So, this happened on the Rec List. Here we go again.
Full disclosure: I don’t care about Bill Maher one way or the other. He’s as wrong as he is right, and that’s better than many TV personalities, so whatever. I’m not here to defend Bill Maher. I’m here to take issue with my particular pet peeve, a silly and frankly childish attitude I see far too often in progressive and leftist circles, an attitude that prevents the “reality-based community” from living in reality. It’s the magical thinking that says because something shouldn’t be true, it isn’t, and in the above-linked diary (and the subsequent comments section), this thinking is rife.
According to the diarist, the Democratic Party isn’t to blame for the fringe nonsense of the left. Okay. I agree. Premise accepted. Unfortunately, that’s not where it ends. Because the conclusion many drew from that premise is the Democratic Party therefore has no obligation to combat the perception they are to blame.
I’ve been hearing this kind of nonsense virtually nonstop since the 2016 elections. “Clinton/Kaine shouldn’t have to motivate voters to vote against Donald Trump!” Except, of course, they did have to. It didn’t matter that voters should have known better; the fact is, they didn’t. Just like it doesn’t matter that the Democratic Party isn’t some Tumblr loon spamming nonsense; that’s still the perception, and it doesn’t matter whether or not it’s fair they have to combat that perception, the fact is they do.
Bill Maher’s examples and blame-throwing might be unfair, specious, and wrong, but his conclusion isn’t. Democrats will have to address this problem one way or another, or the glorious revolution will never come. It doesn’t matter if the Democrats are being swiftboated; like John Kerry, they still have to respond, and like John Kerry, trusting the American people to know better is a mistake. Has 2020 taught us nothing? The American people don’t know better. Every time. Deal with it, or accept the consequences.
This kind of magical thinking pervades the left-of-center population such that I have serious doubts they can hear their own warnings about the existential threat trumpism poses. They’re screaming about the catastrophe Republican “governance” has been with one breath, and with the next, crossing their arms and saying “I shouldn’t have to” to any number of necessary tasks. Like progressive men and incels, for example. What is the male left’s plan for incels? Fuck all. “I shouldn’t have to. They should just grow up.” Well, they’re not, Sparky, so where does that leave your supposed commitment to making the world a better, safer place for women?
And where does refusing to address perceptions of the Democratic Party leave progressives’ supposed commitment to winning elections? Way too many people here say, “I don’t owe them anything” — whoever the “them” happens to be at the time. Newsflash: It’s not about what you owe them. It’s about what you owe the people “them” will hurt. Are you serious about protecting the vulnerable or not? Put on your grownup pants and deal with the problem. That doesn’t mean capitulating to “them,” but it does mean ditching this ridiculous, suicidal notion that addressing perceptions or engaging “them” is beneath you. Not only is it not beneath you; it’s your patriotic fucking duty.
End of rant.