The November election still invites much reflection in America, especially among leftists. There is still a lot of soul-searching and finger-pointing going on.
The election delivered a reality check to the left. Leftists are devastated by how their messaging failed to impress the electorate. Their solutions did not resonate with the average voter that the left claims to represent. Voters resented having transgender “rights” claims stuffed down their throats. They felt excluded by the overabundance of inclusion for every identity but their own. Everything “woke” seemed so disconnected from our heritage and the real world today.
In the face of this reality, many ask: Did the left go too far?
The answer to this question divides the left into two camps. Both are pursuing paths that jeopardize their future.
Changing the Message
The first camp is by far the more realistic yet very shallow. These leftists readily admit their failure to connect with the electorate. They have a condescending attitude toward the poor voters and their inability to understand the whole picture. These leftists feel the pain of “the oppressed,” who themselves do not realize the full extent of their oppression. They recognize the successful conservative narrative that “deceived” the electorate.
These leftists are still leftists. They still see everything through the prism of class struggle or oppressed identities. However, they also realize the need to tone down the rhetoric if the left is ever to win again.
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Thus, these leftists see the problem as a question of messaging and branding. They say the left needs to get it right by addressing the voters where they are and not with a shocking radicalism that causes alarm.
Turning to the Center
The solution of this camp is to water down the leftist message to put voters at ease. Turn to the center so that the left can survive. Make concessions to voters and acknowledge their feelings.
Indeed, given that Democrats will never abandon “abortion rights,” the National Catholic Reporter’s Michael Sean Winters counsels that they should at least “return to the argument that abortion should be ‘safe, legal and rare’.” He urges Democrats to “admit that parents should have some say about when their children are exposed to content about human sexuality, and what that content is.”
Seeing the damage caused by the transgender “rights” issue in the election, these leftists recommend pulling back and concentrating on more working-class concerns.
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In political movements, the decision to dilute a party message often demoralizes its more ardent supporters and fails to impress voters who sense a lack of character. In the case of the left, the problem is not the messaging but the message. However, it will never change its horrible message; it will only keep killing the messengers who point out its shortcomings.
Saving Socialism With More Socialism
The second camp of soul-searching leftists is more radical but at least more honest. It is the left’s extreme wing that doubles down and claims that it did not go far enough.
True to their distorted vision of history, these leftists claim the struggle must continue. They must keep hammering on themes of racism, wokism and socialist economics. They firmly believe that every concession to the center and the right is the cause of defeat.
For this firebrand sector, the solution to a public that rejects Socialism is always: Give them more Socialism! History marches forward toward ever more freedom from oppression. Its cause will eventually be vindicated. This camp’s message is to double down and stay the course.
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These radicals do not defend the present state of the left. They believe history is constantly evolving. Their real desires demand even more radical manifestations of woke ideologies and socialist economic schemes.
Dilemma in Both Camps
Both camps face a major dilemma. In answer to the question about the left going too far, both have to admit that it is not a matter of going too far. The party is already located too far ahead of the electorate. All it did was show its true face better.
The sixties model of the left is exhausted and gone, and the new radicalism that displayed itself in 2020’s “summer of love” riots is here. There is no going back to the old leftism.
The left can’t go back to saying they want abortion to be safe, legal and rare because it does not believe that message. Its rank and file want abortion until birth. Leftists cannot abandon the transgender issue or drag queen story hours because it is a non-negotiable part of their platform that is consistent with their quest for total sexual freedom.
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Denying these issues would mean lying to themselves and betraying the essence of what it means to be leftist today.
The toothpaste is already out of the tube. That is the meaning of Kamala Harris’ campaign slogan: “We’re not going back!” There is no “back.”
The left is in a conundrum. It is stuck. It can neither advance nor retreat.
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