"Popularism" and Other Stuff

 

• What I hear from popularism: the purpose of running for office is to win, not to do anything.

• Dems: We do austerity better than Repubs ("Compassionate Austerity"??)

• Many people among my extended family have gone full QAnon. The issue for me isn't so much that they have gone utterly cuckoo (the have a Constitutional right to be cuckoo). The problem for me is that many of them are or were teaching our kids in classrooms and preaching from pulpits. Very scary.

• David Klion made some excellent (and obvious) points on Twitter today. "My issue with 'popularism' is not just that it assumes the median Dem voter can never be persuaded and must be catered to; it also assumes left voters/activists, by contrast, can be persuaded to abandon their core goals. Former outnumber latter but Dems can’t win without both." If the Dems simply take the left for granted (and I can personally testify that they do), "they don’t have to alienate all that many voters to blow a close election." And: "All this said, insofar as the idea is just 'emphasize popular stuff and de emphasize less popular stuff' as a candidate (as opposed to as an activist or a journalist), then sure, that seems prudent. I agree winning is better than losing. But you need the left to do it." But the Dems often act like they don't.