Despite a significant defeat for Trump, the Democrats remain reluctant to adapt
The aftermath of the left’s predictable electoral defeat has turned into a farce.
Joe Scarborough is now showing unwavering support for an incoming president he once compared to Hitler. Nancy Pelosi, who initially defended Biden’s mental acuity before turning on him, is now pointing fingers at him for Kamala Harris’s loss. Activist “journalists” are insisting that Harris ran a flawless campaign and are blaming voters who “abandoned democracy.”
This self-congratulatory behavior epitomizes many of the issues with today’s American left. It thrives on self-praise and social approval rather than critical self-reflection. Moral superiority and virtue signaling are its primary currencies.
Sociologist Musa al-Gharbi’s recent book on elite hypocrisy, titled “We Have Never Been Woke,” exposes this phenomenon. With immigration as a key example, he reveals the self-serving actions of elites who preach virtue while exploiting others for menial tasks, all under the guise of righteousness.
Meanwhile, the influx of migrants oversaturates labor markets, displaces working-class jobs, and depresses wages. For the working class, this wealth redistribution is another blow from the same liberal elites who championed the neoliberal trade policies that benefited themselves while decimating working-class communities and sending jobs overseas due to unfair trade agreements. Most workers saw a decrease in real wages during the Biden administration.
The left’s customary response is to cry bigotry when the working class and others express discontent with this exploitation. The elite, fueled by their college degrees, grow fat while looking down on anyone who questions their “multiculturalism over nation” rhetoric or their fixation on victimhood. It’s a smart game for those who can play it.
Al-Gharbi points out why this virtue signaling is crucial for elites. In a world where universities churn out an excess of elites, it becomes a way for them to set themselves apart and elevate their social status above their peers.
“‘Wokeness’ has become a vital source of cultural capital among contemporary elites,” argues the author. This explains why the left has adopted various policy and cultural stances on crime, critical race theory, gender issues, climate absolutism, and even terrorist rhetoric, which cater to the insular needs of donors and activists but alienate most voters from the Democratic party.
Instead of learning from the election results, Democrats appear to be digging in their heels.
The White House, according to reports in The Post, is promoting more migrant surges by introducing a flawed ICE app that allows 230,000 illegal immigrants in New York (potentially millions elsewhere) to have virtual check-ins with immigration authorities instead of in-person appointments. This news is music to the ears of criminal cartels that thrive on evading monitoring and detection.
Additionally, the White House continues to oppose Texas’s efforts to enhance border security barriers to deter an imminent surge of migrants before the inauguration, further encouraging cartels.
For the past four years, Democrats have extolled the virtues of democracy while seemingly disregarding the expressed will of the voters in favor of appeasing the “virtuous” elite. One possible rationale is a belief that a heightened migrant crisis will complicate the new administration’s cleanup efforts.
Yet, their sanctimonious approach blinds them; instead of appearing superior, it renders them intellectually deprived. An exacerbated crisis may ironically make the incoming administration’s task seem more competent and heroic.
This pattern persists across various policy realms. For example, in 2021, the Biden administration could have made significant strides in climate policy.
However, like many in Western Europe, it squandered the opportunity with condescending preachiness and NetZero austerity policies like EV mandates, burdening American workers and consumers while doing little to curb global carbon emissions elsewhere.
Consequently, public skepticism has grown, and major international initiatives like COP29 and the Paris Agreements are on shaky ground. This paves the way for the new administration to explore cooperative financing models for renewable energy and carbon capture technologies that show promise economically.
It would be ironic if the Trump administration found common ground on climate initiatives internationally to advance the cause.
Elsewhere, the administration’s slow response in providing necessary weaponry to Ukraine and its ambivalent stance on Israel, offering support one day only to undermine Israel’s efforts in combating terrorists the next, have heightened global instability and set the stage for potential triumphalism by Trump on the world stage.
That’s the crux. Moral superiority and condescension, devoid of substantive backing, don’t just represent vacuous pseudo-intellectualism; they also stifle dialogue and hinder knowledge acquisition, leaving their proponents intellectually impoverished. It could be the most crucial lesson the left needs to learn from the election results.
