There’s a consistent thesis from Yascha Mounk and Ruy Teixeira on Democrats that strikes me as half-correct. They argue Biden and Harris were dishonest and weak across a whole swath of important areas, from cognitive decline to the border to inflation. They point out Dems simply lie to themselves and won’t even release an honest autopsy of the party’s failures. Dems are distrusted and disliked. All true.

But then they say ‘therefore Dems need to moderate on social issues.’ I don’t see how one follows from the other. The problem isn’t what Dems say on issues, it’s that they are fundamentally untrustworthy. Why would anyone care if a Dem says he/she has a different view on immigration or trans issues? No one believes them. I certainly wouldn’t.

The problem is a systemic lack of integrity within the party apparatus. And a key part of that lack of integrity is how Dems argue through the lens of ‘issues,’ as if politics is a menu of cultural and political choices Dem leaders can arbitrarily pick at any time without cost. This dynamic is obviously problematic, Dems can’t figure out what to say about new problems, like the Argentina bailout, because it doesn’t slot into one of the preexisting left/center boxes.

What is needed is mass firings across the party apparatus, and a genuine debate over values.