How to lose an election via progressive gatekeeping and purity competitions

Rather than put a label on it, let me just relay what I believe, what I support, what I want for society. Others can define it however they see fit.

I’m speaking as a Canadian, but much of my audience is American. And so, some of the stuff I say that I “want” I personally already have. I also want it for people in the United States, because I really like you folks. Most of you folks. I’d also like to see it throughout the world, but one step at a time.

I want equality. Regardless of gender, sexual orientation, race, religious belief etc. I want equal rights and equal protections under the law. And I want those idiots who proclaim “wE aLrEaDy hAvE tHaT” to shut the fuck up.

I also want the dumbasses who think you can wave a magic wand and change the world in an instant to shut the fuck up as well. More on them in a moment.

I support unions. I support high taxes on corporations and on the super-rich. I support universal healthcare, including dentistry and vision. I want mental health given a lot more funding and attention. Because when the health of everyone is taken care of, we’re all better off. It has a positive return on investment for the economy.

Do you know how many Americans I’ve talked to who would love to become entrepreneurs, to start a business of their own, but the one thing standing in their way is that they can’t afford to abandon the health insurance they get from the major corporation they work for? It’s another barrier to that bullshit about the American Dream. You can’t be pro small business if people are fearful of opening a business because they can’t afford health insurance.

I am pro universal basic income, and think that food and shelter is a basic human right regardless if someone ever works a day in their life. I know that this is something that can be done and would actually be better for everyone except the stupidly rich, if only there was the will to make it happen. Alas, so many on the right believe that if you don’t work, you must suffer, even die. Or they foolishly believe that if people get $2,000 a month that no one will ever work again. Or that if you don’t work a job they see as worthy of more than being paid $7 an hour, you should also suffer. They fail to realize that having millions of people on the edge of subsistence, living with the eternal hell of “pay the rent or feed the kids” each month, harms the majority and is actually bad for the economy.

I want the government to subsidize affordable and professional daycare, so people have the ability to actually make a living rather than have half their income go to childcare. I want elitist private schools to be made a silly extravagance because the public system is properly funded. All the way through university.

I want us to focus on renewable energy and protect the planet. I want a rational plan that phases out the use of fossil fuels toward more green forms of energy.

I want to end the influence that corporations and the mega rich have on government, bribing politicians to create policies and tax laws that benefit the rich at the expense of everyone else.

I want freedom FROM religion. People can pray however they see fit, so long as they do not violate the law or, like any other corporation, use their money and power to influence public policy. I want separation of church and state to be taken seriously, and for all churches to lose their tax-exempt status.

I want a reallocation of funding so the police get less, and more appropriate support services who are better trained and equipped to deal with a variety of societal ills to get more. Speaking of police, I want them to be demilitarized and see a serious and focused program of purging white supremacy from it.

Gun control. That would be nice too.

Jesus Muppet Fucking Christ. Speaking as someone with a master’s degree in military history, do you have any idea how much money is wasted on defense? It’s fucking ridiculous. The good that could be done with that money if even a portion of it were reallocated is tremendous. I want that to happen too.

And on and on with a bunch of other stuff that makes many on the right grind their teeth in anger and call me a dirty communist for wanting these things.

But this post isn’t about those on the right. It’s about those on the far left. It’s about the ones who call me a neoliberal shill or a shitlib or centrist trash and sarcastically tell me to “enjoy your brunch” and those who think that showing a rose in their Twitter profile actually makes a difference. It’s that portion of Bernie supporters who actively campaigned against Biden after he won the primary because their curmudgeon Jesus didn’t get the nomination. It’s the lefties who voted for Trump because they were so privileged as to think that him burning America to the ground would lead to their beloved revolution.

I’m not a true progressive, according to those on the far left, because I understand how shit actually gets done, and it’s not via rapid revolution.

In one of my recent history posts I wrote:

Revolution is often bullshit. There is no clearer example of the depths to which we suck than the tale of the successful rebel. Throughout history the story repeats. There is an oppressive leader or regime. A group of people rise up against them and are successful in removing the despots from power, seizing the leadership for themselves. And then once they have tasted that power, they begin to employ the same vicious strategies and tactics of oppression to maintain their newfound status that caused them to rise up in the first place. Otherwise, people would flee to Cuba rather than from it. (Hitting a private resort for a week of mojitos and melanoma doesn’t count).

Between that one and a recent post about how shitty Joseph Stalin was, I banned a lot privileged young white guys who read something about socialism and think they have all the answers about how to change society for the better while their parents pay for everything. They see themselves as righteous gatekeepers of progressive values, spewing “both sides are just as bad” bullshit about Republicans and Democrats.

Some of them call themselves the dirtbag left, with pride.

The big difference between them and the "shitlibs" like me they decry isn't policy so much as it is a desire to get things done. Their purity competitions and "my way or the highway" attitudes don't move the needle. Liberals want most of the same things they do, but are reasonable enough to realize that such things don't happen overnight. They work within the system to make them happen, because burning down the system would create untold suffering to groups that these lefties aren’t even members of.

Canada's healthcare system came about over a period of decades via incremental progress by people working hard to make it happen. They may not like it, but that's how society usually works.

It works that way because it is important to realize one important fact about all those things that I just wrote that I support. We must realize that there is a massive, powerful, wealthy portion of society that doesn’t want any of that. And they will fight it. They will vote against it and throw money at it to make it not happen. What are we going to do? Kill them all? Put them in camps?

The needle moves slowly, or it doesn’t move at all. When the far left says my way or the highway, they get the highway. To them, incrementalism is anathema, but it’s what works.

Throughout history, the rapid revolution has often been a recipe for disaster. They want change fast. We want change, period. We realize it comes slow and with a lot of hard work or it doesn't come at all. They get mad and attack those working to help, to make real change. They look at decades of visible positive change and say that nothing ever changes under this system. They lump everyone who isn't leftist all together as the same kind of evil. They straight up lie to cut down those liberals with similar ideals to them for the crime of utilizing methods proven to work. This is not rational. This is not helpful.

Progressive gatekeeping and purity competitions are a recipe for how to lose an election.

That is why I don’t have respect for those on the left who are so extreme in their beliefs that they will fight those who want the same outcomes while giving those on the right a free pass to keep being horrible.

Horseshoe theory is bullshit. Left extremists aren’t near as bad as the far right in direct terms of acts of violence. Nevertheless, their actions end up serving to provide power to those on the far right. But since so many of them are privileged white boys they never suffer for it, so to them it’s all okay, because they remained ideologically pure and never gave an inch.

What’s the solution? Beats the shit out of me. I just wanted to vent. It just seems to be the nature of the human beast that there is little cohesiveness to be found once you go left of the middle.

The purity competition is what needs to die. People need to push for what they can get, and then push a little more, and then a little more. Over years and years. Not take your toys and go home because you didn’t get 100% of what you wanted.

The right, as toxic as it is, is good at presenting a unified front. If liberals and lefties were more unified, then a lot more could be done to move the needle quicker.

Get my book On This Day in History Sh!t Went Down.