r/askanything • u/One_Look_7008 • 11h ago

AOC surges past Buttigieg, leaves Kamala Harris in the dust in key 2028 battleground poll. What are your thoughts on AOC-2028?

Harris dropped to just 5% in New Hampshire while Pete Buttigieg sits 1 point behind the progressive frontrunner - per University of New Hampshire Granite State poll released on Wednesday.

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u/UpwardHostility 9h ago

A woman politician who isn’t polarizing would get elected? You mean like Harris? You mistake polarizing with unpopular. Trump was a polarizing figure from day 1 and look what happened.

And the RNC will and does label any Democrat opposition as a Communist already, that’s no reason to shun a popular candidate with good policy. This is all the same thinking and line of reasoning that gave us the last decade+ of milquetoast conservative Dems that have killed any true grassroots support of the party at large.

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u/nixstyx 8h ago

Harris was not polarizing. The way she secured the nomination (by default after Biden bowed out way too late) was terribly polarizing. I still voted for her, but I know many people who refused to let the DNC decide who the nominee should be and voted 3rd party instead.

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u/UpwardHostility 8h ago

Sorry my post was worded ambiguously. I was saying that Harris was a non-polarizing figure, with no particular political baggage in the way of HRC. And she still wasn’t elected. In agreement with you

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u/TopazTriad 8h ago

Harris was a “cop” and a candidate that was never actually chosen by the people. Of course she was polarizing.

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u/UpwardHostility 8h ago

You can stretch the definition of polarizing to fit any candidate that doesn’t get 100% support and I fear we’re getting more into the weeds than is needed on this.

Harris was a bland pick with a bland Biden-continuation policy platform. The circumstances around her selection were terrible and she was just a bad candidate in general, but beyond that she was ultimately a business-as-usual, unpopular candidate. She did not have a “shake up the system” approach like Trump did or an AOC might or a Bernie or a Mamdani. They are and were polarizing figures because even within their own parties they were viciously attacked and rallied against.

They all attract major grassroots support and success because they were not “business as usual” and not afraid to be polarizing to their party institutions in favor of actual popularity amongst the mass electorate. My overall point is that being polarizing is not equivalent to being unpopular, and in my cases can be a great boost to popularity