Moderate extremism

THE WORST THING WE READ™

It's Time for a New Round of Centrist Purity Tests 

YESTERDAY, POLITICO POSTED that it had a new EXCLUSIVE story: "A top Democratic strategist has launched a new policy research and messaging hub, called Searchlight, with a goal of pushing the party toward the most effective, broadly popular positions." That strategist is Adam Jentleson, the former Senate staffer last seen telling New York Magazine that he believed his former boss Sen. John Fetterman was off his mental-health meds and in crisis. 

Having overseen Fetterman's progress from purported man of the people to isolated reactionary crank, Jentleson is now out to reform the Democratic Party as a whole, according to Politico. "Dems are quietly forming a think tank to help them win again," the preview headline read. 

Quietly forming a think tank—but not forming it so quietly that they weren't telling Politico about it. The EXCLUSIVE was sourced to "five people who have spoken directly to Jentleson and were granted anonymity to describe private conversations." Either the freshly assembled project was already full of disgruntled, reckless leakers, or Jentleson had sent forth a squad of participants on a blatant public-relations mission. For help deciding which of those possibilities is correct, here's one piece of Politico's carefully shielded discussion of sensitive conversations:

One person directly familiar with the project, granted anonymity to describe private details, said its aim will be to create “an institutional space where Democrats can think freely and put those ideas out into the world.”

That same source went on to tell Politico that the mission is to avoid getting "ideas sanded down from one angle or another," and to escape the "left-right binary scale" to "draw on the best ideas wherever they come from."