I mean, on one hand, good on Gavin Newsom for putting his name on it, unlike all these anonymous quote-laundering consultants, but on the other hand fuck these guys.
I'd say the reason voters might see immigration as an issue where Democrats are "weak" is because the Democrats immigration position typically comes down to copying Republicans. When Harris/Dems brought up immigration during the campaign it was to claim that Harris & Biden are/were tougher on immigration than Trump. It banks on people wanting Trump/Republican's immigration policies but without the insults directed at immigrants
Isn't this what the whole Yglesias or whoever "popularist" thing is? Just poll all the time and only support the things that poll the best, regardless of the merits and completely ignore your ability to CHANGE public opinion a la the Republicans moving the whole country super far to the right on immigration over the last 10 years? I'm not surprised that this take has come up and that total scumbags like Newsom have been to ones to take it up i.e. just focus on the one near universally hated aspect of Trumpism, the tariffs, and focus on that to the exclusion of everything else. I'm afraid this is how many Dems will run in 2026
Sure, they've moved the policy further right, but a good deal of people fall into the "they should come here 'the right way'" camp without further parsing the obstacles to "the right way", have for a while, and the prevailing view is still that the GOP is "tough" on the border and Dems are "soft".
I'd go so far as to say they aren't even trying to change public opinion, because they don't give two shits about polling or consensus. They just focus on winning a seat- and with gerrymandering, you don't have to temper your policies once you're out of the primary- then imposing their beliefs regardless of the popularity nationwide. They put enough of a veneer on it to limit pushback by talking about crime and using dead white women as political props, and that's it as far as they're concerned.
Also it's peak Career Democratic Operatives Who Are Always Wrong to assume anyone knows what a fucking tariff is enough to be emotionally invested in that story. And Trump's chaos on the issue can easily be spun into 3-D chess to the kind of person prone to voting for Trump. I think what Newsome is trying to do—recall he's flirting with the podcasting Manosphere—is engage in the bucking "suicidal empathy" trend. But conservatives have always been good at sniffing out frauds, so seems both evil and unlikely to work.
I'm not sure "conservatives have always been good at sniffing out frauds". My entire life they've been getting hoodwinked by Republicans that don't give a fuck about them over and over again. They seem completely unable to sniff out frauds. Like, at all. Maybe you meant this in only a very specific Newsome-centric context, but giving conservatives credit for being able to sniff out frauds seems wildly off-base.
Democrats also lost in 2024 in states where abortion won (& Florida where abortion lost despite getting over 50% of the vote) which goes your pointing out that strategy of focusing on 1 or 2 issues & ignoring everything else doesn't work.
I mean, on one hand, good on Gavin Newsom for putting his name on it, unlike all these anonymous quote-laundering consultants, but on the other hand fuck these guys.
I'd say the reason voters might see immigration as an issue where Democrats are "weak" is because the Democrats immigration position typically comes down to copying Republicans. When Harris/Dems brought up immigration during the campaign it was to claim that Harris & Biden are/were tougher on immigration than Trump. It banks on people wanting Trump/Republican's immigration policies but without the insults directed at immigrants
Isn't this what the whole Yglesias or whoever "popularist" thing is? Just poll all the time and only support the things that poll the best, regardless of the merits and completely ignore your ability to CHANGE public opinion a la the Republicans moving the whole country super far to the right on immigration over the last 10 years? I'm not surprised that this take has come up and that total scumbags like Newsom have been to ones to take it up i.e. just focus on the one near universally hated aspect of Trumpism, the tariffs, and focus on that to the exclusion of everything else. I'm afraid this is how many Dems will run in 2026
Sure, they've moved the policy further right, but a good deal of people fall into the "they should come here 'the right way'" camp without further parsing the obstacles to "the right way", have for a while, and the prevailing view is still that the GOP is "tough" on the border and Dems are "soft".
I'd go so far as to say they aren't even trying to change public opinion, because they don't give two shits about polling or consensus. They just focus on winning a seat- and with gerrymandering, you don't have to temper your policies once you're out of the primary- then imposing their beliefs regardless of the popularity nationwide. They put enough of a veneer on it to limit pushback by talking about crime and using dead white women as political props, and that's it as far as they're concerned.
It's not "centrist"; it's just "coward". Lots of Dems who are centrists as we used to understand the word are solid on Abrego García.
I have little doubt the ones who call Kilmar Abrego Garcia a "distraction" are also staunch supporters of Israel's genocide of Palestinians.
Also it's peak Career Democratic Operatives Who Are Always Wrong to assume anyone knows what a fucking tariff is enough to be emotionally invested in that story. And Trump's chaos on the issue can easily be spun into 3-D chess to the kind of person prone to voting for Trump. I think what Newsome is trying to do—recall he's flirting with the podcasting Manosphere—is engage in the bucking "suicidal empathy" trend. But conservatives have always been good at sniffing out frauds, so seems both evil and unlikely to work.
I'm not sure "conservatives have always been good at sniffing out frauds". My entire life they've been getting hoodwinked by Republicans that don't give a fuck about them over and over again. They seem completely unable to sniff out frauds. Like, at all. Maybe you meant this in only a very specific Newsome-centric context, but giving conservatives credit for being able to sniff out frauds seems wildly off-base.
Democrats also lost in 2024 in states where abortion won (& Florida where abortion lost despite getting over 50% of the vote) which goes your pointing out that strategy of focusing on 1 or 2 issues & ignoring everything else doesn't work.