One of the first things I learned in Psychology 101 my freshman year of college was the concept of projection. That is, when someone irrationally accuses you of doing something -- say, your girlfriend accuses you of cheating -- they're probably doing what they're accusing you of.
We see this play out time and again in politics. The Left love to scream how the Right are 'extremists' and 'out of touch' with Americans. They also like to tell us how the Right are the fascists who will take away their rights, throw journalists in camps, and oppress women/gays/minorities.
It's bull, but it's a message that's pervasive. This writer sees a lot of it on Facebook, where people who wanted Kamala to win are attacking Trump voters for being a threat to their rights.
We're not. We're the same people today that we were on November 4, and your rights are not going anywhere with Donald Trump in the White House. These same people ignore the fact the Democrats have infringed on our rights for years -- from gun control to speech to trying to mandate vaccine passports to leave your house.
But because it's (D)ifferent when they do it, the same people melting down because Trump won didn't bat an eye during all of that.
I want to circle back to that accusation of 'extremism', because it's important. Probably one of the most important factors in deciding the election outside of the economy.
The Left are the extremists, and here's data to prove it:
"Strong Democrats" have, in the past 10 years, swung away from the median voter on cultural issues
— Alice Evans (@_alice_evans) November 15, 2024
New analysis by @jburnmurdoch 🧵 pic.twitter.com/Wm4hERTCne
Look at that blue arrow. That's a hard leftward shift away from the majority of Americans.
Part of this is rooted in the fact a lot of the hardecore Democrats -- the elected politicians in Washington and the media -- do not live and work with median voters. They live in D.C. or NYC and have no idea what life is like in Kansas or Utah or Wisconsin.
It's doing them a great disservice.
But after this election, they don't seem to have any interest in finding out what life is like outside of Fifth Avenue or the Beltway.
"Democrat political elites" culturally diverge from the median voter
— Alice Evans (@_alice_evans) November 15, 2024
Research by Alexander Furnas (@zfurnas) and Timothy LaPira (@timlapira).https://t.co/l8koYk4fnT pic.twitter.com/CfRBIGZBWx
Elon Musk and Joe Rogan, who are presently heroes of the Right, actually started out as Left-leaning moderates.
I'm a fan of the saying 'the Left can't meme, because they are the meme' and it's illustrated here. They've moved so far from the media, they're making guys like Musk and Rogan shift right by default. Even diehard liberal Bill Maher looks positively moderate these days.
White progressives do stand for minorities,
— Alice Evans (@_alice_evans) November 15, 2024
But actually have very different views
- such as on legal immigration and policing.
Graph by @jburnmurdoch pic.twitter.com/a4CrGbjS8B
This is what best explains the groundswell of Black and Latino voters going for Donald Trump. The white, progressive elites think they stand up for minorities, but they have no clue what minorities actually care about and think on issues like crime and immigration.
Rather, those privileged (and, let's face it, their privileged) progressives -- who often live in wealthy, safe, lily-white enclaves -- have no idea how crime and illegal immigration impact Black and Latino voters. They think they're the saviors of these communities by supporting 'equity' and 'criminal justice reform' and open borders.
But what they're really doing is projecting their values onto communities who are not rich, not privileged, and who want safe streets and good schools and good jobs without progressives telling them how to think and feel.
It's why progressives will tell minorities that something is racist -- like the Puerto Rico joke that had them clutching pearls -- when most minorities don't find that stuff offensive.
At the same time, progressives will force their ideology on those communities. Remember Latinx? The Latino community rejected it, but the Left keeps trying to make it a thing because the woke Left demand it be a thing.
The Democrats are no longer seen as representing the working class - @jburnmurdoch pic.twitter.com/aeGvoDtv1N
— Alice Evans (@_alice_evans) November 15, 2024
It's very hard to make the argument you support the working class when the majority of your endorsements are from rich celebrities who you pay millions of dollars to.
Oprah may have grown up poor, but she has no idea what middle- and lower-income Americans face, or how Bidenomics-driven inflation harms them. Pretending voters care about what Beyoncé says when Beyoncé will never have to worry about where her next paycheck is coming from is the epitome of hubris.
Some people are sounding the alarm that the Left needs to return to a more moderate view, politically and socially. Others are thinking these shifts to the Left are Left-wing enough.
There are very important lessons for the Left in all this data, if the Left will learn them.
I'm not going to hold my breath.
