John Fund of National Review Online describes Democrats’ current attitude toward moderate candidates.
The activist base of the Democratic party is lurching left fast enough that everyone should pay attention. Activists matter because their turnout in low-turnout primaries and caucuses almost propelled leftist Bernie Sanders to victory over Hillary Clinton in 2016. Last month, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez unseated New York congressman Joe Crowley, the No. 4 ranking House Democrat in a low-turnout primary. She benefited from organizing support from the Democratic Socialists of America. Leftists have also upset establishment Democrats in statewide primaries for governor in Colorado and Maryland.
The power of left-wing activists showed up in California this past Saturday, as 65 percent of the state Democratic party’s 330-member executive committee voted to spurn moderate Democratic senator Dianne Feinstein. Instead, they endorsed her left-wing opponent, Kevin de León, a state senator. De Leon won a stunning 65 percent of party activists, and Feinstein got just 7 percent. …
… The left wing of the Democratic party believes that history is on its side and that they can sweep away the party’s weak-kneed leadership. They point to surveys suggesting that younger people are increasingly interested in socialism as a desirable economic system. A recent Emerson College survey, for instance, found that Americans ages 18 to 34 prefer capitalism to socialism as the better system by only one point: 42 percent for capitalism to 41 percent for socialism. “The future belongs to us,” bellows Bernie Sanders to his audience.
But no so fast. Overall, voters prefer capitalism, by 54 percent to 24 percent. Among Americans 35 and older, the difference in support for capitalism over socialism was between 38 and 42 percentage points.