Yglesias says something I think we can agree on: Krysten Sinema must be stopped. Unlike a lot of Very Online Commentators, Yglesias understands that Manchin is a pain in the ass, but having a 50th Senate vote from West By God Virginia represents a massive electoral overperformance by Manchin over his state demographics. Sinema, Yglesias notes, is literally replacement level for Arizona. I also think he rightly points to Ruben Gallego as a natural primary challenger.
However, Yglesias also suggests that Sinema might represent a potentially fatal turn for Democratic politics. He's been beating the drum for what he calls "popularism" as opposed to populism. Doing thing that are popular is good politics. He also notes, correctly, that too many positions Democrats take are only really popular with elements of their activist base.
He would be right if insisting on defunding the police or mandating the use of Latinx were the central point of Democratic politics. His worry is that Sinema represents some sort of Woke Neoliberalism, that uses the appropriate pronouns, but votes for corporate tax cuts. As evidence for this move, he points to...Krysten Sinema. Sinema is remarkably unpopular among Arizona Democrats. Her overall favorability is buoyed by Republicans giving her a boost, but that will evaporate in the face of a Republican challenger. Sinema in no ways shows any sort of way forward, precisely because she has moved away from the most popular elements of Biden's agenda: competitive drug pricing and raising taxes on the wealthy.
Republicans have run for years on leveraging social issues to win elections and then only really cutting taxes on the rich (which is not popular). Democrats have largely coalesced around raising taxes on those same groups. Manchin has left himself open to repealing Trump's tax cuts - he voted against them the first time. One outlier who could very well lose her primary does not represent a potential direction for the broader party.
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