Progressives vs Democrats
– By Howard Sierer –
For decades, the small progressive wing that controls the Democratic Party has attempted to build a winning political coalition by convincing various identity groups that they have been victimized by America’s white, male power structure. Its hope has been to give the party a large base of voters who will support progressives’ goal of completely remaking society and the economy, and governed by an elite, progressive intelligentsia.
That process is unraveling because identity politics is riddled with distortions and contradictions, pitting identity groups who have competing interests against each other. Furthermore, the progressive dream is burdened with numerous failures when its beliefs are put into practice.
Progressives evaluate any concept not by whether it is reasonable or whether a resulting course of action is effective but rather by whether or not the people involved are in an oppressed, powerless, or marginalized group. If they are, the concepts or actions should be supported; if not, they should be opposed.
Mainstream Democrats are beginning to question why their party’s progressive leadership advocates policies that they themselves find unreasonable. Rather than continue to be dragged along, they should ask themselves whether they subscribe to the following progressive beliefs and the resultant policy implementations:
Progressive belief: America is a structurally racist, white supremacist society. Resulting policies: teach K-12 students that black slavery was the fundamental principle driving America’s founding, not the ideals of the Founding Fathers, and that patriotism is therefore unwarranted and is, in fact, an oppressive force used by the white, male power structure.
Progressive belief: Many of our laws are inherently discriminatory and have a “disparate impact” on disadvantaged identity groups. Resulting policies: Defund the police; elect local district attorneys who will not prosecute “minor” crimes; decriminalize shoplifting; accept public consumption of hard drugs; allow unrestricted homeless camping on public streets.
Progressive belief: Border security is a racist concept. Resulting policies: admit all migrants at our southern border; offer them parole and release them into urban areas around the country; refer to border crossers as “migrants,” never as “illegals.”
Progressive belief: College admissions should be allocated on the basis of race not merit. Resulting policies: Discard objective tests like the ACT and SAT because they tend to show “disparate impact” on disadvantaged identity groups.
Progressive belief: Sex is “assigned,” not determined at birth, and can be changed by the individual. Resulting policies: allow biological men to compete in women’s sports; allow biological men to use women’s restrooms and locker rooms.
Progressive belief: Marginalized identity groups are offended and psychologically damaged by word choices. Resulting policies: Prohibit language with hidden “microaggressions” and bias against “marginalized” identity groups; ostracize and penalize offenders.
Progressive belief: All oppressed peoples should be liberated. Resulting policies: Support Hamas as a righteous liberator.
When the progressive policies above and others are implemented, they either failed or were met with strong and understandable negative reactions by most of the folks who had to live with their fallout. Examples: millions of illegal immigrants, shoplifting run wild, irate parents of school children, female athletes disheartened.
Given these and others of progressivism’s failures, it is only natural to wonder why so many on the left appear incapable of seeing them. One explanation: progressives dominate public agencies, universities and other institutions that benefit from bigger government. As novelist Upton Sinclair once famously observed, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”
Progressives continue to excuse their various policy failures – just as diehard Communists continue to defend their failures – by blaming the problem on a failed implementation, not a failed concept. Reality is catching up with the idealistic concepts of the country’s elite progressive intelligentsia.
