The Left Got What It Wanted—And?

In America, we are now into our third year of the collapse of normality, longer still in Europe. The result is the Left can no longer retain power solely by its control of the institutions—media, academia, corporations, entertainment, tech, the deep state, or foundations—or by open borders necessary to create what it has bragged of as "the new Democratic majority" or "demography is destiny." In short, the nation became poorer, more divided, and angrier.

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The Left cannot govern, but its unpopularity often proves no bar to its acquisition and retention of power. Due to the media collusion/disinformation melodramas, COVID-19, the lockdowns, the ensuing George Floyd riots, Trump Derangement Syndrome, and profound change in most states' balloting laws, the Left came into power in 2021 and controlled for a time the White House and both houses of Congress.

And what did the Democratic Left do with such power? They inherited an emerging economy coming off the 2-year lockdowns, with enormous pent-up demand and with employers eager to rehire workers.

But instead of letting the economy naturally reboot and readjust, it printed and spread around trillions of dollars. Deficits soared. The exuberance of re-entering society after a 2-year hiatus that resulted in escalating demand was accelerated by printing money and lavishing handouts on those who no longer needed them.

Inflation went from below two percent to over eight, far higher when staples like food, housing, energy, health care, and gas were calibrated. Interest rates soared, from less than two percent on home mortgages to over seven percent. Aggregate debt reached $34 trillion. Growth stagnated, and jobs were not so much created, as the Biden administration bragged, as merely restored to pre-Covid norms.

Abroad, America was now a leftist, non-judgmental nation, one humiliated in Afghanistan. And soon the Biden administration earned a Russian invasion in Ukraine, was serially threatened by China over Taiwan, and watched helplessly for a week while a Chinese spy balloon brazenly photographed its swatch across the United States. It sought ever more ingenious ways to greenlight money to Iran—sanctions relief, hostage payouts, and impounded accounts released.

The once secure 2020 border was now not so much porous as nonexistent; eight million illegal aliens eventually swarmed across. Even blue-state mayors were eventually exasperated as they got their wish as sanctuary cities to welcome millions of those illegal, poor, unaudited—and eager to enjoy their social services.

A crime wave ensued that was not a crime wave as we had experienced in the 1970s when law enforcement was outmanned and liberal judges did not sufficiently punish offenders. Now crimes were considered no longer crimes, but cries of the heart of the oppressed.

The logical result was that shoplifting, smash-and-grab, carjacking, and urban violence in general reached epidemic proportions as law enforcement stood down and allowed criminals to run wild. Businesses fled the downtowns as too many stores were looted with impunity. Items disappeared from the shelves and were locked away. A stranger would have concluded that America had become a nation of thieves—and he would have been correct.

The Biden administration whipped up ethnic and racial tensions, as smears such as "semi-fascist," "ultra-MAGA," "white" "supremacy," "privilege," and "rage" were tossed about to divide the nation. DEI became the new religion in the aftermath of the George Floyd riots, and most of the ecumenicalism of the last two decades was lost.

In short, the nation became poorer, more divided, and angrier.

In America, we are now into our third year of the collapse of normality, longer still in Europe. The result is the Left can no longer retain power solely by its control of the institutions—media, academia, corporations, entertainment, tech, the deep state, or foundations—or by open borders necessary to create what it has bragged of as "the new Democratic majority" or "demography is destiny."

Biden is now the most unpopular president at this point in his tenure in recent memory. Popular conservative pushbacks characterize most of Europe and in particular Germany, Greece, Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands, and most of Eastern Europe. The common theme is that nationalism not globalism, borders not illegal immigration, fiscal sobriety not modern monetary theory, fossil fuels not just wind and solar, the melting pot not the salad bowl, and deterrence not appeasement alone work.

The question is have things gone too far to be redeemed? Will the corrective come too late? Is the medicine deemed to work worse than the disease? All know the Left has failed the nation, but all are unsure whether it will continue to fail the nation, given its control of institutions.

Never has the conservative movement had a greater opportunity to acquire power, and never has its ability to unite and seize the moment been more unsure.

Article by Victor Davis Hanson/December 6, 2023