WE’VE DESCENDED INTO SOME SORT OF BIZARRE HELL-WORLD IN WHICH MATTHEW YGLESIAS IS A VOICE OF SANITY: A Common Sense Democrat manifesto.

My goal here is to write these principles down at an adequate level of abstraction such that they don’t become a policy laundry list. They’re also not supposed to be a straitjacket. Different people have different views and different priorities, and principles need to be loose enough to accommodate some differences. But I also don’t want these to be total platitudes; I want some people to read them and think, “Fuck this, I don’t agree.” Over the next few weeks, I’ll share posts elaborating on each one individually, but in the meantime, these are the principles I’d like to see the Democratic party embrace:

1. Economic self-interest for the working class includes both robust economic growth and a robust social safety net.

2. The government should prioritize maintaining functional public systems and spaces over tolerating anti-social behavior.

3. Climate change — and pollution more broadly — is a reality to manage, not a hard limit to obey.

4. We should, in fact, judge people by the content of their character rather than by the color of their skin, rejecting discrimination and racial profiling without embracing views that elevate anyone’s identity groups over their individuality.

5. Race is a social construct, but biological sex is not. Policy must acknowledge that reality and uphold people’s basic freedom to live as they choose.

6. Academic and nonprofit work does not occupy a unique position of virtue relative to private business or any other jobs.

7. Politeness is a virtue, but obsessive language policing alienates most people and degrades the quality of thinking.

8. Public services and institutions like schools deserve adequate funding, and they must prioritize the interests of their users, not their workforce or abstract ideological projects.

9. All people have equal moral worth, but democratic self-government requires the American government to prioritize the interests of American citizens.

Does he mean it? Yglesias famously tweeted in his younger, more carefree days:

And as John Ekdahl tweeted today, “He’s gonna get utterly obliterated for this, and I can’t wait.” But in any case, “I do not believe that the solution to our problem is simply to elect the right people,” Milton Friedman once said. “The important thing is to establish a political climate of opinion which will make it politically profitable for the wrong people to do the right thing. Unless it is politically profitable for the wrong people to do the right thing, the right people will not do the right thing either, or if they try, they will shortly be out of office.”