So, I have a little downtime, and I feel like talking politics, so I'm going to discuss the 2025 mandate, something I see some liberals freaking out about on reddit. They treat it like it's a radical agenda and an existential threat to our liberties. I guess in some ways it is, but honestly here's what I see: conservatives trying to make their ideas reality. I don't like conservative ideas, but man, conservatives know how to envision things and get that stuff done. The left struggles with that, and most liberals' responses to this were just to "vote harder". I have to ask, how come the right can come out with their crazy agendas we must defend ourselves from, while it's verboten on the left to propose our own visions. I mean, sure, people do, but look at how much institutional power people like Bernie Sanders or Andrew Yang or Marianne Williamson have. Bernie has had somewhat of an impact, but otherwise, the answer is "none." As such, I wanted to discuss what the proposals briefly, and then offer my counter responses.
So, this 2025 mandate has four major proposals. They're largely ideological in nature, rather than specific policy prescriptions. They discuss each in a PDF I came across, but I'll just provide the summaries of each and react to them:
1) Restore the family as the centerpiece of American life and protect our children.
This one seems to be about pushing bog standard social conservatism on people, and they push the same arguments they have since the 1960s about how the American family is "in a crisis" and is under attack. They seem to rail against wokeness and see the "radical left" as pushing an agenda too radical for the American public and how they threaten conservative values. They go on about the need to control the schools and ban critical theory and "gender ideology" and stuff from the classroom. They scream about gender reassignment surgery being "child abuse", talk about big tech and the internet fraying social bonds, and celebrate the overturn of Roe v Wade.
My response to #1
Honestly, I think the right needs to chill. The American family is NOT under attack, the American family is the default way of doing things. The problem is conservatives want it to be the ONLY way of doing things. They aren't okay with live and let live, they want everyone to live THEIR WAY.
I admit, the left SUCKS at promoting their perspective, and I honestly, DESPISE the woke obsession and postmodernism for the same reason. I believe everyone has a right to live their life as they want, and to pursue their own happiness. I dont believe in forcing morality publicly, whether from the right to the left. my answer to the conservatives is if they dont want to have an abortion, don't. If they dont want to get gay married, don't. If they dont want to gender transition, don't. But don't tell the rest of society we have to do it their way. Some families might have two mommies and some might have two daddies. And there's nothing wrong with that.
But that's where the authoritarianism comes in. "Think of the children!" (mrs lovejoy voice). Everything is always about the children. The left is forcing gender ideology on children. The left is trying to push their ideoology through the schools. What of you, mr conservative? If you guys had your way you'd push your religion crap down everyone's throats. No one cares if you wanna live traditionally. Most families do to some extent. And there isnt inherently anything wrong with that as long as they want to. The problem is many people DON'T. And if people live differently than you, what business is it of yours? You just want everyone to live as you want them to, and I'm calling that crap out right now.
There's no serious threat to the american family, much like every culture war battle since the 1960s, you guys are just screaming that maybe the world doesnt revolve around you any more and people wanna do it differently.
I admit, my side of the aisle oversells it. You can look at my record on wokeism in this blog. I'm not a fan of it and i literally call them the weirdo culture warriors of the left. I have no interest in their BS. And my response is that we should support an approach that allows people to live s they want and be free to do so, provided they dont harm others. I reject cultural authoritarianism from BOTH sides.
2) Dismantle the administrative state and return self governance to the American people
In this section, they basically argue that the legislative branch seemed to cede their power to the executive branch, and that they use an army of bureaucrats to push woke ideology on people and how we need to get back to the constitution's roots. it's actually kinda wild.
My response to #2
This might be why I'm no longer conservative but these guys have NO CLUE what they're talking about. The article II branch is the EXECUTIVE branch. Yes, congress has power of the purse, but the will of that branch is implemented by the executive branch under the president. The reason we have omnibus bills every year is to keep some sense of continuity of operations of the federal government, something the republican party is fundamentally against because of their insane conservative philosophy. They literally dont understand how government works. These are the same idiots who would wanna demolish the EPA and the department of energy despite not knowing what those things even do.
