-leaning of the two parties, and much of his support was gained from anti-Hillary sentiment rather than pro-leftist sentiment - as seen in West Virginia, itself a very conservative state that went for Bernie in the 2016 primary, but overwhelmingly for right-wing candidates in the 2008 and 2020 primaries.

The point of this is not "BERNIE BAD". Bernie is fantastic, I voted and volunteered for him twice. The point is that the country is not as fucking left as you think it is just because Bernie's favorability is high. I lived in a deeply conservative area in 2016, plenty of conservative folks (both in the GOP and Blue Dog/'Moderate' sense) quite openly were positive about Bernie - but would never have voted Bernie in a thousand fucking years. They liked him, but that's not the same as being willing to vote for him, or agreeing with him.

The issue against Biden wasn’t that left politics was unpopular, it was that left politics was perceived to be unpopular.

Except every time a poll comes up and actually asks in-depth questions about left policies that include any of their downsides, like "Would you support universal healthcare if it includes raising taxes, even slightly?", support for left policies drop. "Do you want [GOOD THING]?" polls well, because of fucking course it does. The moment attack ads show up pointing out the issue has any potential downsides, those numbers fucking crater in terms of how they're actually voted on.

The number one issue for Democratic voters in 2020 was beating Trump. Voters thought a centrist candidate had a better chance, even though Bernie and Biden pulled almost identically against Trump. The media kept pounding on the electability argument against Bernie, and it stuck. Polling on the candidates showed voters preferred Bernie’s policies, but they didn’t know if he could win.

You know what? You're absolutely right. The country is overwhelmingly left-wing, and we've just rejected every leftist candidate in the primaries for the past 37 years because of some convenient mishap every fucking presidential election cycle, and the last time we did embrace a 'leftist' (or at least unabashedly liberal) candidate, we got fucking stomped.

The country is really left-wing though, we're just all suffering from mirror Shy Tory syndrome.

I sometimes wonder if any of you have ever even fucking talked to moderate Dems. Or, for that matter, conservatives, who often have the same pattern of "Oh yes that sounds very good ^.^" but wouldn't support left issues in a million fucking years.

Oh, fuck you, that’s not at all what I said.

"The country is openly left-wing" is even more insane, and you're certainly arguing for one of the two. Your entire argument is predicated on the idea that left-wing policies are immensely popular. So which of the two is it?