In the late summer of 2020, I assume we’ve all seen the “Any Functioning Adult 2020” bumper stickers and lawn signs dotting our neighborhoods. This catty little line, and many variations thereof, also gained a lot of traction during the Democratic presidential primary before the DNC and several candidates folded overnight to unite behind Biden in a push to defeat the only populist progressive candidate Joe Biden won the nomination. Setting aside the cheap and easy (but probably hyperbolic) notion that might we might have wound up with literally the only Democratic candidate that doesn’t check the “functioning adult” box, I do understand the impulse behind the “we just need a grownup back in charge” view. But that idea is only a surface-level snipe which, as we’ve seen again and again, is ultimately just another example of liberals and centrists excessively fixating on their justifiable disgust with Trump’s outward demeanor. Ultimately, it serves obscure the deeper reality that there isn’t a significant difference between a loathsome, hateful crybaby and a sober, collected orator when it comes to the material conditions of the vast majority of the country’s people. Put more simply: the lives of most people have not meaningfully changed along with the occupants of the White House, which ought to serve as a brutal indictment of what we previously considered to be “normalcy.”
In some ways this post is just a sort of rehash of the phase of Left vs. Liberal Centrism that grew rapidly from the run-up to the 2016 presidential election. But what continues to disturb and aggravate me significantly is that, while I could point to some small gains that have been made in moving some of the culture leftward, there remains an enormous amount of people still stuck firmly in the very conventional, short-term, shallow ways of thinking and engaging in politics characteristic to American political culture. I have a hard time understanding what keeps driving certain segments of liberal voters back to the same empty habit of effectively uncritical and subservient acceptance of whatever the DNC has to offer. Worse yet, these people also continue to reflexively denigrate damn near all criticism from the left. I know it would be foolish and misguided to assume this all this behavior can be categorized under a single, monolithic perspective, but it doesn’t stop me from wondering how we keep getting stuck here. What are they seeing? Or more pointedly, what aren’t they seeing? The country was not healthy in any sense in 2016, only to begin teetering on the edge of freefall in January 20th, 2017. How can they not see that “functioning adults” led us to this dire state of affairs over the course of decades and centuries?
Whatever the case, it leaves brings us to an appalling place where we are told Joe Biden and Kamala Harris represent the salvation of the United States. The horror. And in the narrowest, bleakest sense, that may very well be true. I readily admit there is great value is putting an end to the Trump administration, but an enormous problem remains, one many liberals seem completely oblivious to or unwilling to examine: the Biden/Harris ticket offers absolutely nothing positive or regenerative beyond “Trump is unacceptable.” This should sound familiar. And, one would think, the harsh reality we faced on election night in 2016 would have served as a wakeup call for us all. Yet it seems that not only have many millions of people not taken any key insights from Hillary Clinton’s disastrous campaign, they’ve doubled down in support of an even more egregious and cynical iteration of it in Biden’s.
I am fighting off the temptation to bemoan left-punching that Clinton (and now Biden) supporters have kept at fever pitch for the last handful of years. The dishonest accusations of “purity politics.” The ignorant impulse to erase people of color/LGBTQ+/other marginalized groups from the left to paint it as a shallow and performative project of young, angry privileged white men. The belief that left criticism of Democratic Party figures is somehow going to (or even meant to) help the right, or that it’s a spooky Kremlin operation meant to sow division among a populace that was magically without conflict before the 2016 campaigns. The list goes on and has warranted plenty of discussion of its own, but that’s not the heart of what I want to explore here. I don’t want to get too bogged down in this for fear of making this post appear as a boilerplate internet lefty screed against “the establishment.” Instead, I am trying to understand why so many Americans remain committed to the messages and offerings of the current version of the Democratic Party, whose rhetoric, policies, and actions have not only brought us little progress but have often been active participants in the destruction and decay that have brought us to our current state of affairs.
I write this a few days after the conclusion of the 2020 Democratic National Convention. The convention’s events and the discourse that followed were certainly nothing new (in fact, painfully so) but have driven me to the point of exasperation with the continued obeisance of American liberalism. Through the end of the week my Twitter and Facebook feeds were peppered with nauseating fawning over speeches made by Barack and Michelle Obama and Joe Biden. The credulity of many people, some of whom I know firsthand to be kind and intelligent in their personal lives, for the Democratic establishment frankly astounds me. I saw a post from a friend likening Michelle Obama to “America’s mom” telling us “I don’t give a shit if you don’t like it. Life’s not fair. Now shut the hell up and eat your fucking vegetables.” Another friend was particularly enamored with Biden’s keynote address, calling it a “revelation” and praising the former VP as “empathic” and “authentic.”
I don’t use the examples to skewer my friends or shame them. While I have to admit I struggle to remain civil about these matters on social media, I am trying to channel my dissatisfaction more constructively and pointedly. And I’m certainly not trying to dunk or shit on my friends, neither of whom have large platforms or wield any meaningful influence anyway. They’re common, random people just like me. But I would like to address those two examples, along with the aforementioned common belief that the “functioning adult” will right the ship.
Firstly, the condescension of viewing Michelle Obama as the stern mother scolding those of us dissatisfied with what’s on offer is infuriating. It’s yet another way for liberals to tut-tut the left for the audacity of fervently voicing their displeasure with decades of Democratic complicity in the decline of the American way of life. We’re somehow never allowed time and space to critique the alleged opposition party for their shortcomings without constant condemnation and repeated pleas of “now is not the time to fight; we must come together!” This notion also serves to rephrase the tired, old accusation that the left is playing “purity politics,” a lazy retort that waves away any introspection and conflates significant fundamental failings with simple imperfection. Furthermore, to categorize left wingers’ values and policy wishes as “wants” and wave them away accordingly is galling. We don’t simply “want” such things because we like them for reasons of personal preference. Rather, we see them as necessary for social and economic justice, and in the case of environmental policy, literal safeguards for the continued existence of life on earth. And while I, for the most part, am fortunate enough to have experienced minimal personal loss or negative impact from federal policy, there are plenty of lefties who have and continue to suffer the consequences on a regular basis. Those “wants” for such people are actually plain, old needs.
