My truth is that most Americans are neither Democrats nor Republicans, but Independents. Both Democrats and Republicans mostly vote for the respective party anyway, so the Independent group is the main target.

If you want to see what happens, when you run a full on populist left platform, look at the UK with Corbin vs Johnson. The media runs a massive shit storm against Corbin and Labour lost in a landslide, besides having some really good points. Core Labour voters, especially the left wing loved Corbin though.