This is why progressives hate the Democrats so much lately.
The term 'regressive left' is becoming more common in my surroundings, and ever since Pim Fortuyn (2002, the precursor to our Dutch version of Trump, and I don't mean that in a pejorative sense) there's been a growing sense that our 'left' not only lacks an answer to populism, it's part of the 'evil neoliberal establishment 1% elite etc.'.
There's a sentiment around me that Labor/greens/D66 (center-left democrats?) are mostly an intellectual elite that doesn't understand the problems we face. They call for integration and multiculturalism, but don't feel any of the adverse effects or problems that result. And somehow they seem way too much into privatizing things, dismantling our welfare state, and general Neoliberal-tasting things.
Now, I don't know enough to have a very strong opinion on all of this. But I do sort of get the intense hatred of the 'intellectual left elite'. It feels degrading and shitty to be told that you're wrong and your problems are bullshit and you're being manipulated by a populist, and you're a racist, and all that, and I can totally see how that could make one respond with a big middle finger and a vote for exactly those populists. Even if just out of spite. And even regardless of the consequences.
Of course I have no answer to this problem. I'm a well-educated, left-leaning, academically-minded, LGBT-affiliated white man and I'll probably do fine no matter what. I feel the way forward for me is to start engaging more with those who feel like they need to 'fuck shit up' with their vote, and to try and properly understand why all these things are happening that I didn't predict and that don't make sense to me.
But dear God I'm trying my best to bite my tongue and not blindly disparage Trump or our own populist movements. Because 1) it seems counter-productive, and 2) a surprising number of my highly-educated, intellectual-type friends are in favor of those movements, so I can't afford not taking them seriously.
And I suppose 3) most people are smarter than they seem, including the really dumb ones.
Even when Republicans haven't owned all of the branches of government (which is the state we've now found ourselves in), legislation has ended up tilting to the right...because for all their flaws, they know how opposition works, even if you don't have the majority.
Tell me when you're through with the stabbing and want to work productively again WITH me to fix this. I'll be waiting.
(Edit just to clarify the sarcasm, as I feel you won't get it if I don't: if you check upthread, the metaphor I picked originally was "spitballs". I escalated for effect when it became clear that SwellJoe was more interested in yelling at the corrupt DNC establishment elites than in discussing what to do about a Trump presidency, which was the original topic.)
What have I said that is in a "yelling" tone? Please point it out to me, so I can adjust my tone. I'm speaking the truth as I see it, as clearly as I understand it. The Democratic party lost big this year. It was not just the presidential race. Republicans swept the board, at the national, state, and local level, including in places they shouldn't have won.
If you believe staying the course is the right course of action for the DNC and the party in general, I believe the onus is on you to defend that position; there are people who have tried to bring the party back to being a grassroots party of the working class (among others, of course), and have been repeatedly shushed, shunned, dismissed as being "extremist", etc. So, the working classes have spoken and embraced a fascist who, at least, speaks to them where they are and acknowledges the pain they're feeling. That he can get away with giving scapegoats rather than solutions is predictable in the absence of consistent messaging and action from the Democrats on those same issues.
The argument can no longer be made that the center lane is the pragmatic approach; though one could certainly argue that there's room for center-left Democrats in red state elections, and I would even agree with that and support that. But, the party has no passion left in it; it's been shoved out by party functionaries who cling to power within the party, all the while it sinks further below water.
Losing (big and wide) is not pragmatic.