So, recently, I discussed how I felt like the left has "lost the plot", meaning that they ended up just freaking losing the moral argument for America over the past decade or so. While they started off well, they've gone too far in the direction of the extreme, to the point that they now sound like a conservative strawman of the left. For the left to be strong, it needs to have a solid moral image that resonates with people and encourages them to support it. And right now, the left doesn't have that.
Social policy
So to recap, the big problem with the left over the past decade has been that it went from being moderate and on the defensive against the republicans waging their crazy hopped up version of the culture wars, to waging their own culture war. In 2012, what drew me to the left was one word: sanity. The GOP has become a theocracy. They want to impose their way of life onto people and tell them how to live according to their 2000 year old moral book. Having my start on the left, my big argument to counter that was "we need social policy based on reason and evidence." While I am still fairly secular and supportive of separation of church and state, the left these days had gone another route. The SJW route. And SJWs are insane. They want to fight their little culture wars too, carving up the demographics to win elections in a way that might win over people on the basis of tribalism, but does nothing to improve the country. They try to win over the POC and women and LGBT+ using identity politics, while demonizing those who are not that. And as a straight white male, I just don't feel like I belong here. I'm expected to shut up and listen, but never to have my voice heard. And of course the GOP reinforces their own toxic politics, but I don't support those either. The fact is culture wars suck. They don't accomplish anything. They're a massive distraction from the issues that need to be accomplished, and just seek to pump people up over nothing while not doing anything of value. So instead of culture wars, I support a more moderate, defensive approach. Like, the key is "not coming off as crazy". Not to say that POC and women dont have issues, but these issues need to be given a nod to in a more subtle way. Rather than just getting up in peoples' faces and shoving this stuff down their throats.
Again, the left wins culture wars when it fights them from a defensive position. Frame your argument in terms of defending peoples' rights from the big bad right. Just like the secularists are just trying to protect their freedoms and rights from the theocrats, democrats should try to frame their arguments from the perspective of the assault of the regressive GOP. That means stop pushing your own culture war crap. Stop trying to get people to check their privilege, and cancel people they dont like, and bash the fash, and teach the critical race theory nonsense. That just inflames the right. No. You have to deescalate. Be like "idk what you're talking about bro but we don't do that, we just want people to have equal rights and be allowed to live as they want." Again, defensive. Support secular values and equality, but keep the SJWs muzzled. Stop the virtue signalling. Stop attacking anyone not as extreme as you. Go after the enemy that matters.
Economic policy
So...basically, there are two main factions right now. You got the centrists, and the far left. And both suck just as much. The centrist faction doesn't want to do anything. They are de facto conservatives. They support the status quo and their whole reason for existing seems to be to sabotage any progress at all. They talk constantly about incremental change and pragmatism, but they virtue signal it so hard it basically comes off as code for not doing anything.
This has caused the progressive wing of the democratic party to become increasingly extreme, to the point that they have recently started coming off as insane for me. Many of them attack anyone who isn't as far left as them, causing them to shift so far left I now come off as a right winger to them. I don't want socialism dude. You're nuts if you do (outside of maybe market socialism). Seriously, the left has just become too rigidly ideologically. And they've become the opposite extreme of the centrists, wanting radical, unsustainable change over actual practical changes.
I admit, I can be purity testy too, but at least I used to be able to work with progressives somewhat. That has broken down in recent years with them shifting toward socialism and gaining such rigidity, but let's be honest, for a while I was willing to work with them. Anyway, we clearly need some middle ground between those two extreme factions.
My proposal is yang styled human centered capitalism. We need to reject socialism, but we also need major overhauls to our system. UBI, M4A, and HCC all do this. And even more so they would counter some of the left's inherent endemic flaws of proposing the worst, and most inefficient of possible solutions. We need solutions that can work. Not solutions that don't work. The left, in both factions, likes to make these inefficient solutions that dont resonate with the public. And then they'll turn around and say that government doesn't work. That's a big advantage of the yang gang. Modern and effective governance. Efficient solutions simple enough for people to understand, and to actually deliver on what they're supposed to. No one likes obamacare or traditional welfare except the far left. So they lose the arguments to the right.
Alternatively if we are going to stick with an older style program, replacing UBI with a $15 min wage and jobs program can work, it just isn't as good. But I'm willing to work with traditional solutions at times. I just wish those guys would stop being so hostile toward me and UBI. And honestly, they need to drop the "socialism" crap.
Foreign policy
Look. This is where I agree with the moderate wing of the party. As I've been saying since the Ukraine invasion, it seems clear Pax Americana is in our best interest, and we should try to protect it. Not that being more humane and less interventionist within reason is a bad thing. We should do such things. but we need to keep in mind, Russia and China are our rivals, and we need to contain them and their influence. It's best most of the world is on our side and has similar values to us. We can discuss our interventions being overbearing or overkill, and question the morality of certain wars, but the far left needs to stop this "anti american" crap. Again, it goes too far and is going to just give the right power. The rational center IS the best here because the right believes in machismo and showing strength at all costs like strong man dictators and are particularly inhumane. And the left seems to think that the world will get by fine if we go full isolationist. I reject both of these extremes.
Conclusion
All things considered, we do need more moderation. My desire to ramp up things to the left in 2016 was to do it a few notches, primarily to wipe out the moral relevancy of the right. but this new post 2016 left is radical in all the wrong ways. Their politics are SJW on social policy, which I see as inflammatory of the right. On foreign policy it's literally evolved into conservative strawman "the left hates America!" territory. And on economics, one wing is too moderate, and the other too extreme. Both preserving the status quo and advocating for literal socialism are bad. When I wanted a leftward shift, I wanted one toward social democracy or yang style human centered capitalism. NOT this crap. And again, the centrist wing sucks.
Honestly. I just want UBI, M4A, and free college/student loan forgiveness, man. I wanna actually solve problems. not in a hillary clinton "i'm getting things done by being extremely incremental" way, but also not in a "the only way to get things done is to abolish capitalism" way. We need to be smart vs the right, and the left is just falling for every stereotype in the book to alienate moderates.
An addendum: what about my anti work views?
I mean, you can argue my anti work views also alienate the right. And sure. In a sense they do. But at the same time, I also am fairly moderate with them in practice and can compromise with reality. Something I feel the far left isnt willing to do. I understand what we can likely do policy wise, and I support it. I dont go further than I think is feasible.
Also, my policies have the support of people who are more moderate and pro work than I. yang says the same stuff I do with some different emphases despite being a "job creator" and being called a capitalist on the left. He's literally the dude who is like "dude, i tried to create jobs and it isnt working". So his perspective is just framing it as the future of work. And that the changes we need to make NEED to be made because what we're doing isnt working. I actually concur by the way, I just have more enthusiastic framing.
I'm all for someone like yang being a front man for my ideas. I know my politics aren't everyone's cup of tea. And if someone like yang can frame the issues in a better light than I can, while accomplishing the same goals, then I would be for it. I mean, I just care about the results, really. So I can compromise on that and defer to others with the framing game too. And honestly, I dont think my ideas are that much different despite my clearly different ideological framing. Again, because I know how to moderate and I know what the realistic practical limits of my ideas are.
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