Unfortunately when faced with genocidal fascism, pragmatism looks an awful lot like appeasement... And after 40 years of appeasing the oligarchy while they slowly take away our rights, health, and wealth, I think people are almost ready to fight. Maybe not physically... But in any way they can.
Which brings us to the fact that there are 3 choices in the upcoming election... Trump, Biden, stay home (or 3rd party, but that's basically the same as staying home unfortunately)... If Dems and Biden really wanted to get people off the couch and in to vote they'd be figuring out what it takes and doing it... Instead they're just following their already shown to fail bullying strategy... It's really irritating to see them seemingly willfully losing to Trump rather than go against their corporate masters... Again
The reason Trump is so popular is because he's a protest vote. At least in the delusional minds of the maga crowd. He is certainly not a part of the oligarchy controlling the establishment... He's his own oligarchy, and a dangerous one too... But his followers are very dumb and very brainwashed. All they see is that he's a way to fight against the establishment. The Dems needed to put up a protest candidate of their own. Utterly reject the establishment/oligarchy, and embrace the protest... Instead they once again doubled down on the most establishment candidate they could find.