Many Liberals Still Haven't Learned a Thing
Pop Quiz Time: It's HOW You Talk About Things That Matters
It’s been a week since the election. Normally, that’s after the results have sunk in and if you have lost, you start to reflect on why and what you’ll have to do better next time. What’s exasperating for me though, is that based on what I am reading online on various forums and sites, it’s like most Democrats and liberals are doubling down on the rhetoric that made people averse to them to begin with. Yes, inflation ended up being a major factor in the election and was underappreciated; but it’s almost like what I am reading is that people are using that as an excuse for why they lost and that otherwise they were 100% right and would have won. I’m not so sure of that. There’s a strong sentiment out there against liberal activism and in particular, how they present themselves.
So to help demonstrate the issue, and I hope underscore the problem that REALLY needs to be fixed, I’ve put together a small pop quiz. Educated liberals and online forums love quizzes, but we’re not going to find out what Harry Potter House you belong in or whether you are “neutral good” or not. This is strictly to make you reconsider HOW Democrats talk about things. The good thing about quizzes is that they assess where you are and what you need to improve on before the next big test. In this case, that test is 2028.
Question #1
You are an independent voter. Which of the following two statements sounds better to you and you are most likely to follow?
a. OUR SIDE IS ABOSOLUTELY CORRECT, AND IF YOU DON’T FOLLOW US YOU ARE A FASCIST/RACIST/SEXIST/SOCIOPATHIC PERSON WHO CONDONES GENOCIDE!
b. I know things have been tough. But our policies and where we want to go are a better place than what the other side wants, and we’ll make it easier for you to get ahead.
Answer: Yes, the answer is plainly b. I saw thousands of posts like the first one before the election. I don’t know how that convinces anybody. It makes the person saying it look like a lunatic, and that level of adamant certainty is ourtight frightening. Yell at a dog that way and it’ll run away as fast as it can. Worse yet, since the election I’ve seen a lot of posts without an instance of self reflection or irony say “I can’t believe America is such a racist/sexist/fascist country.” Perhaps most don’t see the country as black and white as that.
Question #2.
You’re one intelligent individual! You graduated cum laude from Oberlin College, and got a law degree from Michigan. The job market hasn’t been as kind, what with AI taking over the legal industry and an oversaturation of the market of attorneys in the same spot as you are. So you’ve been doing temporary contract work since then. When you graduated five years ago, you had $200k in student loans that you took out, but since you haven’t been making payments, it’s now $217k due to the interest. Now, convince this veteran who joined the army at 18, served 6 years, including at a forward operating base in Afghanistan, went to a local Community College for a Computer Science degree and has zero debt why he should pay for your liberal arts major and law degree:
__________________________________________________________________________
Answer: If you haven’t figured it out, there is no way to win that argument. Just because you thought you were entitled to a college degree and signed on the dotted line to pay the loans doesn’t guarantee employment (which is the whole POINT of getting a degree, learning a trade and earning that job) and doesn’t mean others should have to pay for your lack of foresight. There were other ways to pay for things, you just chose not to do them and instead chose the easiest and worst way to do it.
Question #3.
You’re a 20 something male voter. You work full time but can’t afford to move out of your parent’s house. You did well in school, but watch as people with lower grades but have connections or privileges get hired as you struggle to make ends meet. Which of the following two statements sounds more amenable to you?”
a. FUCK THE PATRIARCHY!!
b. Men are hurting right now. We’ll work to make it better. Give them the same opportunities and support them.
Answer: B, obvious answer. But the left is still saying answer “a” when they should have been saying “b” all along. Worse yet, they are now talking about what an oppressive society we now all live in and all women are like “Handmaids” from the Atwood book. That kind of shitty rhetoric doesn’t appeal to anyone except the people who already believe it. On top of that, many WOMEN VOTERS find those positions offensive. Not everyone thinks women can’t get ahead. The single largest slide towards Trump this election other than Black and Hispanic Men? It was middle aged WOMEN, meaning mothers, who sympathized with their sons and their predicament.
Question #4.
On the day after the election, which of the following books did you consider for the times we are currently living in
a. 1984
b. The Handmaid’s Tale
c. On Tyranny
d. The Time Machine.
