"and the backlash is happening toward the entire "left"."
I'm not sure this is true. Or, at least, I don't think the people who think the "entire left" are the problem are any more worthy of taking seriously than the people who think "conservatives bad."
There's a completely appropriate backlash against the extremes of the left (if it's ev…
"and the backlash is happening toward the entire "left"."
I'm not sure this is true. Or, at least, I don't think the people who think the "entire left" are the problem are any more worthy of taking seriously than the people who think "conservatives bad."
There's a completely appropriate backlash against the extremes of the left (if it's even fair to call these authoritarians the left), which is being driven by plenty of liberals as well as by conservatives. But I don't think the left has "become" the gender extremists any more than the right has "become" the Trumpists and the QAnon believers.
As I always point out, most people are somewhere fairly sane on all of these issues. Most liberals are reasonable. Most conservatives are reasonable. And if they actually understood each other's (and their own) positions, they'd agree far more than they think. The sense of extreme political polarisation is being driven almost entirely by the fringes.
You are correct, but the squeaky wheel gets greased. Politically, people left, and right are happy to assign the loud radical behavior and beliefs to their tribe. Low hanging fruit.
Do I think that most liberals or conservatives are what the radicals would have us believe? No, like you I don't believe that. Here's the rub, they vote for politicians who pander to the radicals even though the majority has a problem with that. Why? Because most voting is against someone or thing. "I can't vote for X because [radical element]."
I often (more often every election) cast protest "no acceptable candidate" write ins. It's just a futile protest, but I think if "no acceptable candidate" was on the ballot for every political office, and if it got the most votes none of the candidates could be on a ballot again it might just solve the problem of voting for the lesser evil. Kick the evils off the ballot until we get good choices.
“ Because most voting is against someone or thing. "I can't vote for X because [radical element]."”
Yep, for better or worse, I think this is a problem the left suffers from more than the right. I wrote, after the 2020 election, that if elections were decided by how many people actively wanted their guy to win, Trump would have won by a landslide.
I’m not going to get into what it says that Trump has so many did-hard supporters on the right, but Biden, it seemed to me, was effectively a protest vote. People voted for him because they wanted Trump to lose. Not because they wanted him to win.
"and the backlash is happening toward the entire "left"."
I'm not sure this is true. Or, at least, I don't think the people who think the "entire left" are the problem are any more worthy of taking seriously than the people who think "conservatives bad."
There's a completely appropriate backlash against the extremes of the left (if it's even fair to call these authoritarians the left), which is being driven by plenty of liberals as well as by conservatives. But I don't think the left has "become" the gender extremists any more than the right has "become" the Trumpists and the QAnon believers.
As I always point out, most people are somewhere fairly sane on all of these issues. Most liberals are reasonable. Most conservatives are reasonable. And if they actually understood each other's (and their own) positions, they'd agree far more than they think. The sense of extreme political polarisation is being driven almost entirely by the fringes.
You are correct, but the squeaky wheel gets greased. Politically, people left, and right are happy to assign the loud radical behavior and beliefs to their tribe. Low hanging fruit.
Do I think that most liberals or conservatives are what the radicals would have us believe? No, like you I don't believe that. Here's the rub, they vote for politicians who pander to the radicals even though the majority has a problem with that. Why? Because most voting is against someone or thing. "I can't vote for X because [radical element]."
I often (more often every election) cast protest "no acceptable candidate" write ins. It's just a futile protest, but I think if "no acceptable candidate" was on the ballot for every political office, and if it got the most votes none of the candidates could be on a ballot again it might just solve the problem of voting for the lesser evil. Kick the evils off the ballot until we get good choices.
“ Because most voting is against someone or thing. "I can't vote for X because [radical element]."”
Yep, for better or worse, I think this is a problem the left suffers from more than the right. I wrote, after the 2020 election, that if elections were decided by how many people actively wanted their guy to win, Trump would have won by a landslide.
I’m not going to get into what it says that Trump has so many did-hard supporters on the right, but Biden, it seemed to me, was effectively a protest vote. People voted for him because they wanted Trump to lose. Not because they wanted him to win.
I wish both sides offered better options.