US Left Following Israeli Left to Long-Term Opposition
Leftist lunacies are luxuries for people in safe spaces. Israel is in the Middle East. Not surprisingly, Israelis have elected a Prime Minister from the Labour party just twice in the past twelve elections over 38 years. Voters evicted the Left’s last PM, Ehud Barak, fourteen years ago in an unprecedented landslide. The Left looks unlikely to regain the voters’ trust any time soon.
I don’t know how much the Left cares. They continue to bask in their cultural, intellectual, and moral superiority. They pride themselves on how loudly they broadcast their own country’s shortcomings. They see their minority status as further proof of their countrymen’s backwardness and their own superiority. I'm not sure how many realize that the universities, the media, the judiciaries, the bureaucracies, and various other seats of unelected power are largely legacies. If the Left remains despised they will lose those power centers too. Is the same happening in the US? Michael Barone points out how 2016 resembles 1968 when Republicans began dominating presidential elections. He suggests we may repeat that. I suggest that he understates the case. Republicans go into 2016 far stronger at congressional, state, and local levels. The world has gotten scarier, which moves voters away from the Left. And Democrats are off the deep end on too many issues:
Gender radicalism, ranging from shaming people for traditional masculinity and femininity to granting biological males full access to girls’ locker rooms.
Racial radicalism, including blaming everything on the legacy of white supremacy and calling for reparations.
Environmental radicalism, including the rejection of the Keystone pipeline.
Open borders radicalism, whether through Mexico or by actively bringing people from the Middle East.
Speech control radicalism, trying to advance radical ideas by controlling speech and education. Refusing to call things what they are, indoctrinating students with all of the craziness mentioned above, and “protecting” students from competing thoughts. The applause Trump gets when he says he has no time for political correctness highlights voters’ hatred of the Left in this area.
Few on the Left realize the oblivion to which they’re headed. They see the political landscape through the looking glass, the same way they see everything else. They think they have an emerging permanent majority because the demographic groups that currently support them are growing. The demographic groups that support the Left are always growing. But when groups grow, while the radicals among them are always the loudest, others in those groups stop feeling like marginalized minorities. They realize that their groups are among the most hurt by Leftism: the poor students denied voucher programs to better schools; the Asian-Americans suffering from affirmative action; the inner-city residents terrorized by those who scared away the police. The Right always responds by welcoming those who share our values. Catholics, Italians, and Irish were once Leftist demographics. They’re not anymore. Republicans were once the party of the Protestants. We ran a Mormon and a Catholic last presidential election. Republicans are allegedly the party of white supremacist xenophobes and immigrant-haters. Our 2016 nomination battle will likely be between two children of Cuban immigrants. Many from the Left’s “emerging demographic majority” will outgrow the Left. The Right’s big challenge today is, as it has often been, welcoming in all those who share our values. We’ve succeeded in the past, and we are doing so again. Demographics are not destiny. Ideas and values are. As in Israel, the Left in the United States has focused on their nation’s alleged moral shortcomings. They’ve separated themselves from Western Civilization and Judeo-Christian values. They’ve separated themselves from the electorate. It will take them many years to recover.
