This is my contribution to the ongoing argument about the definitions of liberalism and leftism — and about how various strains of the Democratic Party will either defeat or concede to the MAGA movement at the midterms.
What do I mean by “liberals punching left”? I’m describing the habit of centrist and liberal politicians, pundits, and institutions directing their sharpest attacks not at the right but at their own left flank. I’m describing the habit of treating leftists as an urgent threat to political order, even when they have almost no power.
The examples are everywhere: Bill Clinton declares the “era of big government is over” to signal liberal distance from labor; Barack Obama calls Black Lives Matter protesters’ rhetoric “overheated and occasionally counterproductive”; Democratic-run cities and university administrations called in militarized police on anti-genocide student encampments, most visibly at Columbia and UCLA; Kamala Harris platformed Liz Cheney while freezing out the…
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