The liberal sense of dread about this election isn’t just about the danger of Trump winning. As Dave Weigel argues, no matter who wins, the country is moving to the right.
The Democratic Party, after two decades of leftward post-Clinton drift, has jerked abruptly right. Facing Donald Trump for the third consecutive election, Democrats are making rhetorical and policy concessions that they didn’t want to, or think they needed to, in 2016 and 2020. They’ve adjusted to an electorate that’s shifted to the right, toward the Trump-led GOP, on issues that progressives once hoped were non-negotiable — immigrant rights, LGBTQ rights, climate change policies, and criminal justice reform.
The result is a center-left campaign with a smaller agenda than what Joe Biden won with, and more careful messaging than Hillary Clinton lost with. It’s a similar story down the ballot, as Democrats highlight their support for border security, law enforcement, and targeted tax cuts — against an onslaught of TV and digital ads accusing them of pro-crime neo-socialism. Out of power, and portraying the country he handed over to Biden as hopelessly lost, Donald Trump has watched voters move closer to his old positions.
Particularly annoying is the anti-immigrant attitude rampant in the land. Republicans used to understand the importance of immigration to the nation’s economy – their former patron saint, Reagan, surely did – but they’re too mush-brained to listen to reasoned arguments anymore.
An analysis of Trump’s economic proposals – in reality, just a bunch of wild promises of the sort he makes all the time – would would drain the Social Security trust fund in just six years. Kind of interesting, in a sick way, to watch the Russians use democracy to convince a nation of dolts to destroy itself.
The floor’s yours.