I don't think anyone said the median voter doesn't matter, but we've seen that pandering to the opinions of people who aren't going to vote for you no matter what isn't going to create a persuasive campaign for less politically certain people who vote based on other dimensions.
The biggest problem with his theory here is how do you do "moderation" and "deliverism" at the same time? We can have another Joe Manchin or pro-life dem in a red state, but if they spike the ball on Dem policy, they're throwing other Dems in purple states who ran on this under the bus.
The biggest problem with his theory here is how do you do "moderation" and "deliverism" at the same time? We can have another Joe Manchin or pro-life dem in a red state, but if they spike the ball on Dem policy, they're throwing other Dems in purple states who ran on this under the bus.
I think we need more words to describe "political" and our media system is failing us. Is it partisan gamesmanship? Brinksmanship? Performance art? Actual debate about the policies?
It's funny you put "The Groups" in scare quotes. Perfectly circular idea that as long as dems lose, there's always a part of the coalition that's still unreasonable and wants to lose.
I'm sure it's never your favorite advocacy agencies tho, it's always the other ones.
to be fair, I think douthat is smart enough to know better, but he intentionally does this and gets a kick out of laundering fascist talking points into the times and scaring other libs about the dangers of "populism" until they are ambivalent about fascism.
It was also shocking that Ezra is so convinced AOC might want to run in 2028. Like simultaneously overestimating and underestimating her, and to what purpose? I have no idea except that it's an indication of what irony poisoned circles he runs in now.
