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Matt Jarvis's avatar

What if it has something to do with the alternatives?

What if those Democrats are currently prioritizing electability because they're playing defense against something they perceive to be truly unacceptable? Negative partisanship has been increasing moderately over the last 3 decades, but I think the number of us political scientists saying "umm, the GOP is something different" since 2016 should be taken into account. The Democrats might just be really terrified of the alternative.

While I think there's something to this, I can't think of a good way of testing it historically. So, I'm very cautious about drawing this conclusion, because it leaves me with a "how do you explain anything before 2014" problem.

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