The Senate majority and minority leader is not someone you select for bold and inspirational rhetorical and ideological leadership; it’s someone who needs to win legislative knife fights and wrangle the party. When you’re a minority leader coming off a presidential election, job one is literally to not get in the way of the incumbent’s party fucking things up.
The most politically successful senate leader in the past century was LBJ and let’s not rewrite history: the left wing of the party fucking hated him and he got the VP nod in a bid to appeal to racists. Much like Biden, he passed some of the most progressive legislation we’ve seen by running from the center.
You know what other senate leader polls dismally from his base? Mitch Fucking McConnell. He’s RINO number one, most hated swamp creature and yet Mitch Fucking McConnell is the man most responsible for all the horrible fucking GOP wins we see. The Dems need their own creatures like him.