I'm not going to deny some problems exist. My ideology is not 100% aligned with the modern left and as an ex conservative I do wanna bring in some elements of my former conservative mindset that "government cant do anything right". I support what Andrew Yang calls "modern and effective" government and support a more efficient way of doing government, including taxes and social programs. I wanna make things as simple and bureaucracy free as possible. Not that that goal can ever be completely accomplished unless you literally go back to 1789 (which these nutters wanna do, let's be honest), but I do support making government programs more efficient.
I also think there is something to say about the government wasting their money on things. Adminstrative bloat comes from the fact that these agencies are apportioned so much money a year and if they dont use it they lose it. This incentivizes agencies to be wasteful and spend far more than they need. And ironically, the biggest agency that does this is the military. So if we wanna combat bloat, i suggest we start with the defense budget.
Speaking of which, while we need to be militarily prepared to deal with china, we need not be hawkish. Conservatives in this 2025 mandate act like they want a hot war with China or something which is insane. The key is preparedness and posturing. If things come to blows, someone messed up, and ideally it would be like what's going on with russia where they just brazenly made the first move.
Speaking of which, why are conservatives so against us helping ukraine? It's mind boggling how isolationist they're getting on that issue.
3) Defend our nation' sovereignty, bounty, and borders against global threats
This one is weird, it starts out as this screed against against Woodrow Wilson and the managerial elite, before talking about trade agreements being bad, environmentalism being bad, and how we need to do more to combat china.
My response to #3
So, there's some elements here I agree with, and some I disagree with. I think the left is out of touch here, and that it appeals way too much to the economic elites (ironically) which makes it out of touch with the American people. I find common ground with the right in opposing neoliberalism and the problems it has wrought on our economy. And because the left has decided to go all in with their weird "brahmin left" technocratic approach and abandoned the concerns of the working class, a lot of working class people are pissed off and have shifted right.
But, as a pre 2016 leftie who primarily developed my views before the great F-ening of 2016, honestly? The problem with the left is they're too right wing. Bernie Sanders once said that open borders was a Koch proposal. it wasn't long ago when the left were the ones criticizing globalization as bad for the average person.
Im not saying the solution is isolationism or nationalism, it isn't. But at the same time I'm also a critic of things like the EU, the TPP, NAFTA, etc. I would agree with the "right" (fro a left wing perspective" that abandoning our sovereignty to these unelected international organizations and treaties is BAD for it. And while I do think the modern right overcorrects, I would personally take a middle ground approach of trying to establish a common international framework that helps everyone. I believe in "fair trade", ie, trade built around the principles of more left wing ideology, as opposed to just globalism and unfettered free trade.
Now, thats not to say that this section is entirely valid. They went all anti environemtnalism and all oil and gas good here and uh...that's insane. Climate change is a fact and we need to take immediate action over the next 20-30 years to combat it, including getting off of fossil fuels. Renewable energy not only makes sense environmentally, but this is also a national security issue. Most wars are fought over oil these days. If we switched too renewables and made it work, we would be energy independent, period. You'd think the right would want that.
Also I dont support being super friendly to china, but i dont support antagonizing them either. They're our chief geopolitical foe in the 21st century, especially with russia showing their hand in ukraine and coming up short. I think we should continue relations with china, but I could see a case for moving manufacturing away from them.
Honestly, I feel like what the left needs, is the more populist and progressive side to come out. This side was suppressed in 2016, much to the detriment of the political spectrum in general. The left doubled down on wokeness and elitism, and now we're seeing this populist right take form instead. This is a failure of the left. The right should not be able to fairly criticize the left. They should be wrong, unequivocally wrong.
Honestly, my human centered capitalist ideology came out of both of rejection of the right and the modern iteration of the left. A lot of conservative criticisms are legitimate. The left has gone too far with "wokeness", it did develop this weird elitism that's out of touch with the public, and it sneers at everyone outside of their bubble and treats them as lesser. This is not the left I signed up to join. I am my own person with my own ideology. My human centered capitalism was designed to be an ideology that addresses the legitimate criticisms of the right while giving a new ethos for the left. I may triangulate on social issues, but without giving much of substance. I may have a weird form of progressivism that most dont understand or care about, but this is the solution to our problems. We need something more akin too Yangesque human centered capitalism than what the left currently is.
