Read on Twitter
We need smarter media. It should be obvious that the label "moderate" can't possibly apply merely on the basis that there were farther-left candidates in the presidential race. This is supremely facile.
If that's the way we're doing it, the Democrats should strategically run Chairman Mao or whoever every race so that they can then reap the coverage benefits of having their genuinely progressive candidates be construed, for independents and centrists, as the safe moderate choice.
It's certainly true that there was a farther-left contingent in the 2020 race than what Kamala represented. But there's no reason to use them as the conceptual anchor for determining what labels other progressive candidates should receive.
There should still be room to say, "more moderate than x," or to use some other qualification, but to fasten Bernie/Warren's presence as the key input in determining Kamala's politics, rather than a broader look at Kamala's place within the entire political system, is a mistake.
Like, we shouldn't have to read in an NYT piece, "Mike Pence chose Lindsay Graham, a pragmatic moderate, for vice president" simply because Ted Cruz or Tom Cotton exist.
