Keir Starmer is a Cautionary Tale (For Democrats)

The collapse of Keir Starmer's government represents the failure of the same theory of politics that centrist Democrats hope to deploy in the United States. That theory is "popularism," the idea that you can outmaneuever the far-right by adopting conservative positions on cultural issues, specifically immigration and transgender rights. What Starmer demonstrates is that this is fundamentally a defensive crouch that alienates your supporters without gaining ground from the other side. Moderate and centrist Democrats should treat his fall as a cautionary tale, and recalibrate their theory of how to win.