Now is the Time for the Left to Recognize that Reformism is The Only Way
If they still can’t see the truth after so much failure, then I don’t know what to say
The left has failed, again, badly. It knows that it has been defeated. This applies to the ‘woke’ left and the ‘class first’ left of the 2010s alike. As many left-wing observers have noted, all the ‘mass protest movements’ of the 2010s have amounted to nothing. The Bernie ‘Revolution’ has amounted to nothing. Even the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests of 2020 have amounted to exactly nothing, except for some backlash.
And it’s not as if it’s the first time the left has been defeated. The most recent defeat follows from that of the 1970s, which ushered in the era of Reaganism. Before that the left was also arguably defeated in the 1930s, the 1870s, and the 1840s, at least in Europe. Throughout the past two centuries, it has basically been defeat all the way for the Western left. For some reason, some on the left are still not quite aware of this awful track record.
Like many times in history, the defeated and now impotent left has turned to two things: blame and therapy. They blame the ‘mainstream liberals’ for getting nothing done, and for not being able to do anything about everything from Dobbs to drag bans (as if they could actually magically do anything about these things). Talking bad about President Biden is, like, very ‘cool’ on the left right now. Still sour about events from four years ago, they seemingly don’t understand that Biden, rather than Bernie, is President right now because they lost in March 2020, fair and square. Them blaming Biden-supporting mainstream liberals for almost everything just reflects their refusal to face up to what was arguably one of their biggest failures of all time. Besides blame, therapy, which includes endlessly analyzing and justifying the emotions associated with defeat, thus turning the political into the personal, is also gaining popularity again. Apparently, there is now interest in the ‘tension’ between ‘the fact of defeat and the memory of that almost magical feeling’. It really reminds me of the way some leftists used to keep saying ‘a better world is possible’ without doing anything useful back in the 1990s. Looking back further, I think the original rise of postmodernism around the 1980s was also a response to the defeat of the 1970s, a twisted kind of therapy.
It seems that the left would rather do anything else than face their failures head on, and understand what actually went wrong for them. I guess this way, they could stay forever romantically committed to their ‘ideals’, and never have to learn the lessons of their failures. They could continue to dream that causing widespread upheaval and alienating ‘normies’ is good politics, when the opposite is true. They could continue to pretend that anyone who criticizes ‘wokeism’ or cancel culture is right-wing, and not have to listen to legitimate reasons for why their most recent ‘revolution’ failed. I guess this is the kind of attitude that was a large part of the reason I ‘left the left’ back in 2013. I simply have no interest in a movement that keeps persisting with its failing ways.
Anyway, here’s the truth the left can’t face: nothing good usually comes out of widespread social disruption and upheaval. Society can only be made better via a sustainable reformism, which would require respecting long-standing social norms, cultural institutions and the views of a wide range of stakeholders in society. Compromise, patience and gradualism are also required. If the left fails to learn these lessons, they will only experience more failures in the future.
Originally published at https://taraella.substack.com.
TaraElla is a singer-songwriter and author, who is the author of the Moral Libertarian Manifesto and the Moral Libertarian book series, which argue that liberalism is still the most moral and effective value system for the West.
She is also the author of The Trans Case Against Queer Theory and The TaraElla Story (her autobiography).
