I agree. I've had issues with the "evidence-based policy" view, but "evidence-based politics" seems even less sensible. It renders key principles like mandate, leadership, and representation void of content and does not even work in the realpolitik sense.

What an interesting piece, Ben! Could you elaborate on how positivism in our discipline is responsible for how liberal politicians behave in this moment? Democrats clearly cannot snap out of the David-Shor "evidence" mode. But why is positivism in academia responsible for how practitioners behave?

Munger’s writing rules are legendary. I also really like Weingast’s Caltech Rules of Writing.

Cheibub was the same thing for me! We should not default to explanations we know are likely wrong on average. I don't think we have a good explanation of what happened in SK in either case.