Answer: So here’s the thing. I heard repeatedly about how we were now in Gilead from the Handmaid’s Tale. I saw recommendation after recommendation for On Tyranny. I saw quote after quote from 1984. Nobody considered The Time Machine. It’s genuinely a great book. H.G. Wells! In the land of the future there are two groups of people, the Eloi and The Morlocks. If you’re an Eloi, it’s great! You get educated, you have your pick of beautiful/handsome spouse, you’re eating grapes, drinking wine and enjoying the good life. The Morlocks live below ground and struggle for survival. The Eloi are utterly oblivious to how good they really have it, until they get a glimpse of what it is like for the Morlocks, after an Eloi is killed or kidnapped. Eventually, they the Morlocks overthrow the Eloi. It would be really helpful if Dems, particularly those on the coasts, those with college educations and those doing better than the general working class consider why the working class voted for an Eloi disguised as a Morlock.
Question #5
You’re a voter in Dearborn, MI. Which of the two people would you vote for?
a. A lunatic who supports Netanyahu unconditionally, and wants Gaza razed to the ground so he can propose luxury apartments in “Trump Tower-Gaza.”
b. A reasonable foreign policy hand, who resisted Netanyahu’s worst instincts, tried hard to resolve and diffuse the conflict, advocated for humanitarian aid for Gazan refugees and was just ineffectual at dissuading Netanyahu from leveling the place.
c. Don’t vote, it doesn’t matter!
Answer: Arab Americans chose A or C. They’re animosity toward Biden and Harris were entirely misplaced. Good luck watching things get worse now. Just don’t say “This is the result when you support Genocide!” like I saw numerous times this weekend. Trump doesn’t care what Netanyahu does over there. Oh, and the campus protests that were intended to bring attention to that side of the argument, did the exact opposite— swing voters were utterly turned off by them.
Question #6
What is the reason that Hispanic voters swung further towards Trump this election?
a. They were utterly duped! Trump’s propaganda completely brainwashed them.
b. Dems utterly failed in reaching out to them, characterizing them as “Latinx” when nobody in the latin community uses that term.
c. Hispanic voters typically skew a little conservative, given the historical and cultural backgrounds with Roman Catholicism and fighting/fleeing communism/banana republic liberalism. They also are a large part of the American working class, and the numbers just reflect that their voting patterns are falling in line much more with the white working class vote.
Answer: C is obviously the right answer. There was an opportunity to make further inroads with Hispanic voters back in 2016 and since then, but Dems marginalized them as a monolithic voting bloc (latinx) rather than one with diverse and widespread interests. I didn’t hear the “Latinx” term this election cycle, but that doesn’t mean the damage was already done years ago. I’ll add that characterizing anyone as being “duped” or “brainwashed” insults them tremendously, and implies they are stupid and don’t know what they are doing. Quit using it.
Question #7
Which of the following statements sounds better to an independent voter?
a. America SUCKS
b. America is the greatest country in the world.
Answer: If you chose “a,” nobody will listen to another word you say after that. You have absolutely zero sense of who independent voters are and what they care about. People want to feel a sense of pride about their country. Yes, there are issues and its not perfect, but that’s why the framers stated it was looking to create “a more perfect union.” Liberal pessimism and cynicism is not very enticing. Remember that.
Question #8
The Electoral College is…
a. a racist, anti-majoritarian vestige of slavery that should be abolished.
b. a rational system in which candidates are required not just to appeal to large shares of voters in select areas, but must also appeal to diverse and wide ranging geographic areas of the country in order to win “the United States.”
c. Not going anywhere because to get rid of it you need a Constitutional Amendment and there is no way in hell you are going to get states that benefit from it to give it up.
Answer: You may have your opinion on this, but the only answer that counts is C. So quit bothering to argue about how unfair and biased it is against NY and CA and learn to just play the game better by organizing in other states in the middle of the country. Democrats have aimed for the bare minimum to win the Electoral College for far too long, and need to start working to appeal to more states than just “the blue wall” to get them over the finish line. It begins with compromising on this coastal elitism and ideological purity that holds it back.
