Risible conservative both-siderist Ross Douthat has an Op-Ed in The New York Times that, in the grand tradition of fellow travelers Charlie Sykes, Andrew Sullivan, Tom Nichols, Peter Wehner, George Will and Howard Schultz, purports to criticize the GOP and the Right while making sure to take some gratuitous potshots at the left and the Democratic Party, just to remind himself and everyone else that Liberals Suck Too.
So, we get treated to more twaddle like this:
And as the Democrats shifted leftward and Trump delivered on his promised judicial appointments, many conservatives who had shared my apprehensions would tell me that, simply as a shield against the left, the president was doing enough to merit their support in 2020.
If I had a dime for every time the Democratic Party was accused of “shifting leftward” over the past, oh I don’t know, 30 years, I could have retired at 40. If the Party had actually “shifted leftward” every time Republicans and their media enablers said it had done or was doing that, it would be so far left by now that no one would recognize it. Enough already with this bullshit.
But let’s give Douthat a little credit; he at least acknowledges that it’s the country that’s actually “shifting leftward”:
[Trump’s] failed presidency is pushing the country to the left. … Above all, conservatism [is] now a worldview for old people and contrarians in a country trending leftward … What we are seeing right now in America, an accelerated leftward shift…
(emphasis added). And I’ll give him even more credit for being maybe the first columnist I’ve ever read to suggest in print that the failure, faithlessness and/or malevolence of the GOP and the Right (one in particular) is pushing people toward voting Democratic.
So, back to the point: what does “shifting leftward” actually mean? Over the past three decades the phrase and concept have been deployed by Republicans, conservative commentators and pearl-clutching both-siderists to insinuate that the Democratic Party was “out of step” with “mainstream America” or somesuch claptrap. What do they really mean by it? What does Moscow Mitch mean when it pledges to kill the Democratic House’s “socialist agenda”?
Let’s remember what the purpose, function and raison d’être of the modern Republican Party actually is: To see to it that the wealthy, powerful men, corporations and industries that own the GOP, are not inconvenienced by taxes, regulation, or social responsibility; to reduce their “cost of doing business” to zero. Now, as the rest of us know — and Republicans surely do as well — the “cost of doing business” includes the health, safety, and general well-being of the public, consumers, workers, and the environment.
Everything else — abortion, guns, immigration, all of it — is just window dressing, a way to get people who would never vote for that ^^ to vote for that. A way to get people without wealth, power, influence or advantage to agree, and vote, to keep those things right where they are. Once you realize what the GOP is really up to, their entire “governing” agenda — tax cuts, deregulation, court-stacking — makes perfect sense: reduce the “cost of doing business” for their owners to near-zero, and see to it that they can never be held accountable for the harm they cause.
As such, “shifting leftward” means, and a “socialist agenda” is, prioritizing (or “shifting” one’s priorities away from that ^^ and toward) the health, safety and general well-being of the public, consumers, workers, or the environment, over the corporate and personal profits of the GOP’s wealthy, powerful owners. And that includes social justice; legislators who are busy focusing on social justice and trying to right social wrongs aren’t busy devoting themselves to reducing the “cost of doing business” and closing off avenues of accountability for the men, corporations and industries that own the GOP. And we can’t have that, now, can we?
So, when both-siderist twits like Ross Douthat try to tut-tut the Democrats for “shifting leftward” let’s keep our eye on what that actually means: “shifting” away from servicing the nation’s corporate overlords and toward serving its people; prioritizing public health, public safety, the public good, and social justice, over the wishes and convenience of the wealthy and of industry. Yes, the Deplorables still think that’s a bad thing, that it helps Those People at the their expense; there’s no salvaging that cohort. But anyone who accuses the Democratic Party of “shifting leftward” had better have an idea of what that actually means, should be asked what they think it means, and should be schooled and scolded if their answer is wrong.