Yglesias warns Democrats are 'misunderstanding' their loss of support by blaming 'misinformation'

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Former Vox writer Matthew Yglesias wrote Wednesday that Democrats are "misunderstanding their losses with less-educated voters," and he was disappointed in former President Barack Obama for blaming "misinformation" as the reason behind voters' shift in support.

In a post on his Substack, Slow Boring, the liberal writer argued that although misinformation exists, it is a problem exaggerated by "the structural biases of media and academia," and Democrats' focus on the concept is "a self-exculpatory cope."

Former Presidents Donald Trump and Barack Obama (AP)

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Bringing up a conference put on by the University of Chicago and The Atlantic on "Disinformation and the Erosion of Democracy" that the former president spoke at earlier this month Yglesias said, "The importance of improving the information ecosystem is a conveniently appealing message for a highbrow magazine owned by a wealthy philanthropist, but it’s really Obama I’m disappointed in."

At the conference, Obama "offered the view that misinformation plays a major role in shaping our current problems."

Yglesias wanted more from the former Commander-in-Chief:

"I wish Obama had instead said that there’s no evidence that conspiracy theories are becoming more prevalent, that deactivating Facebook makes people less knowledgeable[sic] about politics, that poorly informed people have always been with us, and that one part of politics is delivering quality governing results while the other part is meeting people where they are, not pining for some alternate reality where they have totally different beliefs."

Former U.S. President Barack Obama gestures as he speaks during the COP26 U.N. Climate Summit in Glasgow, Scotland, Monday, Nov. 8, 2021.   (Jane Barlow/PA via AP)

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Yglesias agreed with writer Michael Slaby that Democrats' focus on misinformation felt like "a self-exculpatory cope," instead of an accounting "for an ongoing lack of clarity and imagination, for an unwillingness to see their culpability in losing hearts and minds and failing to win them back, for an inconsistent ability to deliver for people."

According to Slaby, "Failure of leadership is never the answer" for Democrats, instead it's "The Russians, Trump, McConnell. And now disinformation. Never a lack of imagination, vision, organizing, effective long-term investment, being valuable to people, empathy."

Yglesias called blaming Democrats' woes on misinformation a "dangerous idea," although there's "a kernel of truth" to it.

He argued, "Independents and less-educated people are less knowledgeable about politics," and that Democrats picked up support from groups in 2016 and 2020 that were largely considered to be more "well-informed," but lost ground with those considered the opposite.

But he noted that 10 years ago, Republicans were "meaningfully better informed" than Democrats, and those voting for Obama over then-presidential candidate Mitt Romney were "worse-informed," based off tendencies correlating with education level and voting trends.

Then-Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks at a campaign event in Bow, N.H., Friday, July 20, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

He added that if people believed Trump won thanks to misinformation because his voters were "worse-informed," then they should apply the same belief towards Obama and his voters, and vice versa.

He also noted, "The fact is that Obama did much better than Joe Biden with two groups of people — poor white people and Hispanic women — who happen to have low levels of political information…these are people whose interests we want to be representing. It’s on us to win their votes, as Obama did, not to charge them with being insufficiently informed. This applies not just to general ignorance but also to so-called 'fake news.'" 

Ygelsias added, "Less-educated people are less knowledgeable and less media literate, and that’s not ideal. But Democrats need to read the correlation in the correct direction and try harder to appeal to their values, not write them off as too misinformed to be reached."

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Yglesias went on to explain how disagreement has been dubbed "disinformation," voters are getting better-informed, and "Democrats are afflicted by self-misinformation" because many within the Party don't see its "leftward evolution" since 2012.

"I think if your view of why some people who voted for Obama later voted for Trump focuses on misinformation rather than shifts in actual issue positions and salience, then you are the one who is misinformed," he concluded.