Another blast from The New New Left™
If you want evidence of why The New New Left™ never wins anything, this new narrative around "eugenics" would be it.
Apparently, because Joe Biden isn't hand-delivering limitless amounts of tests and KN95 masks via teleportation, he's engaged in culling the herd or something.
The New New Left™ considers itself as the rightful leaders of left-liberal politics. It sees the leadership of the Democratic Party as no better than that of the Republicans. It sees those of us who support the Party as simps and betrayers of the utopia which is just within our reach if we only "fight". It will take any progress as measly compromise, only prolonging the fall of the capitalist, liberal world order due to its inherent contradictions.
But what has The New New Left™ done of late? In olden days, the left saw that it had to work within existing political structures to accomplish anything. We saw this in the Civil Rights Movement. We saw this in the anti-war movement. Any movement for social and economic justice has worked within existing political parties. Since the 1930s, that party has been the Democratic Party. And why is this? Because while in theory people agree with many of the left's priorities, voters in general don't trust the left. And why, again, is this? Well, the graphic heading this piece illustrates why.
The New New Left™ has decided that because its priorities poll well, it doesn't need the Party. So it savages it at every turn. Either it's just GOP-lite, or if it does something good it's not good enough, or fast enough, or done in the way they prefer. And then it goes into hyperbolic trance states, like the idea that Joe Biden and Democrats are participating in a eugenics program because... they're sending out only four at-home tests per household. This silly demagoguery is why Shontel Brown is in the House of Representatives and not Nina Turner. It's why Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are in the White House, and not Bernie Sanders and Liz Warren. Their ideas, in the abstract, do poll well. But then people hear them talk about how to implement those ideas, and well, as Gertrude Stein said about her hometown of Oakland, California: There's no "there" there. (No offense to our readers from Oakland, which is an awesome city.)
As the Omicron wave subsides, Pres. Biden's decisions are working out. You can debate whether home test kits should have been sent out sooner. Were enough supplies available? Was the delay due to the manufacturers producing only as many as they thought they could sell? And should the federal government have made a market intervention sooner? All are valid questions. But to go from that to "they want to decrease the surplus population" is something that normal voters hear and roll their eyes at. Critiques are one thing; descending into lurid and ridiculous conspiracy theories a la "Plan 21" are why few in the Democratic Party take The New New Left's™ concerns seriously. They complain incessantly. They ignore Republican malfeasance. And, in general, they don't vote, anyway. Nothing of worth in this world is attained without work and struggle. And these same people are irked because Pres. Biden hasn't canceled student debt or rent or paid them to stay home and kvetch on Twitter.
The New New Left's™ most treasured priorities will never be enacted because they don't do the grassroots, bottom-up coalition building which would make them come to fruition. So, frustrated, they throw spit balls and conjure up dark visions of eugenics in order to sully actions taken by the administration. These are, in the end, not bright people, and things always get out of hand.