Between the midterm results last November and the Chicago and Wisconsin election results last week, progressives are singing “Happy Days Are Here Again,” thinking that progressivism is no electoral liability. Full speed ahead with wokery, defunding the police, etc.
This is likely to prove a mistake in the fullness of time. I’ll put off a full analysis of the recent and current electoral scene for another time, but note for now a recent note from progressive defector Ruy Tiexeira, where he offered six “common sense” propositions about the culture wars that he think are slowly strangling the Democratic Party, especially with working class and minority voters. The first two deal with crime and immigration, and he gives President Biden credit (too much credit) for moving to the center a bit. These are barely gestures on Biden’s part, but leave that aside for his additional four proposals:
Common-sense proposition #3: Equality of opportunity is a fundamental American principle; equality of outcome is not.
Common-sense proposition #4: Racial achievement gaps are bad and we should seek to close them. However, they are not due just to racism and standards of high achievement should be maintained for people of all races.
Common-sense proposition #5: No one is completely without bias but calling all white people racists who benefit from white privilege and American society a white supremacist society is not right or fair.
Common-sense proposition #6: People who want to live as a gender different from their biological sex should have that right. However, biological sex is real and spaces limited to biological women in areas like sports and prisons should be preserved. Medical treatments like drugs and surgery are serious interventions that should not be available on demand, especially for children.
Frankly, most Democrats are terrified to utter or even imply that they agree with these common-sense propositions. That leaves them unable to draw any lines whatsoever against the extremists in their own ranks and thus maximally vulnerable to GOP attacks in these areas, which relentlessly tie Democrats as a whole to these extremists.
It’s odd because you’d think Democrats would be eager to take advantage of the defuse approach, given its obvious potential for electoral payoff. But that payoff would primarily be among working-class voters and the Democrats’ college-educated left wing just isn’t very interested in making the kind of compromises that would appeal to these voters.
This is going to catch up to Democrats at some point. It did already in Virginia last year. And maybe next year, especially after Democrats have Dylan Mulvaney as their national convention keynote speaker.
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