Question #9
Trivia time! The last time America’s liberals were this distraught over a perceived “fascist” winning a majority of the vote, wondered aloud whether we’ll ever have free and fair elections again and the world looked this far down on us was……..?
Answer: 2004. The George W. Bush administration, after starting the Iraq War was perceived as Fascist and Authoritarian and it was thought at the time that Cheney was going to take over as some sort of Robespierre/Napoleon figure. Yeah, that didn’t happen. Instead, the administration’s incompetence became apparant to all voters so much an African-American with a funny name that nobody knew before 2004 became the next President of the United States. As Obama said, “That’s a story that can only happen in America.” He’s right. A lot can happen in four years.
Question #10. Final Question
More of an assignment really. I want you all to get out of the populated areas and go to the suburbs, or even better to a rural county. Go to a high school sports game, a local church, a diner. Walk up and down main street and pop into the mom and pop stores. Try to blend in a little. Most importantly, just make small talk and actually LISTEN to what people say. You can learn a lot of how they perceive the world. And in the end, it’s not about you and your opinion trying to bash over the head of another why their way is stupid or irrational or wrong headed, it’s about making actual people (not online avatars) think about what is best for them and their families and coming to the calm solution ON THEIR OWN, that your interests are aligned and the best way forward may be the one they didn’t choose this time.
If you can do that, then things will look brighter right away. The first test is in 2026. I hope you do better next time.
PurpleAmerica’s Cultural Corner
A great scene with the “Pop Quiz” line comes from Speed, one of the best films of the 90s and one of the greatest action movies ever. I love this scene.
PurpleAmerica’s Obscure Fact of the Day
We can’t talk about how to talk to one another, communication and etiquette without talking about Emily Post. She had a few really iron clad rules about how to talk to people. Please burn into your brain the very first one.
PurpleAmerica’s Final Word on the Subject
Etiquette is something that we are losing fast these days with online communications. It’s still the most important thing in politics. It shares the same root word as “polite.”
RE the student loan thing, it's not the fault of people who had more opportunities than the guy who joined the Army, that they were funneled into a system that top-to-bottom encouraged that sort of "risk taking".
The plain truth is, this system's been building for several generations. Milton freaking Friedman of all people said back in the 60's that debt was the wrong model for education financing because you can't secure the loan - you can't repossess knowledge. Universal IBR should be the model going forward.
However, since seizing control of the academy, the left and Dems have been beholden to the upper echelons' interests, and are largely (I'd say 70/30 here) responsible for enabling the cost crisis by driving administrative bloat and fighting tooth and nail for expanding student loan access (not to mention the general costs of ambient NIMBYism). It's been what Ezra Klein termed "cost disease socialism" the entire way down, and Republicans were only happy to enable the Dems to do it by using it as a bargaining chip for other things.
Now, what you're ABSOLUTELY CORRECT about is that student loan forgiveness was always a shitty idea. I'm so freaking sick of the left pushing for these One Wierd Trick bankshot policies that don't actually help anyone and play hideously in the court of public opinion.
There WERE other options. As I intoned, we SHOULD have converted to Universal IBR with fixed terms and income percentage limits, such that it functioned more like an "equity" model of financing education. Investors would pay tuition for their students up front, like a loan, which would give them leverage to bargain with universities for group discounts/cost-cutting, while the repayment side would function like a record label: you sign everyone and their cousin at a mild-to-moderate loss, in the hopes of landing the high-earning whales like a Beyonce or Taylor Swift.
But all of that doesn't mean that (1) there wasn't a genuine problem that a lot of people like me faced and NEVER GOT HELP FOR**, and (2) because of #1, there should have been a better way for the center-left and moderates to deal with it instead of saying "tough titties, the lefties' loan forgiveness is nuts and therefore that means this problem isn't real". It was just plain inhumane to keep funneling people into a system that forced them to mortgage a large portion of their early adulthood like that.
** I myself am pretty close to paying off my loans, and rather than make me join the "I paid mine, you should too" crowd, it just makes me bitter AF that no politician ever did a GOTDAMNED THING to help mitigate such an obvious freaking crisis.
There is one person in the election who said America sucked and he won the election. I would never vote for a disgusting anti-American traitor who eats pizza with a knife and fork but other people don't seem to agree. America was already great.