Matt Taibbi is one of a group of honest liberals who are not blind to the contemporary Left’s faults. At Racket News, he writes about his testimony before Jim Jordan’s House Weaponization of Government Committee, which apparently prompted a visit to his home by the IRS. Jordan’s House committee investigated, with the result that the IRS has announced a new policy on home visits.
The substance of the investigation is related in more detail in a separate Racket News post, but for now I want to focus on Matt’s conclusion in the post linked above, which is titled “Thanks, to a Politician Who Did His Job”:
Sincere thanks are due to Chairman Jordan, whose staff not only demanded and got answers in my case, but achieved a concrete policy change, as IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel announced in July new procedures that would “end most” home visits.
Anticipating criticism for expressing public thanks to a Republican congressman, I’d like to ask Democratic Party partisans: to which elected Democrat should I have appealed for help in this matter? The one who called me a “so-called journalist” on the House floor? The one who told me to take off my “tinfoil hat” and put greater trust in intelligence services? The ones in leadership who threatened me with jail time? I gave votes to the party for thirty years. Which elected Democrat would have performed basic constituent services in my case? Feel free to raise a hand.
If silence is the answer, why should I ever vote for a Democrat again?
Good question! Taibbi is a journalist who cares about freedom of speech. So, QED. The Democrats are on the other side.
Another life-long Democrat who has been rethinking her loyalties is Bari Weiss, as I noted here:
As a Democrat who has been left homeless, who is now definitely in the center but probably leaning increasingly right….
We are in the midst of a political realignment. Some of it has to do with which party (and which philosophy) best represents the working class, but there are other elements too. The current conflict in Gaza, with pro-genocide demonstrations from the Left on college campuses and in public places, like the one that shut down Grand Central Station today, is another factor that is disrupting traditional loyalties. And there are more.
I actually think that we are at the beginning of a considerably greater re-alignment than most people now realize, and that by far the larger movement will be from left to right.
CORRECTION: Contrary to what appeared in the source that I referred to, the “homeless” quote I attributed to Bari Weiss originally came from Chamath Palihapitiya, and Weiss was quoting her.
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