The second point I want to hit is even more critical. Put most succinctly, to buy Joe Biden’s flowery, over-written speech hook, line and sinker is wildly naïve. Any official or candidate can say all the warm and friendly things he or she wants, and even many of the most heinous and blood-soaked among them still occasionally find the opportunity to do so. But to believe Joe Biden is meaningfully empathic or morally sound is to ignore his entire legacy in office and even his own words and deeds on the 2019-2020 campaign trail alone. Concerning his legacy, a very brief summary of Joe Biden is highlighted by mishandling the testimony of Anita Hill during Justice Clarence Thomas’ confirmation hearing, decades of oppressive “tough on crime” approach reaching its apex with the 1994 crime bill, coziness with credit card companies, and a consistent history of supporting and enabling American imperialism. It also bears reminding that he was credibly accused of sexually assaulting Tara Reade and has a wildly creepy habit of fondling and sniffing females (child and adult) during photo-ops, meet and greets, and presumably any occasion where he’s within arm’s reach. And to expand on that interpersonal demeanor, he had a habit of flying off the handle during the 2020 primary campaign, occasionally insulting would-be voters and often petulantly telling them to vote for someone else when faced with sincere criticism of his history and public statements. This paragraph alone could be expanded to a book’s worth of content and analysis, but the point is simple: Joe Biden the leader is none of the wonderful and warm things that his supporters or carefully crafted speeches will have you believe. In action, he is a cranky, garden-variety conservative who offers no reasonable hope or expectation to lead the United States away from the cliff’s edge.
Putting it all together, I am brought back to the central themes of my consternation: what value or hope do people see in these status quo Democratic Party figures and their substance-free messaging? What do you have to say about the long line of “functioning adults” that created and maintained our colossal systems of oppression and destruction? Show me the evidence that the Democrats’ ongoing rightward drift, for that surely is what it is, will address our myriad emergencies. How do you think it got this way?
This all leads me to a variety of possible conclusions, some more concerning than the others:
Partisan Pride | This may be the simplest explanation for some. Being a Democrat for them isn’t simply a clerical matter of voting registration, but part of their identity. In my view they don’t seem as concerned with the details of policies and outcomes as they are with the general rhetoric and verbal warfare between their party and the GOP. It’s more reminiscent of fandom than political struggle, and it washes away a lot of opportunity for criticism and introspection for fear of having to admit to previously being wrong or at the very least misguided.
Dishonesty | This is more specific to liberals and Democratic supporters that tend to scold left criticism rather than simply voice general support for party officials. There are times when I get the uncanny feeling that these people are using their rhetoric to launder their center-right views. I suspect that these people flatly disagree with or personally feel threatened by progressive policies. So instead of saying so outright and having that debate on its own merits they look for ways to pain progressive policy goals as hopeless or negative. This is where the “purity politics” bludgeon often comes into play, but there are other examples as well. You might hear that a Democratic president has no chance of passing bold policies (such as a Green New Deal or Medicare for All) in a Republican controlled Senate, or the classic “how do you pay for it” rejoinder. These aren’t necessarily invalid thoughts on the surface but there is plenty of room to address them in an honest discussion, which always seems to be brushed aside in the end. There is also the notion that Biden or the Democratic Party can be “pulled” to the left, a notion so naïve it warrants laughter. In addition to the recent history of the party, one only needs to look at Biden’s consultants/staffers/potential cabinet picks to see how remote the possibility is that he will move left. But in my view, all these tactics I categorize as “dishonesty” could generally be summarized as “I don’t agree with you but I know my opinion is wildly unpopular with the left so I will remind you that it’s impossible to accomplish your policy goals unless you support this nominee that I like precisely because he/she opposes your shit.”
Ignorance/Privilege | These terms are often thrown around with a lot of venom, but again I am trying to use them here in their most literal and constructive sense. To put it bluntly, I wonder if some loyal supporters of the Democratic platform are either simply unaware of the severity of our active crises (most disturbingly and urgently: climate change) and/or they are so minimally impacted by them on a personal level that they cannot or will not muster the empathy required to care about them. I fail to understand how anyone can see and even partially comprehend the depth and breadth of these ongoing disasters and think that this candidate and this party is equal to the challenge of combatting them effectively, let alone fail to realize that scores of powerful Democrats have been significant contributors to those problems’ existence in the first place. Honestly, the refusal to act (or at bare minimum clearly propose) swift and aggressive action on climate change alone should be grounds for disqualification for any candidate seeking federal office. That is, unless you don’t truly understand the urgency or don’t care.
This post has gone on a lot longer than I originally expected, so I’ll try to tie it all up with a bit more repetition. I cannot help but despair at the continued adulation people give to the Democratic Party and its key figures in 2020. The dire need for change and progress may begin with ending the Trump administration, but that need extends significantly beyond simply changing the occupants of the White House. The reflexive impulse to rally around popular liberal figures despite their empty rhetoric and immoral track records tells me something is desperately missing from our understanding how we came to be where we are and the scale of what it will take to begin effective repairs to our society. Because again: “functioning adults” put us here and they did it under the banner of both dominant political parties. There is no evidence to support the notion that Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, or this Democratic Party will save us if elected in November. The only way they contribute significant steps forward is if they govern in ways that sharply divert from their legacies.
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