The navel gazing has become tiresome
A couple of friends last night asked if I was ready to give up on the U.S. Has the country degenerated so much that there is no recovering? Will my view change if things go badly for our democratic republic in 2026?
I admitted that I’ve thought far enough ahead to ask that if the country collapsed if other countries would honor my U.S. passport when I attempt to leave. Then again, I reminded them, I’ve got Irish on both sides of the family. I recently changed the headers in my social media accounts to the old Irish joke: Is this a private fight, or can anyone join?
Let’s take stock. This from CNN:
Washington is bracing for a pivotal week, with key elections across the country set to gauge how Americans feel about President Donald Trump and his second term. This comes as a new CNN poll shows Trump’s approval rating stands at 37%. It’s the worst of his second term in CNN polling and roughly equivalent to his 36% approval rating at this point in his first term. Americans are also broadly unhappy with the state of the country, with 68% saying things are going badly. Dissatisfaction is even higher with the economy, with 72% rating it in poor shape — and 47% naming the economy and the cost of living as the top issues facing the US.
Poll results above suggest that Democrats are well positioned for 2026. But should Zohran Mamdani win tomorrow in New York City, and Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill win governorships in Virginia and New Jersey, doubts will predictably arise, especially in the “liberal” press.
Brian Buetler asks why it is that good news for Democrats is always an opportunity for navel-gazing, and bad news for Democrats:
- Is Mamdani the future of the Democratic Party, or are Spanberger and Sherrill?
- Does the Democratic Party have a socialism problem?
- Isn’t Mamdani’s rise yet another indication that Democrats have Decided Not To Win nationally?
This narrative has become tiresome.
Let’s go bullet point by bullet point:
- The answer to the first question is simply, “yes.” For as long as the American right is in thrall to fascism, the Democratic Party must span the left and center, and even a bit beyond.
- The answer to the second question is simply to scoff and observe that the Trump regime is strong-arming major industries into giving or selling the U.S. government ownership stakes in the means of production.
- The answer to the third question is to ask why political elites are so fixated on left-of-center infighting, or the ideological perception of Democrats, given that the right is currently embroiled in a civil war over whether the GOP should be one- or zero-degrees removed from Nazis.
Despite the GOP’s willingness to “ride the tiger of MAGA and all of its bigotries for a decade,” soome in the party “really do seem draw the line at remorseless Nazism.” On the one hand, sounds like a personal problem. On the other hand, their problem is ours.
The problem is that the Trump-cowed press will by reflex debate whether Democrats’ use of “trans” and “climate change” are a liability that puts them in peril again in 2026 and beyond, etc. But that also reflects why navel-gazing on the left keeps the topic alive.
These warped discourse priorities are symptoms of the broad left’s biggest liability, which is a deformed information environment. Nearly all media channels blare reminders, in one form or another, that the Democratic Party is weak, lame, and out of touch. Meanwhile, it requires specialized knowledge and curiosity to learn that the Republican Party is in the process of affirming that its mantra “no enemies to the right” includes Hitler admirers.
Democrats always seeming to be playing defense while Republicans play offense is one reason the press portrays them that way and why even Democrats and left-leaning independents feel undefended and unrepresented.
But are party pooh-bahs capable of grabbing the national narrative by the throat? Anat Shenker-Osorio observes that Democrats use polls to chase public opinion while Republicans use their polling to shape it. That’s why Republicans can pull obscurities like critical race theory out of a hat, build them into national issues, and make Democrats play defense. Democrats need to learn that trick.
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Is this a private fight, or can anyone join?
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