There's been a ton of talk lately about the "electability" of the various candidates in the 2020 Democratic presidential field. Pundits have weighed in on who's electable, who isn't, and why this is a difficult concept to examine. Others have argued the concept itself is basically a dodge, an attempt to get people to give up on the candidates they care about.
On the one hand, it's reasonable for voters and party elites to think about who could win: It would be an obvious waste to spend years evaluating candidates only to pick a nominee who has no chance of winning an otherwise winnable race. On the other hand, as Alex Pareene has argued in The New Republic, electability "is defined, like political 'moderation,' only in terms of opposition to things people want, but are told they can't have."
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