@Simplicator Correct. And I say that later.

The job of Yggy, Klein, et al is to sell conservatism as liberalism

Trumpism has succeeded because his side draws up a passionate core and supplements it with gigantic media presence.

There is no alternative to this. Goody-two-shoes "let's participate in democracy together" crap goes nowhere.

You can only defeat fascist power with progressive power. The namby-pamby fake left must go.

/end

There is hope for some of the newer voices in the Democratic Party like AOC and AES because they realize you have to actually stand for something to build a movement and draw people toward you.

The old guard must all be overthrown. Their laziness and cowardice can never defeat fascism.

The key strategy to overthrowing them is to always vote. Always support someone more progressive in the primaries and always support the Democrats in the general. Progressives will never build power otherwise.

Democrats don't want to have these public debates though because they hate their base and don't want to hear from you. This is why they prefer posting on Elon Musk's fascist dumpster fire rather than in the fediverse or Bluesky where Nazis do not have a presence.

Klein, Yglesias, Smith, etc. are also too afraid to post outside of Xitter. Because every time they do, they lose the argument.

But just for the sake of argument, let's assume that instead of being moderate conservatives, these people (Chuck Schumer, Matt Yglesias, Ezra Klein, etc) actually do have some left-wing views that they really do want to implement.

Popularism never gets you there, because you have to tell the public what you want.

You have to get out there and talk to everyone about why your ideas are great, and why they should trust and support you.

This is the neoliberal blob and it has been totally ineffectual at stopping Trump fascism because it thinks the world before Trump was great.

Meanwhile, most Americans have thought the country was headed in the wrong direction since 2009.

Nearly every other industrialized country has this same problem.

This also explains why it is that the people you keep seeing shoved in your face as "liberal thought leaders" are always pushing moderate conservatism and placating reactionaries:

-Nate Silver
-Steven Pinker
-Matt Yglesias
-Noah Smith
-Malcolm Gladwell
-Jonathan Haidt
-Ezra Klein
-Richard Hanania
-Jesse Singal...

I'm sure it's just a coincidence that they are all rich men who are indifferent to the struggles of the poor, women, victims of genocide, and racial and gender minorities!

Once you realize this about the so-called liberal media or the Democratic politicians who sometimes actually call themselves progressive, you can see why they act so timorously and refuse to listen to the most politically informed Democratic voters.

The other reason why popularism is the Democratic Way is that most American left elites are actually libertarians or moderate conservatives.

They don't want large welfare spending, restrictions on police misconduct, high taxes on corporate robber barons, breaking up and regulating monopolies, jail time for sexual assailants, or free healthcare and college....

So why does this failed, illogical, and immoral viewpoint continue to rule the Democratic elite class? Because popularism is easy. Its main dictate is to do nothing. And because of the plurality wins format of American elections, you can still win by default. Joe Biden in 2024 was doing almost no campaigning and he and his team thought they could win.

Simple pragmatism should have dictated the abandonment of popularism since it never led Clinton to a majority of his own, and it was not the method that Barack Obama used in the 2008 race which he won overwhelmingly.

Popularism has been a total failure during the Trump era as well. Since it became the Democratic Way in Obama II, the party has had zero major victories.

The only ones it's had have been following gigantic Republican screwups. They were public cries for help, not Dem endorsements.

This viewpoint, often called "popularism," has been absorbed like lead paint fumes by almost every person with access to Democratic power ever since Bill Clinton rose to power, and it's why they justify doing nothing against the Israeli genocide in Gaza, of declining to codify Roe v. Wade, or of standing up for #LGBTQ rights.

If leaders of the past had had this view, slavery would still be legal, women wouldn't be able to vote, and segregation would be a global phenomenon.

1) Public opinion is not fixed. It changes frequently, especially for people who don't follow politics or policy. Real leaders shape public opinion rather than imagining it to be an immovable object.

2) Polls are only measures of opinion within that moment. They are not indicative of where things will go. You have agency if you are an elected official.

3) Polling results often depend on how the question was worded. So you shouldn't draw too firm of conclusions from them.

The clip that I quoted in the OP is the essence of basically all DC Democratic thinking: Never, ever do anything unless you can cite a poll saying that it would be popular. It doesn't matter how evil or how illegal the Trump action, you should never say or do anything about it unless it would be very popular.

This view is morally monstrous. But it also is incredibly stupid because it misunderstands several things...

Firstly, let's establish that Yglesias has this kind of access. There are dozens of webpages like this one showing Yglesias moderating panels and giving speeches with members of Congress: https://www.thirdway.org/event/winning-the-middle#:~:text=Moderator%3A%20Matt%20Yglesias%C2%A0

Joe Biden's former chief of staff, Ron Klain, explicitly praised Yglesias's supposed insights to the Washington Post: https://archive.ph/EYB8I

🧵 Today, Mehdi Hasan published an interview with Matt Yglesias, a blogger who is one of the most influential pundits on the Democratic leadership class.

The clip I'm posting here is probably one of the most revealing in the discussion. In it, Yglesias says that it was wrong for #Minnesota residents to oppose the Trump regime's murderous ICE raids because it was unpopular beforehand.

He has a monstrous worldview, and sadly, he's someone Democratic elites think is very smart.

I Did the Absolute Bare Fucking Minimum For Overall Harm Reduction and Incremental Progress Instead of Succumbing to Despair, or Worse, Apathy

#Lake Michigan, I’ve loved you all my life. 🌊 Today at Cave Point County #Park in Door County, #Wisconsin.

#Water #Geology #Trees #Outdoors #Nature #NaturePhotography #Landscape #Landscapes #LandscapePhotography #Fall #Autumn #RoadTrip #TravelPhotography #ShotoniPhone #MobilePhotography #Photography #Photos #Photo

First they used the notwithstanding clause to override fundamental human rights. Next they came for library books. Now they are banning Pride flags.

This is not how democracies operate.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/edmonton/article/alberta-unfurling-flag-rules-limiting-what-can-go-up-at-schools/?taid=6adb7d8352e121000115387c

Ayyyy, I got included in this blocklist by an imperial agent. Mom, I made it 😭

This list includes Palestinian accounts, mutual aid participants, and people who have been advocating for them, such as @gazaverified @gaza_verified_accounts @aral @fabio
@monaant @nemo @chielk @tsbasatoru and many more

https://gitflic.ru/project/fediverse-express/fediverse/blob?file=block_spam_scam_users.csv&branch=main

That classist list was shared by a USian imperial cunt using the #MutualAidRequest hashtag in their toot. Amazing.

https://fairy.id/@Linux/117492016734185582

Also, the same USian imperial cunt wrote an essay on why you're utter filth for making use of your free will to make a conscious choice to contribute meaningfully in solidarity with Palestinians. The post is long and full of projections.

🔗 https://fairy.id/@Linux/117457880159886686

They've already blocked me because I'm on the VIP list, uwu 😻

It's always people who are barely above the poverty line who hold the most self-righteous contempt for dispossessed communities and those who stand in solidarity with them, all for daring to find alternative ways to survive without relying on politicians or governments.

Not my first rodeo, either. I've already lost accounts across Meta's platforms amid this same kind of lateral violence against Palestinian solidarity and mutual aid. It even got to the point where some people in the US and NL tried to report me, an Indonesian in Indonesia, to the police and sue me. For what? For advocating for people who need mutual aid while I MYSELF also need mutual aid. Damn, some people really want others to die so badly that they just gotta invent a reason.

Apparently, the Fediverse isn't immune to it either.

Do what you will with that list. @mutualaid
#Palestine