The following is a long note that I wrote to a friend who recommended that I remain in the Democratic Party and support candidates whose politics I can support:
I have not always agreed with all of the policies favored by the Democratic Party, but I enrolled as a Democrat when I gained the right to vote in 1980, and from that time onward I comfortably supported and belonged to the party, even if I opposed some of its policies, especially Bill Clinton's heightened war against drugs, which ever since Nixon began it has always been counter-productive, harmful, and illiberal.
During the past few years, I have formed increasing misgivings about the Democrats, which have finally became so great that I just no longer see myself as affiliated with the modern-day version of the party.
I was appalled and mortified by Trump, and was relieved and elated to see him go, but I find myself unexpectedly uncomfortable with too many Democratic polices and Democratic virtue-signaling and intolerance.
With the exception of the Biden Administration and a few moderates, Democrats do not even pay lip-service to the concerns and aspirations of those of us who operate our own businesses. (I opened a law practice on a shoestring in 1990 after working three years in what is now called BigLaw, and at a time when I was neck-deep in student debt.)
Instead, too many Democrats seem to espouse a soak-the-rich, populist philosophy and imply or exude contempt for those who operate businesses, succeed or try to do so, or might aspire one day to open a business and succeed at it.
For me, it is certainly not a matter of moderates vs. progressives. Rather, the party is no longer truly a big tent, and it no longer welcomes free debate and open exchanges, which used to be its hallmark characteristics. In particular, Democratic identity politics are anathema to me, and too many Democratic moderates merely gush platitudes rather than take strong, principled positions. I am now convinced that they fear being shouted down or publicly "shamed" by the identity warriors and soak-the-rich populists.
As it happens, I have always liked Bernie Sanders, even if I do not agree with all of his policies or his studied insistence on not acknowledging that the US is a market-based economy. The countries that he admires are all market economies, where the programs he favors are funded by value-added taxes paid by everyone on the understanding that they will help everyone to study, train for a trade or profession, then work, then retire, and all while enjoying comfortable protections. He only emphasizes the benefits, but never the accompanying responsibilities. That is the great failing of US progressives. They only clamor for entitlements but do not even pay lip-service to the obligations or how we can create general prosperity for everyone who works.
I also never understood why progressives chased away Amazon from Queens. It would have created jobs and prosperity for so many in Queens and the NYC region generally. Nor can I fathom the progressives’ holding up the infrastructure bill and the bill to fund core research. I was frustrated that Senate took so long to pass these measures, but Schumer got it done finally, with great assistance from Biden.
As for the racial-justice issues, they raise difficult questions, which modern Democrats have answered wrongly, even if they have attempted to answer them.
I abhor racism and discriminating against people on account of their race or demographic profile. I grasp that some peoples and groups have suffered historic injustices, whose cruelty can never be adequately recounted, and that the consequences of those injustices persist to this day, affecting the descendants of the immediate victims of historic racism. But the remedy, I am sure, can never lie in perpetuating new kinds of racism either in favor of groups who historically were oppressed, or against groups whose ancestors historically acted as oppressors. That approach, favored especially among progressives in California, will lead only to rancor, new resentments, and unending conflict.
The sooner we stop viewing one another as members of this or that tribe, and start treating all people by the same standards, the closer we will be to having a polyglot society that is comfortable in its skin and healthy. If the US becomes a divided country of warring tribes, each seeking zero-sum rewards at the expense of other groups, the country will be doomed to certain decline and burdened by continual tension and strife.
I felt that President Obama was masterful in his handling of these issues. I also liked Obama’s approach to China and Cuba, but I do not like the Democrats’ current trade-bashing or anti-China jingoism.
Last but not least, the Democrats’ preferred approach to the climate emergency, even if it is enacted, is insufficient and conflates climate issues with social-justice issues, thereby imperiling the climate measures. We require stiff carbon taxes and carbon tariffs (but no other tariffs, least of all Trump's, which Biden has largely kept), and we must aggressively develop new-generation nuclear and renewables in order to wean ourselves from fossil-fuels as quickly as possible. The Dems are weak on these issues, and the Republicans hopeless. So I am an independent and mean to remain one.