Thread by @matthewstoller

I don't know how to explain this, but something has always been a bit.. off about the left and about Democrats. There's not a sense that they are in charge or could be in charge. They don't even really believe they have the right to wield power.

https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1061486427429457921

Democratic Presidents tend to appoint Republicans as Secretary of Defense or as FBI Director. This is pervasive across the left, both progressives and centrists. They want progressive stuff, but brought to you by Jim Comey types. I wish this had a name.

The aesthetic is pervasive. On the left, it's a fetishization of Howard Zinn's narrative of powerlessness, a constant talking up of grassroots as virtuous and governing as sinful. Among centrists, it's a fetishization of the private sector. There's a lack of will to power.

It's weird. Journalists think this too. Like, the massive tilt on the Sunday shows towards conservative guests shows they just don't believe Democrats or liberals matter. The Democrats sometimes win elections, but they don't wield power.

I'm not really getting across what I'm trying to say. It's not a critique of Democrats. It's that no one - not Democrats, not Republicans, not most Americans - expect Democrats to be the party serious about wielding power. That will change with a few examples.

Something is just very weird about how the Democrats just openly embrace and fetishize the neocons of the Bush era. Even Bernie talks up how Reagan believed in blah blah blah. It's like, if you're a Democrat, shouldn't you believe Reagan was bad? Deep insecurity going on.

It's not just politicians. I'm talking about voters and activists too. Democratic primary voters do not like Democratic candidates who seek to wield power. They want people that talk up unity and togetherness and meekness. That was Beto's whole schtick.

Anyway, it was just so different prior to the 1970s. People just kind of turned to Democratic politicians as natural leaders. Liberals felt that what they did and said mattered. I don't know the right way to put it. InChargeNess?

Some think I'm talking about Democrats, and have commented that Democrats aren't the left. True. But my point is the problem is actually on the left as well. In fact it's much worse on the left. They have weird pride in not having political representation.

https://twitter.com/matthewstoller/status/1061834866998808577