I don’t understand how you come to your conclusions. It was the moderate Democrats that won the Dems control of the House in 2018. Sadly, Dems seems to be forgetting that and are even attempting to “primary” some of those new members who won close elections because they were centrists.

Trump won 2016 because of Midwestern swing states where Obama voters voted for “Trump”. It is hard to conceive that those voters would support a progressive liberal who declares they want to take away their hard bargained health plan and potentially increase their taxes to pay for someone else’s health care. They want a President who is working for them, not some progressive ideology.

Trump beat Hillary regardless of the fifty plus excuses she has given for three fundamental reasons all related to Midwestern pragmatic Democratic voters. Hillary was a globalist, bureaucratic elitist, and an ideologue who showed little interest in campaigning in the Midwest. Trump is not a Republican (any more than Bernie Sanders is a Democrat). Trump is a populist (and Sanders is a socialist).

Trump spoke to the fears of Midwestern blue collar workers who wanted a President that would fight to keep their jobs. Pretty straight forward historical pragmatic Democrat issues. He won the pragmatic Democratic vote for speaking their language.

Progressives have been reading to much of their own east and west coast press. I have lived all over the country including the West Coast, East Coast, South and Midwest. For the record, many Midwesterners and Southerners do not share progressive values. East and west coast new papers ignore them because they don’t buy their papers. But it does not mean their values are not important. Yet they are largely ignored by the coastal Democrats.

Only four democrats have been President since JFK. Three were from southern states and one from the Midwest. If statistics mean anything then a solid southern or Midwestern Democrat has the best chance against Trump, not an east or west coast progressive.