The Trumpian of the left
For decades, the left sought to dethrone the idea of truth. Truth was not an absolute. It was a matter of power. Of perspective. Of narrative. “Truth is a thing of this world,” wrote Michel Foucault. “Each society has its regime of truth, its ‘general politics’ of truth: that is, the types of discourse which it accepts and makes function as true.”
Then Kellyanne Conway gave us “alternative facts” and Rudy Giuliani said, “Truth isn’t truth” — and progressives rushed to defend the inviolability of facts and truth.
For decades, the left sought to dethrone reverence for the Constitution. “The Constitution,” wrote progressive historian Howard Zinn, “serves the interests of a wealthy elite” and enables “the elite to keep control with a minimum of coercion, a maximum of law — all made palatable by the fanfare of patriotism and unity.”
Then Donald Trump attacked freedom of the press and birthright citizenship, and flouted the emoluments clause, and assailed the impartiality of the judiciary. And progressives rediscovered the treasure that is our Constitutional inheritance.
For decades, the left sought to enthrone identity politics. “We believe that the most profound and potentially most radical politics come directly out of our own identity, as opposed to working to end somebody else’s oppression,” reads the 1977 statement of the black feminist Combahee River Collective, one of the key documents in the development of contemporary U.S. identity politics.
Then Trump turned identity politics on its head by appealing to white voters, and progressives rediscovered the beauty of our national motto, E pluribus unum.
The list goes on. Bad morals in a president? With Bill Clinton in office, the left was basically indifferent. With Donald Trump, it’s indignant. Intense hostility to Russia? Previously a sign of paranoia; currently a prerequisite to patriotism. Accusing the CIA or FBI of conspiring against our freedom? What was once
among progressives is now a slur on the good name of people who keep us safe.
Which brings me to Elizabeth Warren’s commencement address last Friday at Morgan State University in Baltimore. It sounded just like ... a Trump stump speech.
To an audience of nearly 500 new graduates and their families at the historically black college, the Massachusetts senator laid out a bleak vision of America.