Economy

Harris, Biden, and Clinton are not progressives. The DNC shut out a popular progressive in 2016 and learned nothing then. D voters as a whole are too quick to dismiss anyone that might be a threat to their main candidate. Of course, Sanders running independent in 2016 would've secured an even more humiliating loss for Clinton. But it would've steered us toward a more productive conversation by now, and Trump likely wouldn't have won a second term, or probably even another nomination. Instead, let's move to the right and try to appeal to those "moderate"/"swing" voters.

I don't think Biden would've won without Trump's (mis)handling of the pandemic. There's certainly misogynists out there that would never vote for a woman, but the pandemic was the other major differentiator. The DNC is fine with serving their donors with the most appealing not-Trump puppet, rather than getting a candidate that the citizens genuinely want to vote for.