The Resistance's favorite poker metaphor makes no sense

Of all the takes on the rising clout of Democratic Socialists of America candidates in many American cities, the one that I most strongly disagree with comes not from the D.S.A. camp itself but from Josh Marshall, who responded to the party's recent primary victories with the quip that "'centrists,' this is on you."

I was prepared to agree after reading the headline.

Because I do think the sharp leftward swerve is in some sense very much the Democratic Party establishment reaping what it sowed by losing in 2024. The Biden administration alienated a lot of voters by governing far to the left on domestic issues and, while Kamala Harris did turn things around from her dire starting position, it was unwise of Democrats to pick a candidate so closely associated with Joe Biden and doubly unwise of that candidate to do so little to distance herself from Biden on any domestic issues. A repeated pattern in American politics is that when a party loses by being too extreme, their initial reaction is to become even more extreme. Democrats ought to move to the center in 2028, but they probably won't and that's bad.