Veering Outside My Lane to Give Political Advice
No, I have no qualifications for doing this. & there is little reason to take me seriously here. Nevertheless…
I find Matt Yglesias addressing Democratic politicians,. He is arguing, if I may try to caricature him only slightly, that:
Successful Democrats adapt: figures like Gallego, Fetterman, MGP, Golden, and Mamdani recalibrate toward pragmatism.
Winning requires platform discipline, not purity.
Acting “moderately” works—Biden’s asylum shutdown stemmed irregular arrivals and faced limited backlash—yet during his term leaders avoided defining divisive but nationally broadly popular stances
The big problem with post-Obama Democratic politicians at the national level was that they succumbed to the siren songs of “the groups”.
Hence the Obama-era centrist issue space (deficits, all-of-the-above energy, education reform, trade) was abandoned.
And as Biden’s agenda moved left, it created a great deal of ambiguity about what Democrats really stood for.
Hence: Define the center: Reclaim affordability-first energy, sane immigration, and institutional seriousness.
Hence: Cultural big tent: Tolerate heterodoxy to expand reach. Anti-abortion voters and candidates are welcome, with the understanding that the party as a whole is 100% committed to keeping abortion safe and legal, but is also willing to go an extra mile or two to make it rare.
Hence: Coach, don’t purge: Establishment should guide candidates toward electable platforms, not gatekeep.
Hence: Eye on the ball: a party trapped in factional trench warfare forfeits persuadable voters.
In sum:
Matt Yglesias: Democrats need to debate ideas, not people <https://www.slowboring.com/p/democrats-need-to-debate-ideas-not>: ‘Fundamentally, a Democratic Party that courts the support of Joe Rogan and that proudly maintains a big tent on abortion rights while being led by self-identified progressives is going to be more appealing than one led by self-identified moderates who are constantly purging people over progressive litmus tests. It’s taking the positions that matters…
And:
When I talk to politically influential people who are broadly aligned with me on these questions, the tendency as conversation goes on is to start saying negative things about Rashida Tlaib or Ilhan Omar…. Be clear that Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar are not the cause of Democrats’ political problems. The cause is Joe Biden and, to a lesser extent, Democratic leaders in Congress. Biden was slow to act on [asylum] the border, even though when he did act, it worked and there was no huge rebellion against him. And… I would sometimes bug people I knew working in Biden’s Education Department to say they should weigh in against things like math detracking or test-optional admissions policies. And plenty of people working in the administration agreed with me! But there was no interest from the top in taking positions that would divide the coalition…. There’s a discourse that chalks all these problems up to left-wing junior staffers…. [But] ultimately, the senior staffers made a strategic decision that they absolutely did not want to divide their coalition if they could possibly help it. And that made it impossible to advance a genuinely moderate view of what ailed America in the early 2020s…
And:
We’ve seen Gallego remake himself from progressive insurgent to moderate stalwart because he’s a smart guy and can count votes. He’s also come up with a brand of moderate politics that makes a lot more sense substantively and politically than Sinema’s…. John Fetterman, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, and Jared Golden were all Bernie Sanders supporters in 2016. Rebecca Cooke was also a Bernie backer, and she’s now running in Wisconsin as a Blue Dog with Sanders’s support. Good for her, and good for him for continuing to support her. Or look at Mamdani in New York… aware that his record on crime and public safety issues is a problem. He’s articulating more moderate positions and apologizing for past statements…. You know you’re winning the argument politically when your opponents are conceding that what you’re saying makes sense and just insisting that you’re lying…. Mamdani… was advised by Sanders—himself a former mayor—that there is no way to be a successful mayor without a good working relationship with the police department. That’s good advice! I don’t know if Mamdani can pull it off, but he’s definitely trying…
And:
The correct answers on these issues are widely known, but both sides are paralyzed by the quest for tactical factional advantage…
In short, not the “Whig measures with Tory men…” of Benjamin d’Israeli, but rather “center-left measures with left candidates…”
OK. This is me summarizing, or perhaps parodying,or perhaps steelmanning, or perhaps strawmanning, Matt Yglesias. Tell me which it is that you think I have done.
Now what do I think of this? I think it is above my pay grade. I think it is outside of my lane.
Nevertheless:
It is the inversion of Dwight D. Eisenhower explaining how he was going to run his presidency as a right-wing conservative in the New Deal Order social-democratic age:
Dwight D. Eisenhower: Letter to Edgar N. Eisenhower of November 8, 1954 <https://teachingamericanhistory.org/document/letter-to-edgar-newton-eisenhower/>: ‘I believe this country is following a dangerous trend…. I oppose this…. But… the Federal government cannot avoid or escape responsibilities which the mass of the people firmly believe should be undertaken…. This is what I mean by my constant insistence upon “moderation”…. Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are H. L. Hunt (you possibly know his background), a few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid…
Eisenhower made the case that he was a better steward of the government of the New Deal Order precisely because he was not a true believer in it, and hence had a much clearer-eyed views of its successes and failures than any Democratic president possibly could. We may still be in a Neoliberal Order age, in spite of everything. The old may be dying, but is not dead yet. The new is struggling to be born, and at the moment looks more likely to herald the coming of a Neofascist Order (The Holy Name of the One Who Is forbid!) than of any of the other possible ideologies at the table with chips. Hence the right position for a Democrat outside—and even inside—the blue states is: “we are going to do those things Trump says he wants to do that are attractive because they make sense, and we are not going to do those things Trump says he wants to do that are stupid; plus we will do the other things that we think need to be done as long as they have broad support”.
Therefore, today: