Opinion: Left on economics, not culture

Also: Bill Clinton’s behavior, in need of reckoning. View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( Tuesday, November 14, 2017 [NYTimes.com/Opinion »]( [David Leonhardt] David Leonhardt Op-Ed Columnist One of the worst pieces of advice that Democrats are getting is to move right on economic policy in order to win back swing voters. It tends to come from centrists who are confusing [their own policy wishes]( with smart political advice. Some new survey data — which [Lee Drutman highlights in an op-ed]( — help show how misplaced this advice is. Most swing voters lean notably left on economic policy, the data show. It’s true of people who voted for Barack Obama in 2012 but not Hillary Clinton in 2016 and even of those who switched from Mitt Romney in 2012 to Clinton in 2016. “Moving right on economics,” Drutman writes, “will not help Democrats with any of these voters and could even risk losing some, demoralizing an energized base, especially younger voters.” The situation on cultural issues is different, however. On those issues, the survey data show, many more swing voters lean right — especially those who switched from Obama in 2012 to Donald Trump in 2016. (The second chart [in Drutman’s piece]( is particularly striking.) I’d argue that progressives who ignore the second half of this message are making the same mistake as centrists who ignore the first. We all have our own policy preferences. But encouraging politicians to support our own preferences isn’t the same as giving good political advice. On this same topic, I’m reminded of my colleague Ross Douthat’s recent argument that the Democrats erred [by nominating a proud supporter of abortion rights]( for the Senate seat in Alabama, a decidedly anti-abortion state. Speaking of that Alabama campaign ... I believe the women who say that Roy Moore molested them when they were teenagers. Their statements have been detailed and are consistent with one another’s. They also have bits of corroborating evidence — no easy thing decades later — and the women have no apparent motivation other than telling the truth. But let’s say you’re more skeptical than I am and have been trying to figure out whom to believe. Yesterday was clarifying. Anna Claire Vollers of The Huntsville Times reported that residents of Gadsden, Alabama — where Moore was born — have long been aware of Moore’s interest in teenage girls. “Moore and other Republican leaders have questioned why it took so long for his accusers, now in their 50s, to come forward publicly,” [Vollers reports, on AL.com](. “And yet people who lived in Etowah County during that time have said Moore’s flirting with and dating much younger women and girls was no secret.” Charles Bethea of The New Yorker also has [a report from Gadsden]( about Moore’s behavior at the local mall: “This past weekend, I spoke or messaged with more than a dozen people—including a major political figure in the state—who told me that they had heard, over the years, that Moore had been banned from the mall because he repeatedly badgered teen-age girls.” And another woman came forward to accuse Moore of sexual abuse yesterday. Caroline Orr — a behavioral scientist with a big Twitter following — had [a smart summary]( of the incentives facing the woman, Beverly Young Nelson: She came forward “*after* she watched his other accusers get doxxed, harassed, & re-traumatized.” (For those of you looking for a definition of “doxxing,” Merriam-Webster is [here to help]( “slang: to publicly identify or publish private information about (someone) especially as a form of punishment or revenge.”) Elsewhere. In The Atlantic, Caitlin Flanagan resurfaces a 1998 Times op-ed by Gloria Steinem, and uses it [to challenge Democrats]( to reckon with the old accusations against Bill Clinton. Steinem defended Clinton at the time. Flanagan most certainly does not. Referring to Clinton, Flanagan writes: “It was a pattern of behavior; it included an alleged violent assault; the women involved had far more credible evidence than many of the most notorious accusations that have come to light in the past five weeks. But Clinton was not left to the swift and pitiless justice that today’s accused men have experienced. Rather, he was rescued by a surprising force: machine feminism.” My colleague Michelle Goldberg [also writes about the Clinton question]( in today’s Times: “Democrats are guilty of apologizing for Clinton when they shouldn’t have. At the same time, looking back at the smear campaign against the Clintons shows we can’t treat the feminist injunction to ‘believe women’ as absolute.” The full Opinion report from The Times follows, including [Susan Rice onÂ]( and China](. Editorial [President Trump’s Thing for Thugs]( By THE EDITORIAL BOARD The degree to which he grovels before some of the world’s most unsavory leaders hurts U.S. credibility and influence. Editorial [Mitch McConnell Believes the Women. Good for Him.]( By THE EDITORIAL BOARD Don’t hold your breath waiting for real change, but the Senate majority leader has set a good example by accepting the word of Roy Moore’s accusers. 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