The title of this essay, cribbed from the penultimate sentence of a recent op-ed by conservative columnist Rich Lowry, embodies the essence of how the Left views itself today, the day after their collective nightmare was sworn in as President. The bitterness and sad anger at his ascendance is merely the ant-burning focus of their impotent rage at their new status as a party almost completely out of power.
Honest people who found themselves having lost market share would ask themselves “where did we go wrong?” But, political parties are not populated by honest people, and partisans overwhelmingly put their ideologies ahead of honesty. How often do we hear “well, that didn’t work as we thought, lets stop it and change our thinking?” This isn’t the sole province of the Left, and Trump’s “my way” attitude is certain to upset multiple apple carts on the Right, as well. But the Left holds the dubious distinction of clinging to an ideology that has been repudiated by history and rejected by the American electorate.
So, instead of a rethinking of the agenda that they have advanced over the past 8 years, its failure to “transform” the nation as they wished, and its rejection at the ballot box, we should fully expect the Left to wrap themselves even tighter in swaddles of righteous self-pity and furious denial, and see themselves as the “smart people, put into the corner by the ignorant and the buffoonish.”
This mindset will enable them to continue to embrace the ideas and ideology that failed the nation and that lost them over a thousand legislative seats. It also, dangerously, takes them out of the political dialogue, turning them into balcony hecklers rather than participants. The millions of Americans who identify with the Left should have representative participation in the Republic, but petulant self-removal from the sausage-making of policy in favor of “in exile” scolding and squawking from afar isn’t the way to infuse the new government’s actions with liberal ideas. Name-calling, bull-headed stubbornness on policy, insults and condescension are not how someone not in power gets heard or heeded.
The Left, if it decides to remain “in exile,” misses a big opportunity. Trump is not ideologically tethered to the Right or to the GOP. His populist tone could easily, in some policy areas, overlap with traditional liberal priorities, and it is a fact that Trump was a Democrat and supported Democratic candidates in his past. To take on the role of angry chitterer instead of engaged minority voice is to forego the chance to influence Trump’s agenda and actions. By exhibiting the worst sort of behavior, the Left gives Trump and the GOP every reason to ignore and mock the Left. By caterwauling, the Left marginalizes itself. By screaming or hash tagging “not my president,” liberals make it clear that there’s no discussion to be had, no interest in finding common ground and, most importantly, no self-awareness or self-assessment as to why they are now “in exile.”
Had the Democrats retained Congress and their presence in the various states over the Obama years, then Trump’s election could be seen as an aberration, rather than as the most visible of a thousand rejections. The fact of those rejections should make it clear that they need to reassess their vision, their policies, their ideas and their approach. Not totally defenestrate them – liberalism’s messages of tolerance, inclusion and caring for others are good things – but rather rework them into a form that is genuinely tolerant, inclusive and caring.
Some on the Left would prefer to go into bunker mode (in some cases, literally. Reports of liberal “preppers” and Democrats buying guns make me smile), wait for the (in their minds) inevitable Trump implosion and the descent of the nation into fascism, and look to defeat him in the next elections. If they think that continuing to articulate the same message that lost them Congress, a dozen or so governorships, thirty or so state legislative chambers and the White House and win them all back, they’re engaging in a mass delusion. Sure, it’s possible that a Trump implosion would simply swing the pendulum back their way, but the Dems face a massive structural disadvantage in 2018 in that they have 25 seats in play to the GOP’s 8 in the Senate, meaning that the Dems would be looking at 2020 for their next chance to regain power. Who, however, will be the standard bearer? The big names are all going to be septuagenarians Clinton will be 73, Sanders will be 79, Warren will be 71. And, they’d all be peddling the same message that led to the wipeouts of the past 6 years.
The message is clear to anyone willing to heed it. If the Left wants relevance, liberals have to stop whinging, dial back the hyperbole, and get involved in a rational manner. If, instead, the Left wants to spend the next few years licking its wounds in self-sorrow, liberals shouldn’t be surprised when the nation moves further away from what they want it to be.
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