One thing in this debate is that @perrybaconjr the participants can't agree on which side is the conventional wisdom — he seems to think popularism is the generally accepted view among Democrats whereas I think it's just the opposite. https://t.co/Lb1gAyQj31

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) August 10, 2021

Both sides agree that ceteris paribus it's better to have popular policies and an image of moderation and also that these are not the only things that matter in politics.

But both sides think the other side is overstated and too influential (the difference is I'm right).

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) August 10, 2021

I think one test is that "Donald Trump won in 2016 ditching unpopular GOP positions on Social Security and Medicare" seems to me to be a contrarian position, with most media accounts frontloading factors other than his adoption of new, more moderate stances on major issues.

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) August 10, 2021

Now I think reasonable people can disagree as to whether I am right that those acts of policy moderation deserve to be frontloaded.

But I think it's clear that they are not, in fact, frontloaded in most media discussions and that popularism is there not the mainstream view.

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) August 10, 2021

popularism--as i understand the term-- seems like it's been the accepted view among Democrats... for decades? you won't get that impression on https://t.co/A33jmcR68K, but the campaigns in swing districts seem to speak for themselves

— Nate Cohn (@Nate_Cohn) August 10, 2021

Yes I think it is influential among the tiny minority of members who run in swing seats, but not in the media or in the progressive nonprofit sphere or really with the majority of members or staffers — all those spheres regard the frontliners as annoying/misguided.

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) August 10, 2021

no doubt, there are plenty of activists and progressives who advance some alternative vision of D victory (but never actually have their hands on the wheel when it counts). but the idea that they represent the "conventional wisdom" of capital-D "Democrats" seems quite odd

— Nate Cohn (@Nate_Cohn) August 10, 2021

it's hard to measure, of course, or balance various elements of the progressive universe, like nonprofits. but it is hard for me to accept an utterly powerless "conventional wisdom," which can neither win a serious Democratic primary nor run a serious Democratic campaign

— Nate Cohn (@Nate_Cohn) August 10, 2021

https://t.co/5w5Gwoj0zr

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) August 10, 2021

"I urge my colleagues, Democrats and Republicans, to come up with a bipartisan solution that protects every American's right to vote." - @sen_JoeManchin pic.twitter.com/mEvK4BvEWB

— The Republican Accountability Project (@AccountableGOP) August 11, 2021