Perry Bacon
@perrybaconjr.bsky.social
Government and policy writer. Views are my own. pbacon@tnr.com
Excellent @paulwaldman.bsky.social piece.
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · yesterdayNew in PN: Moderate Democrats have a choice to make "They can spend the next three months reinforcing Republican messaging about their party & making it less likely Dems take power. Or they can put the 'battle for the soul of the party' off for a while and do what they can to help their party win."
"The Gaza protests demonstrated how resistant people are to seeing very obvious genocides when those genocides are politically inconvenient, target people that are seen as lacking moral stature, or are perpetrated by people with whom we identify." www.everythingishorrible.net/p/genocides-...
Genocides Are Not Uncommon
It is politically convenient to treat them as rare.
everythingishorrible.net
"The politically-engaged citizen is encouraged to pour over poll numbers to determine their own preferences. Earnest liberals have been convinced that the only mature way of doing politics is to disregard everything you believe." www.lukewsavage.com/p/the-electa...
The Electability Hustle
Centrist arguments about who is or isn't "electable" have always been about disciplining the Democratic base rather than actually winning elections
lukewsavage.com
"The Searchlight proposal is far to the right of not just what Bernie Sanders ran on in 2020, but also what Pete Buttigieg ran on in 2020. The overall grab bag of proposals is internally contradictory, cruel in places, and simply not up to the task at hand." peoplespolicyproject.org/2026/08/01/s...
Reviewing the Searchlight Institute's Healthcare Proposal
Strange, cruel, and insignificant.
peoplespolicyproject.org
Tired: Democrats should run anti-abortion Senate candidates in red states Wired: Democrats should support independent Senate candidates in red states to prevent, among other things, the confirmation of Sam Alito 2.0 via @perrybaconjr.bsky.social
How the Democrats Can Win by Losing in Montana and Other States
There are certain states where the party’s brand is so toxic that they just ought to let independents run and win. At least they’re not Republicans.
newrepublic.com
"The left is winning over Americans, changing the political landscape, and steering the country in a more progressive direction. As a result, the center and right are forced to respond," says @joewrote.bsky.social. Great essay. www.joewrote.com/p/the-left-w...
The Left Wins In The Marketplace of Ideas™️
Socialists changed Americans' minds. Our opponents are freaking out about it.
joewrote.com
"What does it matter that Sullivan or Blinken claim that they were sad or upset when they went to bed every night — it doesn’t matter to the person being bombed. It is irrelevant. So, as a journalist, why does it matter to you? It’s not verifiable." citationsneeded.medium.com/news-brief-v...
News Brief: Very Serious New Yorker Article Launders Biden Officials’ Responsibility for Gaza…
Citations Needed | July 29, 2026 | Transcript
citationsneeded.medium.com
I appreciate @perrybaconjr.bsky.social's latest piece—esp. his nuanced take on the concept of "progressive," noting that its content is essentially relative to the times. (By contrast, I think it most useful to understand "socialist" as a type of progressive but with non-relative commitments.)
Perry Bacon@perrybaconjr.bsky.social · 7d ago"Hong and El-Sayed (and other progressives such as Ocasio-Cortez) these days are running more on fighting high costs and billionaires than on the broader ideology of socialism. They are winning voters who probably don’t really fully support socialism’s tenets." newrepublic.com/article/2136...
"Are they fearful of the socialists’ plans to ensure all Americans have health care and stop genocide, or are they not horrified by what Trump has done. Here’s what scares me: that Allen and VandeHei would say “yes” to both," writes @alexshephard.bsky.social. newrepublic.com/article/2136...
The New Red Scare Is Here—and It’s Dumber Than Ever
These Beltway pundits desperately want us to believe that there’s an equivalent of Trumpism on the left.
newrepublic.com
"Hong and El-Sayed (and other progressives such as Ocasio-Cortez) these days are running more on fighting high costs and billionaires than on the broader ideology of socialism. They are winning voters who probably don’t really fully support socialism’s tenets." newrepublic.com/article/2136...
Can Progressive Candidates Win in Swing States? They Already Have.
In 2004, not many people imagined Senators Brown and Baldwin and President Obama. America’s voters often progress more quickly than we expect.
newrepublic.com
"Free-riding off of earnest politics by having others do it and then, as if floating above it all, putting your finger on the median and going "there" can be very psychologically satisfying. But what it really does is turn yourself into a non-factor." mattbruenig.com/2026/07/29/y...
Yglesias, Israel, and Moderation — Matt Bruenig
mattbruenig.com
The threat isn't whether progressives can win. Progressives threaten the logic of the centrist governance model which is to make policy coalitions to their right. The right isn't their political opponents. The left are.
Perry Bacon@perrybaconjr.bsky.social · last wk."Numerous progressives have won in swing states and districts in the past. Neither El-Sayed nor Hong would be the first progressive candidate to win in the Midwest. Ocasio-Cortez wouldn’t be the first president with a left-wing background." newrepublic.com/article/2136...
"But moderates and progressives win at similar rates, according to Adam Bonica’s research. What really matters is incumbency—progressive and moderate Democratic candidates tend to lose to Republicans in office but win open seats or when they are the incumbents." newrepublic.com/article/2136...
Can Progressive Candidates Win in Swing States? They Already Have.
