The New Liberal Podcast Deciding to Win ft. Simon Bazelon
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Dec 22, 2025 
Simon Bazelon, a Democratic strategist and the lead author of Deciding to Win, offers sharp insights on electoral strategies following the Democrats' 2024 setbacks. He emphasizes the need for the party to moderate its approach, prioritizing economic issues over cultural ones. Bazelon discusses how misreading public sentiment affects their strategies and the importance of aligning with mainstream voter concerns. He argues for focusing on popular policies like healthcare, cautioning against harmful yet popular fixes, and critiques the party's grasp of electoral signals.
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Prioritize Voter-Trusted Issues
- Prioritize issues voters care about and where Democrats hold an advantage, like healthcare and affordability.
- Limit emphasis on cultural issues voters think Democrats overprioritize to rebuild trust with swing voters.
Leftward Shift Harms Electability
- Democrats moved left on policy sponsorship across many issues, increasing perceptions they are too liberal.
- That leftward shift correlates with losses among moderate, conservative, Latino, and some Black voters.
Reduce Weakness Salience
- Avoid making weak areas highly salient by staking out unpopular positions on them.
- Instead, adopt more popular positions on weak issues so opponents cannot easily drive the agenda.