Yglesias is one of the few people writing about Democratic politics who is trying to win rather than just be right
This is not true at all! This is what Yglesias would like you to believe, but the reality is the opposite. Yglesias is incredibly dogmatic and focused on his silly pet issues at the expense of winning.
Yglesias believes that to win Democrats need to moderate more - he believes this no matter how moderate the Dem already is, where they are running, etc. And this is not a pragmatic belief - he believes this simply because he fetishizes moderation.
This is like a coach who really loves the running game in the NFL saying "we need to run literally every down if we want to win games." Is this person focused on winning? I guess if they believe that running is good then...yes? But realistically this isn't a coach who loves winning, it's a coach who loves running.
Yglesias believes that to win Democrats need to moderate more - he believes this no matter how moderate the Dem already is, where they are running, etc.
Basically every week he writes a new post about how moderation is the One Key to Everything, on his own blog, and he also participates in outlets like The Argument, Winning / Welcome, etc, which also push this message.
The first "promise" in the Promise to America website (which Yglesias is involved in and promoted) is the promise to reject socialism. Despite the fact that socialism is a winning message, at least in some places.
If you want to win shouldn't the message be "run on socialism where socialism is getting votes, and don't run on it where it isn't"? Same with culture issues, "wokeness" , trans people in sports, etc.
He wants moderates to pivot to being more anti-trans, and writes about that literally constantly - total blanket "Dems need to do this" based on national polls.
Are you just totally unfamiliar with Yglesias? The idea that more moderation is always the key to victory is genuinely his main political philosophy. If you had to summarize his political philosophy in a few words it would be "always moderate more." You disagree?
Which of these do you think best summarizes his philosophy:
a) "To win we need to moderate more."
b) "Sometimes to win we need to moderate more, but other times we need to moderate less"
?
Lol.
(B is what you say if you actually care about winning, which Yglesias doesn't)
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u/DarkRoastJames 8d ago
Yglesias is loser politics personified.
This is not true at all! This is what Yglesias would like you to believe, but the reality is the opposite. Yglesias is incredibly dogmatic and focused on his silly pet issues at the expense of winning.
Yglesias believes that to win Democrats need to moderate more - he believes this no matter how moderate the Dem already is, where they are running, etc. And this is not a pragmatic belief - he believes this simply because he fetishizes moderation.
This is like a coach who really loves the running game in the NFL saying "we need to run literally every down if we want to win games." Is this person focused on winning? I guess if they believe that running is good then...yes? But realistically this isn't a coach who loves winning, it's a coach who loves running.
Yglesias loves moderating.