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⁩ on the mysterious power of the groups. What I was told about this by members who back the bill is that EJ groups with no concrete leverage were just very effective at persuading non-specialist staffers — more a question of epistemics than power.

1:33 PM · Nov 15, 2024

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Matthew Yglesias

@mattyglesias

Nov 15

A common sense comeback is going to require more investment in institutions that can do policy development and provide legislative subsidy. We have Niskanen but we need more.

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Bleeding Heart Rationalist

@Jake_Marzoff84

Nov 17

Hi, I was wondering if someone could just name even four or five of these all powerful groups.

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The leverage is that if you make enemies, you won't get your next job. That's a real consideration, MattY -- not everybody got mildly famous getting in at the ground floor of Iraq War era blogging. Some people have to earn salaries where they're replaceable.

Seems like you need better staff vetting

The staffers generally know, it’s just that certain members refuse to threaten their 100% League of Conservation Voters record, no matter how nonsensical it is. Can’t tell you how many times members have said “That makes sense” & then backed off under threat from LCV.

Perhaps the thinking was "we should give power to these groups because their ideas are important," rather than "we must give power to these groups because they represent vast constituencies of power." Perhaps a case where morality and politics did not align.

Easier to read if you linked to the piece.

I mean isn't it basically because Democrats, as a whole, but especially at the younger staff level, are just very bad at having any rebuttal to "this will hurt Y group disproportionately"

Part of this comes back to how understaffed and underpaid congressional offices are! They don't have the ability to make their own policy choices, it is all outsourced!

He uses “just”…a lot.

How Ds failed.

Deepak Srinivasan | தீபக் ஸ்ரீனிவாசன்

@DeepakInsights

Nov 15

Hey Matt, do you have a link to the full article please?

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I thought the expectation was that they can mobilize voters who might otherwise stay home.

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garbologist/anthropologist/discard scholar

@CultySmother

Nov 15

I agree, which is why I find the line that "they don't represent anybody" largely irrelevant. I don't think many people are making the mistake of thinking they do.

It ignores that the Groups’ leverage is jobs, friendships, and dates for those staffers. These people are all an incestuous pool who hang out, fuck, and get each other work.

The research suggests otherwise -- that Democratic staffers think that the districts are far more conservative than they actually are.

People on Capitol Hill are often in the dark as to what policies Americans support.

Opinion | Congress Has No Clue What Americans Want (Published 2018)

Sounds like the member is trying to pass the buck to his staffer. Are you sure those members aren't lying to you?

The average staffer just has no idea that these are essentially astroturf groups with no real membership. The staffer just assumes they are not just powerful, but that they have some moral authority that makes them right in these discussions. They are external validators.

They’re scared these tiny groups will go on social media and try to cancel them. GOP Congressional members are boxed in by fear of Trump publicly lashing out & then getting primaried. Dems are scared of powerful groups who are often far to the left of their base.

The lawmakers can start by not attempting to nationalize the electric grids and force states to transmit electricity.

They have some power. The power to make a scene. Because people think that a scene is evidence that your house is not in order and if you can’t have your house in order you are incompetent. Q is how much to give away to have your house in order, and if you will actually get it.

I think it’s about them outsourcing their expertise. It’s not about power, but trust that they know better

Sounds like staffers are not sufficiently educated on issues and easily pressured.

Tom Sgouros

@tsgouros

Nov 15

There are lots of issues where the general public doesn't have a solid opinion and where it's fine just to go ahead and back a good idea. And then sometimes you discover that you are wrong in that assessment. That's life. Otherwise you are paralyzed.

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Special and narrow interest are running the country and our foreign policy.

Epistemics IS power.

That's how Musil describes what blocked the Parallel Campaign in his novel The Man Without Qualities.

How much of this dynamic is from the staffers and group leadership having gone to the same schools and probably being friends. "I believe this and all my friends in the non-profit world believe this, it must be super important and popular".

>epistemics Had to Google it

Chris Fagan

@CFagan1987

Nov 15

This is what happened during the negotiations over the Puerto Rico Status Act in 2021 and 2022 … over a year was spent trying to get diaspora activist groups to approve the legislation language

Stuff and nonsense. Haven't you been telling us government agencies are entirely staffed with caring experts, which is why clueless outsiders like Gaetz and RFK are unfit to run them?

P Breit

@pbreit

Nov 15

That's why all this stuff could be done. No one actually really cares. It's all phantom.

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This often turns out to be strategic. Staffers who want to push a particular unpopular policy find outside pressure groups lobbying for their preferred position. Way too often, screechy outside agitators reflect policy conflicts inside the agency, rather than the other way.

Good post. Process is anti democratic or is rule by the cool kids

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@JonezinWidJonez

Nov 16

Shaming tactics are very powerful in today’s culture

Wanting better

@cschneider8224

Nov 15

Interesting you pick on EJ groups and not the USCCB. They have their hand in everything and no one will cross them.

Jasmine Hafez

@JasmineHafezzz

Nov 15

there is no mystery here. the leverage is that they say you are transphobe or something and you are basically unpersoned in your entire social circle

The State Versus The People

@woodifitweretru

Nov 15

When the American Left realizes the danger of the Echo Chamber they created.

Well, yeah, it's not hard to convince an idealistic 24yo of stuff. They mostly probably have lived quite insulated lives, have a short resume, and no hard real world responsibilities (kids, mortgage, employees on payroll, etc.)

So, the person Klein is talking to is lying to him. And Klein is too stupid to see that, or so eager to punch left that her doesn’t care.

Rory Not Sorry

@rorynotsorry

Nov 16

It was a perception that each of these groups had their own distinct passionate supporters. However, they actually just shared a revolving group of letter, writers and supporters who were passionate about everything.

@StudyStock

Nov 15

They are afraid to have anything they do labeled “opposed by ______” and they get called anti-environment or any other way of calling them “not part of our team”.

Ezra Klein is a joke and Ds should be listening to someone new. He helped lead Ds down the open border fiasco. Move on Ds.

I bet some of these groups were CCP bots!

@jds705

Nov 15

Bernie would have won

A democratic party where environmental groups exert unilateral behind the scenes control over electeds does not create a Biden presidency. I’m sorry, this seems like a flimsy narrative a conservative democrat may deeply want to be true post 2024 election.

It’s that liberals and democrats broadly put people into Good and Bad camps based on other topics/cultural signifiers then group other opinions there

well alright

@acrunksquirrel

Nov 15

Sounds like they won the battle of ideas and you're mad about it

Can't you just say "Go the fuck away, you idiots!" to these people? Why are you all such cowards? You're scared of your own fucking kids, it's really pathetic.

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Matthew Yglesias

@mattyglesias

Nov 15

It’s in this Michael Lind interview

Opinion | The End of the Obama Coalition

From nytimes.com

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