Political Memes

Progressives are consistently more popular in red states than centrist Democrats. I'm living in a deep red state in a rural area and have all my life. I talk to mouth-foaming reactionaries on a regular basis. The difference in our conversations about people like Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, and Kamala Harris versus people like Bernie Sanders, Zohran Mamdani, and AOC is extremely stark. They never have anything good to say about the former, but always preface their disapproval of the latter with "I agree with some of the stuff they say about [insert progressive policy proposal here], but I don't think it's realistic / I don't agree on their 'woke' stuff."

The centrist strategy of abandoning one's own values to reach across the aisle to them comes across to conservatives as dishonest and shady (and they're not wrong). They begrudgingly respect the progressive left for being uncompromising in their worldview, even if they disagree with it, and once you have someone's respect they are more likely to meaningfully engage with your arguments. That's how you change minds, and I've watched it happen on multiple occasions.