Thread by @Noahpinion

I think I'm in the small fringe of people who's Shorpilled but not a popularist. I agree with @davidshor that PMC navel-gazing has taken over the Dems' discourse on cultural issues, but I'd prefer to solve that through bold Rooseveltian resolve than Clintonian poll-following.

Or in plain language, yes "Latinx" is silly and "defund the police" is a non-starter, but the solution isn't just to throw more money at the health care industry even if it polls well.

We need Democratic leaders who powerfully articulate a bold Rooseveltian vision for the future of this country, including things like green energy investment that aren't at the top of the issue polls right now.

And we also need Democratic leaders who can articulate a powerful *moral* vision for our country -- a modern-day equivalent of Roosevelt's "four freedoms" -- and use this vision to contrast America with authoritarian rivals.

When Roosevelt articulated his "four freedoms", we certainly didn't enjoy freedom from want or freedom from fear. But the idea of these freedoms helped differentiate America from the Axis, and reoriented American domestic policy in a positive direction for decades.

Democrats have crafted an economic agenda that does provide a vision for a better America, but in my opinion have largely failed to articulate that vision. What should be seen as a coherent agenda thus appears like a grab bag of progressive goodies.

noahpinion.substack.com/p/bidenomics-e…

On cultural issues, instead of articulating a positive moral vision of American values, Dems have largely confined themselves to reactive outrage against the transgressions of Trump and other Republicans.

This void of unifying moral rhetoric from Democratic politicians has left the progressive cultural stance to be dominated by activist and media figures who tend toward negativistic America-bashing rather than constructive positive visions.

This leaves Dems in the odd position of screaming about the threat to the republic from GOP coups and electioneering, even as they leave their cultural messaging to a class of people who mainly just condemns that same republic.

Anyway, this is a lot of words just to say that the Dems have weak leadership. We need leaders like FDR who can communicate a coherent vision of a better America and connect that vision to a focused policy agenda. And right now, we don't have such leaders.

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