In 2004, not many people imagined Senators Brown and Baldwin and President Obama. America’s voters often progress more quickly than we expect.
newrepublic.com
"Numerous progressives have won in swing states and districts in the past. Neither El-Sayed nor Hong would be the first progressive candidate to win in the Midwest. Ocasio-Cortez wouldn’t be the first president with a left-wing background." newrepublic.com/article/2136...
Can Progressive Candidates Win in Swing States? They Already Have.
In 2004, not many people imagined Senators Brown and Baldwin and President Obama. America’s voters often progress more quickly than we expect.
newrepublic.com
Great conversation with Jonathan Guyer. He explained his recent piece on AOC's foreign policy vision and how it might fit into a presidential campaign. We also discussed the growing role of foreign policy in progressive/insurgent politics. newrepublic.com/article/2136...
Transcript: Inside AOC’s Foreign Policy Vision
Writer Jonathan Guyer says that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is presenting a different foreign policy vision than previous Democrats who have ran for president.
newrepublic.com
"Policymaking and governing strategy still matter, but everybody to the left of Mitt Romney should lower their expectations of what the next Democratic president can achieve unless the court’s ideological makeup is changed." Excellent @mford.bsky.social piece. newrepublic.com/article/2135...
Why Elena Kagan is Defending the Roberts Court
The justice recently contended against the notion that the court has become a rubber stamp for Trump. She’s not wrong—but that’s just part of the story.
newrepublic.com
Having an early primary in a state won't necessarily help Dems there in the general election. (See SC and Iowa in past cycles.) The winners of early primaries often don't win the nomination. This calendar debate seems like much ado about little. newrepublic.com/article/2134...
Why Democrats Should Stop Obsessing About the 2028 Primary Calendar
The winners of the first primaries often don’t win the nomination. And having an early primary in a state doesn’t help in the general election.
newrepublic.com
Worth reading.
Omar Wasow@owasow.bsky.social · 2w agoWhy has DSA grown? One argument from this research: not just ideology, but organization. Strong membership plus ongoing and continuous participation in social movements creates credibility, committed volunteers, political skills, and durable electoral capacity. www.niskanencenter.org/inside-the-d...
Centrists want it to be true, so they repeat the lie nonstop. Incessant lying like that is an authoritarian strategy, & it should be clear by now that the people opposed to racial justice are racial authoritarians.
Jonathan Cohn @jonathancohn.bsky.social · 2w agoThe "defund the police" cost Democrats countless elections claim always sits awkwardly with the fact that peak "defund" activism was 2020, the year that Democrats won their first federal governing trifecta since 2008.
Yglesias thinks he's shrewdly cynical, but really he's just an unprincipled dolt with mean impulses. Democratic candidates gain absolutely nothing by adopting conservative bigotries, they just signal to their base that they're not worth voting for. The net result is always negative.
Alejandra Caraballo@esqueer.net · 2w agoMatt Yglesias is simply a horrible person.
The "defund the police" cost Democrats countless elections claim always sits awkwardly with the fact that peak "defund" activism was 2020, the year that Democrats won their first federal governing trifecta since 2008.
"I have good news for the Jonathan Chaits and Matthew Yglesias’ of this world because there’s a quaint little kingdom across the ocean in which their favoured political model has been put to the test. The bad news is that it sucks and everyone hates it." www.lukewsavage.com/p/is-this-th...
Is this the future liberals want?
Starmerism, the wet dream of every centrist pundit and strategist, is a morally bankrupt political train wreck
lukewsavage.com
@juliaazari.bsky.social, @smotus.bsky.social, and I debated what's driving the progressive/socialist surge in the Democratic Party. Is this about voters moving left, particularly on the economy and Israel-Palestine? The DSA? The leadership of Bernie, AOC, and Zohran? newrepublic.com/article/2130...
Transcript: What’s Really Driving the Progressive Surge
Political scientists Julia Azari and Seth Masket say a more organized progressive faction is one of the reasons leftist candidates are increasingly winning Dem primaries .
newrepublic.com
In other words, keep complaining when the coverage is bad! It's working. Even the Bari Weiss network acted nervous about airing the speech and buying into Trump's bullshit narrative.
Perry Bacon@perrybaconjr.bsky.social · 3w agoThe big news outlets (NYT, ABC, etc.) often dismiss their critics, particularly people who use social media. But the coverage of last night's speech was actually pretty honest---and therefore scathing. People on here and other places demanding less false equivalence/both sides are getting results.
The big news outlets (NYT, ABC, etc.) often dismiss their critics, particularly people who use social media. But the coverage of last night's speech was actually pretty honest---and therefore scathing. People on here and other places demanding less false equivalence/both sides are getting results.
@thrasherxy.bsky.social coined a term to describe these Black political elites who are motivated to reinforce the existing hierarchy: "Overseers" bookshop.org/a/121224/978...
The Overseer Class: A Manifesto
The author of the critically acclaimed The Viral Underclass (one of Kirkus Reviews best books of 2022) is back with The Overseer Class, which explores what happens when members of historically minorit...
bookshop.org
Perry Bacon@perrybaconjr.bsky.social · 3w agoThe Congressional Black Caucus PAC and Clyburn endorsing Haley Stevens is the latest illustration that many prominent Black Dem politicians are more invested in defending the center-left/establishment wing of the party than any other cause. Remember that Clyburn endorsed Cuomo in NYC last year.
