I oppose virtually everything about the current kleptocracy, the odious President who heads it, and the toadying sycophants who have been raised to power within it. But I also oppose the anti-democratic excesses of the radical left, even as I recognize that I was, to some degree, taken in by parts of it throughout the twenty-tens. Immoderate principles that felt like pushes in the right direction despite being flawed in their most straightforward sense proved to be huge liabilities. * "Defund the police" — almost no one believed in this as stated, but the coalition between those who understood why it would be a really bad idea to ACTUALLY do this and those who liked the fervor of it but actually wanted something more moderate proved devastating * "Black lives matter" — plenty of people easily understood that what most people meant was that "black lives [ought to] matter [more than they seem to]". But the tension between what many meant and what many heard ultimately made it a very two-edged slogan. * "Trans women are women" — many, many people want as many people as possible to get to live free and happy lives in a broadly tolerant society. Early bathroom bills were immensely unpopular. But pushing a particular and aggressive understanding of how gender works for all people (that it stems from an immutable inner sense and that this sense is what is most important in all contexts: relationships, sports, locker rooms and other shared spaces) fractured the coalition. A broad majority of Americans (including me) oppose letting trans women compete against natal women in sports for very obvious reasons. I also don't want trans people to have a harder time living free lives of dignity and happiness. * "Believe women" — again, as a slogan, this has force. "Fight the default prejudice to never believe women" is a far better principle, but a worse slogan. Somehow, we got away from the *appalling* stats on how many rape kits sit unprocessed in police stations and instead shifted to standards for proceduralizing consent that infantilized women and made any man accusable for virtually anything. Self-identified progressives are far less likely than their conservative counterparts to have active relationships with people with whom they disagree politically. Left-wing culture came to prioritize zeal over curiosity, revenge over compassion, and purification over pluralism. I could not be happier to see politicians like Pete Buttigieg trying to forge an anti-partisan path toward a Democratic party that stands for core, traditional norms. And I am cautiously happy about seeing politicians like Alexandria Ocasio Cortez tacking that direction. But we need strong statements of orienting principles that will prevent zealouts from using any political power Democrats are able to reclaim to steer us recklessly toward damaging extremes, not just jokey handwaving about "woke 1 [being] crazy." And the DSA, whose candidates are winning primaries? No matter how realistic or moderate individual members are (and they're basically all more moderate than the core organization), the principles in their charter are fucking NUTS. We cannot give them a single inch.