Dear Liberals,
I do not believe that you understand the gravity of your situation.
This is not the time in which you should be worried about removing the stigma around piercings in the workplace. This is not when the complicated issue of transgender bathroom usage is finally resolved. This is not the moment in which healthcare becomes a right. This is not the time in which college becomes free.
This is no longer about the free market versus regulation, or about big government versus small government, or about federalism versus states' rights.
It is not to say those are not noble causes or valid arguments in their own right - but this is not their moment. This is not a moment for ideological purity; for loud, strong statements of outrage and shock. Those issues will have their day, later.
This is about the very core, the very heart of the liberal movement and with it the polarized politics of America. This is about the ebbs and flows of the tide of power shifting against the Democratic party.
This is a triage situation.
Conservatives have rejected the ideological purity of conservatism in favor of winning now and sorting out the details later.
This is, in part, because over the past decades liberalism has lost its will to subvert. Liberals, particularly of the young college-enrolled variety, look upon social ills and attempt to fix them by sharing messages of support or condemnation on the internet.
Problems don’t solve themselves by yelling, it would turn out.
Too frequently do liberals look upon things, such as a very real endemic of police brutality and racial disparity in the criminal justice system, and allow themselves to be content with an evisceration by John Olliver and a kickstarter campaign. Too rarely do liberals look upon racial disparity in the criminal justice system and become law enforcement officers.
Liberalism, or progressivism more aptly, has traditionally sought for the creation of a brighter future. Conservative populism has sought for the creation of a brighter past. Liberals, in this way are always at some sort of a disadvantage - it is easy to remind someone of the goodness of how things used to be - it is significantly harder to convince someone of how good things will be.
Instead of trying to win that battle, liberals were content to like and share the latest evisceration on Facebook. Instead of joining and subverting the powerful and flawed institutions for the better, they just stood outside and yelled. Liberalism has become one of the very products that progressives, old-school progressives, sought to safeguard consumers from. Liberalism has become a kitschy movement for people to like and share, a tacky trinket of the online age. Liberalism is half of modern American outrage culture.
At least the other side turned their ridiculous outrage into a victory. It doesn’t matter how "woke" you are when you lose. And right now, for the good of their movement, liberals need to start winning. I'm not sure you've noticed, but the other guys are being kind of crazy right now.
Sincerely,
A centrist
