Divorcing the Democrats: hollow gestures & shallow morals

Credentialism, elite capture, and the rejection of truth; plus Substack live video

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I’ve always wanted to be part of a group, but haven’t been able to fit in despite my best efforts. Now, after thirty-five, I realize that I never will be, and I couldn’t have started writing without accepting this.

This is the story of how political belonging, once my compass, became a trap—and how I saw that class betrayal defines the modern Democratic Party.

At every stage of my life, Democrats’ refusal to stand up for the average person without fancy credentials thwarted me. The most offensive, however, is the disdainful and illiberal attitude of the average Democrat voter, which discourages the utterance of uncomfortable truths. This identity was dear, and its loss saddens me.

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I. Youthful hope for class politics (2003-2007)

As a teenager, my political identity suddenly formed as a Democrat and liberal while the latter was still a dirty word. The Iraq War galvanized me and many other old millennials. I recall a chemistry teacher flagged me down in the hallway in tenth grade to share a leaflet about the abomination of it all. Teachers with advanced degrees indoctrinated me into the International Baccalaureate program to be a good Democrat. It was an early form of control I didn’t recognize.

I earnestly believed in the power of the social safety net and the possibility of climbing higher than my parents could. Many might recall that Dems officially ran away from ‘liberal’ throughout the Clinton and Bush administrations. They continued cutting the safety net during the Obama administration, indirectly, while hiding behind the Affordable Care Act. They reluctantly accepted the charge to at least defend it rhetorically because of Warren, Sanders, and other class-first Democrats.

Elected Democrats only came to accept ‘liberal’ during the Obama administration, and it’s now been muddied again because of social justice culture. What is a liberal today? Some say it defends classical liberalism like I try to do. Some say they’re defenders of capitalism. The word is empty. “Progressive” Democrat politics, or social justice, have swallowed liberalism as a concept.

Even as I started to feel part of this Democrat tribe, I knew I still was on the outside with many other unabashed liberals. Michael Moore was one of the few espousing class politics at the time. He came to Gainesville twice, when I was sixteen and twenty, filling the University of Florida’s basketball dome with a raucous crowd delighted by his zingers about Bush and Cheney. Standing in line with my parents and cheering with thousands every two minutes, I felt electrified.

It was the era of Fahrenheit 9/11 and Al Franken's bestsellers, which profoundly affected the tribe and me. Back then, Democrats were still obsessed with proving themselves to be more reasonable hawks than Republicans, but never questioned why their center-right stance in most areas might have lost two elections in a row. This was when they didn’t pander to college-educated women’s social justice hangups, only the military-industrial complex.

Sanders took up Moore’s populist brand, which culminated in repeated disappointment. Franken made it to the Senate before he was cynically defenestrated by female politicians who wanted him out of their way. He was a threat to Gillibrand’s career to be removed, the only lever an assassination of character, like women have evolved to do.¹ Social justice is a cover for the bourgeoisie to suppress competition.

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CHARLOTTE, NC - SEP 21: Democratic nominee, Barack Obama, makes a campaign stop on Sept 21, 2008 in Charlotte, NC via Shutterstock

II. Hope and naïveté (2007-2010)

By 2008, I was a senior in college, and the economy was melting as my cohort entered the working world. I still remember when I realized something was wrong: I was in French class in the computer lab reading the New York Times story about Lehman Brothers collapsing, and our instructor chided us for browsing the web.

Occupy Wall Street was older millennials seething at being downwardly mobile despite having done everything right that Democratic elites had told us: we got degrees in hopes of being employed in the new knowledge economy.

After reading "We Have Never Been Woke" by Musa Al-Gharbi, I realized that OWS wasn’t a demand to address historical wealth inequality; rather, elite millennial professional class aspirants sought to replace the people at the top. Elite overproduction occurs when a society produces more individuals with elite aspirations than there are jobs to absorb them.²