Moderating

 Yglesias makes another pitch for "popularism" under a different guise. He analyzes the conflict between the DLC and more liberal elements of the party around the turn of the century.

I honestly do think he's right when it comes to advancing arcane social issue language as a policy agenda. What's more, I think the critical moment for same sex marriage was when they stopped calling it "same sex marriage" and started calling it "marriage equality." The basic idea of couching your agenda in widely held, common values is really important.

What's more, if you ask any committed Democrat right now what the central political issue facing the country, it is the Republican party's open embrace of authoritarianism, not it's ongoing embrace of revanchist racism. The latter is an issue, but the GOP largely says "we aren't racist" while openly embracing political illiberalism and the authoritarian party state.

If you believe that the GOP has gone "Full Orban" (and I think that's the reality) then you should absolutely push towards the center. Part of the appeal of Biden was that he was precisely the most moderate candidate in many ways. How could grandpa be a radical? 

Where I think Yglesias skips over the other reality is that the GOP had some success casting Biden as a Socialist who was going to defund the police. Biden explicitly said he was not going to defund the police. So the environment of misinformation and disinformation does actually matter. He skips over that because there's really nothing that can be done about Fox News. (I would also caution about reading too much into Trump's relative strong showing amongst Hispanics. There's a strong incumbency effect among most demographics.)

The other issue I would suggest is overblown is the idea that Democratic positions are largely unpopular. The GOP got some mileage out of fear-mongering CRT, but you can absolutely read too much into Glenn Youngkin's victory. I would wager it was more about keeping schools remote than teaching them that slavery was bad. In 1994, the NRA took credit for the GOP wave, which was really about the party realignment hitting the South. Same with CRT critics saying they flipped Virginia. Doubtful.

The pandemic and its knock-on effects are still the central issue that have people unhappy (and we can add the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent energy spikes to that list). Inflation and supply chain problems are real. (My son is complaining about how his favorite burrito place is understaffed and out of food. That matters SO much more to people's sense of how "things are" than whether Volkswagen running an ad with gay parents.)

I guess I broadly agree with Yglesias that a lot of socially liberal positions should be placed on the backburner to defend against an authoritarian GOP taking over Congress. Democracy is on the ballot, and while embracing trans representation is important, the recent abortion events have shown how important it is to control Congress. As bad as Joe Manchin is, he still votes for Biden's pro-choice judges. If Democrats lose control of the Senate, McConnell will not confirm ANY judges. So if you support trans rights, maybe now is not the time to say that this is your one issue and you won't vote in November if your demands aren't met. Meanwhile saying that "all people should be treated fairly and accepted for who they are" is a perfectly reasionable stance.

Where I disagree is whether this will matter at all, if the economy is still problematic.