There is another dimension: Human beings adapt to change at different speeds. Some can adapt right away and enjoy doing that, others take time.
And a resistance to rapid change is probably built into our DNA. Cultures probably existed for hundreds or thousands of year by not adapting to rapid change, but instead by working to keep things "just the way they are."
Progressives want and expect rapid change. That once they have adapted to it, then everyone else should also. So they have pushed and pushed. Well, the recent election shows that they have pushed too far and people are saying "SLOW DOWN!"
Voters have resisted these constant demands to "change" because, for one big reason, "progressives" have been wrong on so many issues. OOPs. yes we do need more police. oooops. Maybe puberty blockers haven't been proven scientifically to work. ooooops. Maybe our open border polices weren't such a hot idea. ooops. Maybe DEI programs have had a bad effect, not a good one. ooooops ooooops ooooops
So, maybe it is not the "resisters to change" who are unenlightened, but instead it is the people who are getting high on pushing other people to change who are "unenlightened" and "deplorable."
The election was a psychological test. "Progressives" failed it.
This column reminds me of Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, which depicted the cigar-smoking fat cats opposed to the idealistic Smith as a cabal of industrialists, financiers, and union bosses. The Democratic Party at one time represented working people, but over time it determined that it OWNED working people and could rely on their votes without having to represent their interests in earnest. Instead, it focused on the union bosses to deliver the members' votes and funnel their dues to Democratic campaigns.
The same pattern held for minorities and women. The party went from championing their interests to taking their votes for granted, using slogans and empty promises to keep them on the Democratic side and away from the Republican side.
The true passions of the new leaders of the party had to do with remaking society and its values to match those they learned in elite educational institutions. They assumed that their "owned" constituencies - working people, women, minorities - would unquestioningly follow along without noticing that their interests were being harmed by the party's new priorities.
I think the two biggest wake-up calls for the voters who switched to Trump were transgender ideology and illegal immigration. These voters were asked to accept the irrelevance of biology to gender roles or be branded transphobic outcasts - even losing their jobs for questioning pronouns. They were also told to accept public benefits and accommodations being stripped away from them and their families and reassigned to undocumented immigrants, often with a concomitant degradation of the quality of life in their cities and neighborhoods.
I predict the autopsy of the Harris campaign and the soul-searching by the Democratic Party will result in the obvious but entirely wrong conclusion: Bernie, Liz Warren, AOC and the Squad were right, the party needs to take a hard Left turn into Democratic Socialism, and trying to appeal to the wishy-washy middle is a sucker's game.
There is another dimension: Human beings adapt to change at different speeds. Some can adapt right away and enjoy doing that, others take time.
And a resistance to rapid change is probably built into our DNA. Cultures probably existed for hundreds or thousands of year by not adapting to rapid change, but instead by working to keep things "just the way they are."
Progressives want and expect rapid change. That once they have adapted to it, then everyone else should also. So they have pushed and pushed. Well, the recent election shows that they have pushed too far and people are saying "SLOW DOWN!"
Voters have resisted these constant demands to "change" because, for one big reason, "progressives" have been wrong on so many issues. OOPs. yes we do need more police. oooops. Maybe puberty blockers haven't been proven scientifically to work. ooooops. Maybe our open border polices weren't such a hot idea. ooops. Maybe DEI programs have had a bad effect, not a good one. ooooops ooooops ooooops
So, maybe it is not the "resisters to change" who are unenlightened, but instead it is the people who are getting high on pushing other people to change who are "unenlightened" and "deplorable."
The election was a psychological test. "Progressives" failed it.
This column reminds me of Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, which depicted the cigar-smoking fat cats opposed to the idealistic Smith as a cabal of industrialists, financiers, and union bosses. The Democratic Party at one time represented working people, but over time it determined that it OWNED working people and could rely on their votes without having to represent their interests in earnest. Instead, it focused on the union bosses to deliver the members' votes and funnel their dues to Democratic campaigns.
The same pattern held for minorities and women. The party went from championing their interests to taking their votes for granted, using slogans and empty promises to keep them on the Democratic side and away from the Republican side.
The true passions of the new leaders of the party had to do with remaking society and its values to match those they learned in elite educational institutions. They assumed that their "owned" constituencies - working people, women, minorities - would unquestioningly follow along without noticing that their interests were being harmed by the party's new priorities.
I think the two biggest wake-up calls for the voters who switched to Trump were transgender ideology and illegal immigration. These voters were asked to accept the irrelevance of biology to gender roles or be branded transphobic outcasts - even losing their jobs for questioning pronouns. They were also told to accept public benefits and accommodations being stripped away from them and their families and reassigned to undocumented immigrants, often with a concomitant degradation of the quality of life in their cities and neighborhoods.
I predict the autopsy of the Harris campaign and the soul-searching by the Democratic Party will result in the obvious but entirely wrong conclusion: Bernie, Liz Warren, AOC and the Squad were right, the party needs to take a hard Left turn into Democratic Socialism, and trying to appeal to the wishy-washy middle is a sucker's game.