Yascha Mounk posted a typically gentle admonishment to the Left on Monday, The Dems Are Lying to Themselves About Why They Lost. It notes the lack of introspection in Kamala Harris' new book, and generalizes this to the entire Democratic party: "Other parts of the Democratic Party don’t appear much more keen to discover the causes of their defeat." He observes several causes that Democrats have identified (misinformation, Fox News and Joe Rogan) without identifying the thing common to them all: they lie outside the party.
After fifteen years of cancel culture, the Democratic party is at this point incapable of robust internal debate. Just look at David Hogg: he raised a real problem with the party (gerontocracy), albeit with all the grace of a twenty-four year old. Rather than directly address his argument or his remedy, the DNC ousted him on a procedural complaint about gender parity on their governing body. Data scientist David Shor was fired from his job at a progressive consulting firm after he posted research showing that violent protests actually hurt the stated goals of progressives.
These are just two examples of how the Left now resolves disputes. And Mounk wonders why there isn't a more serious debate on why they lost the election in '24? When anyone offended by your point can have you fired & banished from polite society by digging up something you said ten years ago that was innocuous at the time, but has since aged out of the ever leftward-hurtling window of acceptable beliefs, you tend to hold your tongue.
10/01/25 19:28