> Had the Democrats put up anyone who was less divisive than Hillary Clinton then we are not where we are today.
> Likewise this time around, nobody I have talked to seriously voted for Joe Biden on his own merits. They voted for him because he's not Donald Trump.
That might just be a function of your bubble. Biden was probably the Democratic candidate with the broadest appeal, which is in fact his own merit. Biden wasn't running for President of California. He might not have deeply appealed to this or that demographic or ideological slice of the electorate, but if you go too far in that direction with a diverse electorate you risk getting either electable failures that bully the rest of the country (like Trump) or unelectable failures (like some of the other candidates in the primaries).
> Likewise this time around, nobody I have talked to seriously voted for Joe Biden on his own merits. They voted for him because he's not Donald Trump.
That might just be a function of your bubble. Biden was probably the Democratic candidate with the broadest appeal, which is in fact his own merit. Biden wasn't running for President of California. He might not have deeply appealed to this or that demographic or ideological slice of the electorate, but if you go too far in that direction with a diverse electorate you risk getting either electable failures that bully the rest of the country (like Trump) or unelectable failures (like some of the other candidates in the primaries).