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One could argue Trump was just better at it

If he believed political agents can shape and change beliefs, then he'd have a moral responsibility to try and shape and change the beliefs of the public himself, and his ass is still hanging onto grievances over being asked to wash his goddamn office dishes.

Two years ago, well-paid *consultants* were pushing Dems needed to focus on kitchen table issues and nothing else. By three weeks ago, *only* consultants were telling them to stick to that. Progressives have been yelling at them to take a stand against authoritarianism for the last year.

There are policies and elected officials. How about researching them?

^FWIW, this is largely true even in parliamentary systems where the losing party - if the leader steps down - has a new leader, with some new policy perspective a couple of months after the election they lost in.

I agree. Forcing Dems into unpopular positions doesn’t help them be opposition.

Indeed. Dumb on so many levels. Cuz if there is one thing that Republicans have shown over the last three decades, it's that the best electoral strategy is to attack your opponents' strengths and bring those approvals down. Their negatives will always be there to be attacked.

The Dems could have and still should define a comprehensive immigration policy that integrates with the needs of the entire US. The US needs legal immigrants to not only sustain the economy, but to grow it. But the Dems are weak and lazy and are prone to fund raising off MAGA and the status quo..

My favorite part is he's going to see this because he has such a tin ear.

I’d argue he was never as smart as he thought he was. I can’t think of a single original, insightful, important, thought he’s had

Is there research on whether you should attack your opponents strengths or weaknesses? Yglesias takes it as a given that you should stick to areas where your opponent is unpopular, but it’s not obvious to me that that would be better than trying to diminish an opponents strength?

Drag him!

The main genius of Karl “Turdblossom” Rove was that he understood you attacked opponents against their strengths, not their weaknesses. Voters understand an opponent’s weaknesses. Make them question their strengths.

I totally agree the backlash was predictable and don’t deny you predicted it. The q is whether Ds could have/should have tried to “lead” the backlash. There is a good argument that louder D leading on this would have not helped the D cause. Call it the Trump dug own hole theory.

Passion says IMMIGRATION!!!

It’s fine to disagree on tactics but your posts on this ignore the possibility that Trump himself cratered his own standing on the ICE issue - ie, killing Good etc has made this/him much more unpopular than anything Ds could have said in mid 2025. Negative polarization is a real, empirical thing.

Imagine writing a book saying we should have 500,000,000 more immigrants and then being afraid to stand up for immigrants

Unless we're currently in the middle of a GOP created national hyper-crisis, Democrats trying to explain to voters why they'd be better about literally any fucking issue that's not healthcare or civil rights is basically this Onion article where the second part happens in their collective brains

Dumb posts are kind of his thing

Has that guy ever posted something that wasn’t one of the dumbest posts of the year?

One, and only one, positive thing I can say about shitstain is that he will post dumber things in 2026.

And this is the larger untold story of the Popularist Dogma: foregone opportunities They are constantly leaving ammo on the table that they could have used. They are constantly foregoing advantages for entire cycles out of cowardice and at great cost. Imagine Yglesias w/veto power behind the scenes.

It’s doubly idiotic for pols to follow opinion polls since he is/was only seen positively through salient propoganda People will have their minds changed if you work to change them. And while the market can be irrational longer than you can be solvent. Long term plans can’t be built on bubbles

If Matt Yglesias was struck by a meteor the quality of journalism in the US would improve by a dramatic percentage. You put a roller coaster on that line graph and it will be shut down for snapping necks like dry reeds.

The only reason to preemptively curtail your messaging on an issue is if you secretly support the issue. Just by delivering a clear message why something is bad can move the needle, especially when a thing is easily provably and ontologically evil

get his ass

Prescient, GEM

You mean public opinion at a point in time may not always be the case and it may be useful to anticipate things and show leadership? All serious pundits should wag their fingers with condescension for such a crazy thought.

as any competent political messenger could point out, ice's actions in minnesota have nothing to do with immigration policy. ordinary people are currently furious because of the masked men executing an innocent citizen on the street, as shown on video, and the admin's brazen lies about the victim.

he’s tanking on both, which should be the objective. we want to make him unpopular on *everything*, not just the issues that we are strongest on.

Yglesias gonna yglesias.