To Save the World from Trump, Democrats Need to Get Out of the Way
Why we urgently need a third party of principled centrists (not mealy-mouthed equivocators)
At the risk of offending “progressives,” who specialize in taking offense, I offer my current take on the world’s affairs.
First, Trump is unwittingly doing his level best to demolish the US economy and the US's national interest and historic alliances by his chaotic threats and imposition of tariffs, which harm everyone concerned in every possible way. Biden too was a practitioner of tariffs after he reckoned that it was politically popular to engage in China-bashing, but at least he was less erratic and bombastic. In fact, he became a sleep-walking zombie before our very eyes.
Second, the US public (but NOT me, who supported Harris) voted for Trump because they are rightly fed up with the nasty reverse-racism, group spoils, and doublespeak of progressives, who have become intolerant moral scolds and practitioners of mean-spirited, retributive politics.
Third, any political movement that insists that biological men and boys MUST be permitted to compete in sports against women and girls and share their bathrooms deserves to lose. Being a true, lifelong liberal, I say "live and let live." That is different from forcing your views of sexuality on our children.
Fourth, any political movement that claims that "math is racist" or that "merit" is a tool used by white men to oppress others deserves to lose. That is stupid, reductionist thinking and very bad policy. Instead, try using policies that encourage and impel all young people to make the most of their talents and to improve themselves. Offer true opportunities and meaningful second chances to all people.
Fifth, any political movement that furtively promoted Trumpists in primaries in order to beat them in general elections and that turned a blind eye to Biden's obvious senility—which imperiled the country because he was unfit to serve as President from the second year of his term onward—any such movement, I say, deserves to lose, and badly.
Sixth, I was a registered Democrat from 1980 when I gained the right to vote until 2021, when I grasped that I no longer respected the values of the party I once admired. Ever since I have been a registered independent and have learned from embittering personal experience how condescending, smug, insulting, and intolerant so-called progressives are towards those who dissent from their received, unquestioned views. In comparison, the Spanish Inquisitors were free-wheeling, open-minded Bohemians.
Seventh, Trump and his party are a menace to the world economy, the national sovereignty of my other country (Canada), and many other things, especially the cause of addressing global climate change.
Eighth, the Democratic Party cannot get out of the way soon enough. Its adherents have lost the plot. Let its ageing hierarchy, ruthless political operatives, trough-feeders, consultants, and progressive puritans ruin someone else’s fun.
That brings me to my ninth and most important point. The country badly needs a centrist party that joins with either of the established parties when it makes sense to do so. I have in mind a third party of principled pragmatists who have a spine and can make their case to the country. There must be debate and disagreement within any such party. Let those exchanges flourish. That is the best way to develop better ideas—by unceasing exchanges that are unhindered by a repressive intolerance of dissenting views.
The current duopoly is ruinous. Since I used to be a Democrat, I am most galled by my former party.
I expect that this comment will be variously reviled or ignored by all right-thinking people in progressive circles. But I have news for them, which they might wish to consider for once. It is simple: Trump didn't win on a platform of imperial conquest, subservience to Putin, and erratic, economy-destroying trade wars. No, he won because healthy, decent-minded people don't take well to being scolded by self-proclaimed “progressives,” who try to tell them what they can say and prefer the most unnatural language imaginable, and who at every turn impose double standards based on demography, require de facto loyalty oaths, water down our academic standards, disdain the core values of the Great Enlightenment, and even oblige young schoolchildren to study and accept their radical ideas on human sexuality.
Those are ruinous policies. So too are Trump’s trade wars, betrayal of Ukraine, reckless dismantling of the federal government, and casual comments about annexing Canada or invading Panama or Greenland. Like Progressives, he has some good points to make. Like them, he favors unworthy policies to accomplish his aims. We need a third party to counteract the two clown shows currently in charge. It will be a minority party, which can tip the balance of power and make coalitions in order to enact or prevent policies.
Lastly, it is a lonely time to be a liberal in this illiberal era.