Now, one thing I do wanna go after the right hard on. Not all "elitism" is bad. They dont go after economic elites, but cultural ones. And they seem to have this mindset of "those educated people think they know so much better than me with a high school degree...", yeah, they do. Sorry, but you, Joe, worker of Mike's Car Wash who makes $30k a year and who doesnt have any education beyond high school, does not know as much about say, virology (to make a covid reference) as a scientist who spent their whole life studying the issue. The right has a serious case of dunning kruger and there is some valid criticism to be had of them and their lack of education and expertise on issues. They might not wanna hear it, but it's TRUE.
4) Securing our god given individual right to enjoy "the blessings of liberty"
And here the mask comes off. They start going on about god given natural rights while pushing that conception from a specific version of god, going on about family and work and how liberty isn't what we want to do but what we ought to do.
They also started going on about how the left is obsessed with equality and how this leads to disaster and going on about communism and crap.
My response to #4
Here the right can screw right off. I aint a fan of natural rights theory intellectually as it's just an extension of divine command theory, although I do find value in the rights to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. However, i value these things for the value they offer people, rather than coming from some deity. These guys are just trying to push their weird americanized version of christianity on people. And we need to strictly oppose this.
And no, pursuit of happiness and liberty comes from what we want to do, ought implies some weird authoritarianism that turns this to double speak. I support "real freedom" as phillipe van parijs points out, which is literally the freedom to do what one wants to do. I support "ECSO freedom" as karl widerquist points out which is the freedom to say no to someone else's social project.
And that does require equality. I reject communism, adamantly, but again my ideology tends to correct for both the traditional left's flaws as I see them while also rejecting the right. Human centered capitalism and UBI are a way to secure both equality and freedom. Heck, some level of equality is needed for freedom. if people dont have the freedom to be self sufficient without working for others, than they're just effective slaves. My ideology addresses this while minimizing bureaucracy and authoritarianism.
Conclusion/Overall thoughts
Honestly, this isn't really that out of the ordinary with me, minus point #3. I escaped conservative christianity in 2012 and this is just...the ideology of the cave. #3 represents a weird populism talked about in thomas frank's "whats the matter with kansas" that's only amplified since 2016. I can almost sympathize with it given my own philosophy, but dont believe the right offers meaningful solutions here.
Honestly, the left seems kinda braindead in responding to this. All they said on the forum i found this on was "well that just means we need to vote harder". Yes yes yes, we need to just keep voting against the GOP and their radical agenda, while having no agenda of our own, brilliant.
No. The left needs to push their own ideology in response. And that's what my own ideology is: the solution. A version of left wing politics that speaks the conservative language without ceding much in terms of policy. A version that rejects wokeism and neoliberalism, supports reducing administrative bloat, and tries to increase liberty...while staying true to the left's values.
The left acts like in abandoning wokeism i throw minorities under the bus. No not really, I just tactfully stop circlejerking about them obnoxiously where it causes the left to lose elections and support. They act like in abandoning the existing welfare state I dont advocate for creating a better one. That in rejecting globalism i support trumpist nationalism. None of this is further from the truth.
I just want a return to sane politics and for the left to live up to what it should have always been in 2016. It's time for the left to become the "sun" party again, and the right the "moon" party. It's time for them to embrace a new kind of progressivism and to abandon third way economic politics and woke social politics. Ironically in doing so it becomes more "inclusive" than it does under so called "wokeism".
And that's my attitude. In doing so we disarm the right's legitimate complaints and make the left stronger. We take the few things they ate right about and dominate the spectrum. I have no doubt the right will shift and morph as we do this. Theyll still scream the american family and traditional values are under assault simply for allowing liberty. They'll scream about my UBI being some dystopian plan to force everyone to be dependent on the government. But let them cope and seethe. Im not interested in winning over everyone. Just in building a coalition that will win elections consistently for the next 40 years or so. You only need like 55-60% of the country for that. That's all Reagan had, and FDR before him. Quite frankly theres always a third of the country that is regressive and unwinnable. 1/3 of the country wanted to remain UK colonies in the 1700s.
I really am seriously. I feel like 2016 was the year everything went wrong, and now the left is this weird insular elitist woke and neoliberal party while the right is pushing their stuff only with populism now. And it's leading to a realignment I feel like a lot of people are unhappy with. This is the bad timeline we want to avoid. And if we dont want the 2025 mandate to become reality, the left needs to do better than just encouraging unhappy people to vote blue no matter who every 4 years.
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