Michael Lind restates the dumbest cliche in modern American politics: progressives can’t win unless they act like a doormat and abandon tolerance, helping others in need, free speech, justice, and equality:
…progressives must accept that they are only a quarter of the US population and cannot hope to win or exercise power without teaming up with people who reject many progressive views.
Funny. how no one makes the argument that the far right needs to compromise despite the self-evident fact that far less than a quarter of the US population is made up of white male extremists with a penchant for venality. And yet, somehow, the worst bottom feeders in America managed to take over a major political party and nearly pulled off an authoritarian coup.
But yes, things are returning to normal in America. The problem is that despite my headline, we can’t relax because “normal” in American before Trump was, in so many ways, exactly what empowered Trump and Trumpism.
Nothing is to be gained by compromising the fundamental human values that progressives rightly celebrate. And there is nothing about a refusal to compromise that even remotely suggests a refusal to engage in effective real world politics.
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