Has the American Left Lost Its Mind — and Do the Media Care?

If a major American political party had lost its collective mind, would anyone notice?

Given how tight midterm polling is currently, one could wonder, critics may say. Of course, some do notice. An example is one of those critics, commentator Becket Adams. Sounding an alarm Monday, he wrote:

“The American left has lost its mind, and the media seem unbothered.”

Adams opens with an attempt at “balance,” saying that President Donald Trump’s and the MAGA movement’s ascendancy in the GOP is a “problem.” That problem has been recognized, however, he states. But the “progressive and socialist takeover of the Democratic Party poses an equal, if not greater, problem,” he avers. Yet the legacy media respond with crickets.

This raises a question, though: Is there really any equivalence at all between today’s American Left and Right?

Not if you believe a recent Gallup poll. It found that rank-and-file Democrats now prefer socialism to economic freedom (i.e., “capitalism”). That is, only 42 percent of Democrats view economic freedom positively; in contrast, 66 percent reckon socialism favorably. That’s a robust majority.

Now, question: Is there a GOP analogue to this?

Some may now say, “The Republicans are fascists!” Alright, but for starters (and this shouldn’t have to be said), Republicans roundly reject fascism when polled. So surveys are clear: In the aggregate, Democrats now explicitly embrace an anti-American ideology. Republicans do not.

Of course, critics will surely say that the latter are fascists who lack self-knowledge/awareness. Well, then, let’s consider what the two groups actually believe and how they behave.

Where the Rubber Hits the Road

Addressing this, Adams writes at The Hill:

The last three years have seen a flurry of activity both inside and outside the political space, suggesting a shift toward ever-more extreme and revolutionary leftist activity. There have been at least three assassination attempts against President Trump, a targeted political assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk (celebrated publicly by a shocking, embarrassing number of liberals), multiple deadly or potentially deadly attacks on government facilities and officers by leftist radicals, and actual hostage-taking by pro-Hamas student activists.

Again, what’s the GOP analogue to this? This isn’t to say no one labeled a rightist ever does anything violent. But where are the attempted, and successful, assassination attempts against high-profile Democrats? (Just today, too, do note, some apparent leftist suggested I should be murdered. “Someone should mangione [sic] you,” he wrote at my site.)

Adams then continues:

Meanwhile, in the electoral space, Democratic voters are continuing the trend of nominating socialists for both state and federal office. Avowed socialists now rule Seattle and New York. One of them will soon be mayor of Washington, D.C. — perhaps also Los Angeles.

The swath of socialist Democrats nominated last week in New York — some of them defeating longtime incumbent Democrats — are not just ignorant, inexperienced and hostile toward the United States as a concept. They are also opposed to fundamental social frameworks that make life in a free society possible. Some of them, for example, do not even support imprisoning murderers and other violent criminals, let alone deporting criminal aliens.

This new breed of Democrat also makes litmus tests of extreme fringe positions on issues that poll 80-20 against them. This is not a continuation of Democratic politics in a new direction, but a hostile takeover of the party by revolutionaries who want to scrap its modern center-left ethos altogether.

The GOP analogue? Republican candidates don’t run as fascists, and GOP constituencies don’t elect fascists. Again, someone could claim they’re closeted fascists. But this rings even more hollow when considering what some Democratic politicians actually believe. A sampling:

• Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) member Darializa Avila Chevalier recently won her Democratic U.S. House primary in New York. She hates the American flag and co-founded an organization that is “fighting for the total eradication of Western civilization.” She wants to abolish prisons, ICE, and borders and to defund the police. She claims that “all deportations are wrong” — including for violent criminals. She also believes in “seizing the means of production.”
• Fellow DSA member Graham Platner, the Democratic nominee for the Senate from Maine, has called himself a “communist.” Sporting a Nazi tattoo and describing himself as an “Antifa supersoldier,” he has further said that “[a]ll cops are ba***rds.” He also agreed with a social-media sentiment stating that rural white Americans are “racist and stupid.” Finally, he “suggested in online posts that violence is a necessary means to achieving social change,” reported Politico last October.
• Then there’s the DSA’s current main face, NYC mayor Zohran Mamdani. Echoing Chevalier, he said while addressing supporters in 2021 that their ultimate goal was “seizing the means of production.” This is, of course, a central communist tenet. Achieving it would require a communist revolution and our Republic’s destruction.

Radical — but Reflective?

Returning to Adams, he claims the DSA comrades want to scrap the Democrats’ “modern center-left ethos altogether.” But do the Democrats actually exhibit that ethos? Let’s consider a few things they’ve recently embraced as a party:

• The legalized discrimination known as diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
• “Land acknowledgments,” which imply that the United States sits on stolen land and is hence illegitimate.
• Replacing Columbus Day with “Indigenous People’s Day.”
• Impugning the Founders.
• Sexual devolutionary (“LGBTQ+”) indoctrination in schools.
• Facilitating sexual-distortion treatments (aka “gender-affirming care”) — even for children.

Again, and at risk of redundancy, the rightist analogue? Does the GOP support anything corresponding to, and as insanely radical as, the “trans-for-kids” agenda? Don’t hold your breath waiting for that answer. Why, some might say the GOP is closer to “center-left” than the Democrats are.

In contrast, and in fact, MAGA Republicans espouse policies most Americans support. A sampling:

• Securing the border.
• Deporting dangerous illegal aliens.
• Patriotism and recognizing America as that “shining city on a hill.”
• Scrapping DEI and emphasizing equal opportunity.
• Eliminating merit-destroying forces such as disparate-impact theory.
• Keeping corruptive sexual teachings out of school.
• Recognizing the male-female binary.

The legacy media, however, claim it’s the MAGA right that’s imperiling the Republic. As Adams puts it, too:

This is more than a simple editorial gripe. The failure to treat left-wing fanatics for what they are builds a permission structure for such radicals to become even more unhinged and incite others to do the same.

Put differently, to prescribe the correct cure, people must first get the right diagnosis. Instead, the legacy media’s line is that we’re on the cusp of “Christian nationalism” or “fascism” (which isn’t even “right-wing”). And if people think we’re going too far right when we’re actually going too far left, they’ll go even farther left until, maybe, they’ve finally left sanity.

Of course, that is, many may say, the whole idea.