Thread: What are your politics?
And have they changed in the last five years?
I used to be a hardcore leftist, even a radical leftist. There’s no question my politics have become more moderate over the years. But it’s not just me who has shifted: “The Left” today, with its puritanism and authoritarianism, is something barely recognizable to me anymore.
Since I started this Substack, I’ve heard from a lot of people who’ve told me the same: that they have always identified as progressive but now find themselves with their heads spinning as they’re asked to co-sign crazier and crazier ideas, and ostracized if they don’t.
My guess is subscribers to this newsletter are a fairly heterodox bunch, with different politics and different political trajectories from mine and from each other’s. I thought it would be interesting to ask:
What were your politics five years ago?
How would you describe your politics today?
If they changed in that time, when did they change and why?
Answer in the comments. Open thread.
Five years ago I described myself as a left libertarian. I voted and volunteered for Bernie. Today I describe myself as a libertarian. The progressive assault on freedom of expression, creativity, beauty, and eros, and the abandonment of classic American virtues such as self-reliance, risk-taking, and pride in country is too much to bear.
Reagan was shot when I was 12. I actually sat in my school cafeteria and prayed that he would die (peacefully, I did add that), even though I was quite worried that God would be angry with me for that kind of ask. So it was a big risk, but I thought I needed to ask anyway. The problem was that Reagan upset the adults around me so much and seemed to be at the center of every conversation about what was wrong with the country. That’s how not-Republican my childhood milieu was.
All my adult life, for 36 years, I’ve been a solid ticket Democratic voter, local, state and federal. Yes, I voted for Biden. But I regret it. My apologies to everyone. And I’m done. At this point I don’t see voting for another Democrat for awhile, maybe ever, even for local parks and rec supervisor. I’ve been mugged by reality and I’m lurching around with a serious concussion and no political party. I’m absolutely still the same person with the same commitments to “classical liberal” values like freedom of speech and enquiry, MLK’s principles, and so forth. I’m a college humanities professor. I thought freedom of enquiry is what we do on campus and in the classroom. But no, it’s not. I’m only finding those values elsewhere, like on this Substack. I voted for my first Republican candidate last year, John James for Michigan senator. Lightning did not strike me. (Yes, I was a bit surprised.) Then I found myself frustrated that he lost.
Now I listen to Bari Weiss and Glenn Loury, read Andrew Sullivan and Thomas Sowell. Yesterday I bought a Jordan Peterson book and made breakfast to The Ben Shapiro Show for God’s sake. What’s happening to me?
I’ll tell you what: my sister cut me off mid-sentence and called me a racist on the phone last month for attempting to tell her about an interview I heard with John McWhorter. Then she called John McWhorter a racist. She’s never actually read or listened to a word he’s ever uttered. She’s not a 19 year old college student high on the ideological righteousness of youth. She’s a 52-year-old white woman with graduate degrees from Duke University who is a highly ranked executive in a major US nonprofit. And yes, for whatever it’s worth, she knows he’s black. (And no, he doesn’t prefer to capitalize it. You see the waters I swim in.)
Many of my academic colleagues have become just as chillingly intolerant and anti-intellectual while believing themselves to be social justice advocates on the right side of history. My University is actively applying political litmus tests during the hiring, tenure and promotion processes. How do I know? Because I sit on the Appointment, Rank andTenure committee and I’ve been on two different hiring committees. What’s happening to students is even worse. This fall I had a first-generation college student whose working class parents immigrated from Mexico (a common demographic for us). She broke down in tears in class because of the bleak future she faces in our “white supremacist country.” Sobbing she said that her parents refuse to believe that she is truly oppressed even though she has learned in college that she is. I’m not making this up. It’s surreal and it’s psychologically abusive. Last year I sat in a required meeting where faculty spoke about the need to prompt “BIPOC” students to retrospectively understand interactions as racist even when the students themselves didn’t experience it that way.
And don’t get me started on gender and women’s sports. Google Lia Thomas at UPenn. That pretty much says it all. And I haven’t even gotten to how shocked I am to discover the deep intellectual and political biases and failures of my own education, which includes a PhD from The University of Michigan. .