The crisis of liberalism

 

 

 

 

     The progressive desire to marry dominance of culture with dominance of politics should by now come as a shock to no one. One consequence of the Trump years has been the abandonment of any pretense that much of mainstream media, culture, and academia is anything other than liberal, and the radicalization of many already openly liberal institutions. In response to what they identified as the unique threats President Trump posed to the American political system, many on the left adopted a decidedly antagonistic pose toward him. In some cases they were right to find Trump’s words or actions abhorrent; in many others, they treated a more typical, if almost always clumsily advanced, conservatism as fascism, or indulged outright lies about him and other Republicans. Trump, of course, often invited such treatment and seemed to relish the scorched-earth political combat.

 

     Trump lost, but not in the landslide for which his opponents had hoped; down-ballot Republicans did far better than expected, making gains in the House and giving themselves a good chance to hold the Senate.  Outside the liberal tent, the feeling of being suffocated by the left’s cultural dominance is turning voting Republican into an act of cultural rebellion — which may be one reason the Obama years, so good for liberalism in the culture, have seen sharp G.O.P. gains at every level of the country’s government.  In the aftermath of Biden’s victory, progressives would do well to ask themselves why that is — why the 2020 election was not the decisive despoliation of the Republican Party that they’d hoped for.

 

     Talk of socialism and defunding the police may excite Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her fans, but it angered swing-district Democrats struggling to hold their seats, and the party’s House majority shrank when it had been expected to grow.  If left-wingers continue to push leftward while castigating those who won’t come along for the ride, then their power could fade even as their control over many institutions lingers.

 

      The liberal meltdown we saw over the last four years is exactly what happens when people who don't understand politics get all their news from late night comedians. Infotainment is poisoning the discourse. Democrats now frequently support larger expansions of government, and more vehemently scorn Big Business and Big Finance, than most liberal Democrats did a few years ago.

 

    The activist left has remade the Democratic Party in several ways. First, it has pushed Democrats, who in the Bill Clinton and Obama eras sought the approval and support of corporate and Wall Street titans, to treat monied interests as adversaries. In 2008, Obama raised more cash from the financial, insurance, and real-estate industries than his Republican opponent, John McCain, did. Once in office, he named former investment bankers to serve as three of his first four chiefs of staff. 

 

      Among many liberals, there is an understandable impulse to raise the drawbridge, to deny certain ideas access to respectable conversation.  Democrats are having to reckon with reality. When your strategy is incessant fear-mongering, you're gambling as to whether your voters will stand and fight or take a flight.