That's what my extremely liberal coworker told a friend when she confided in him about her sexuality. She told him she was a lesbian.
He said, "So what?"
He was proud of his reaction. He bragged about the confused look on her face, because she was expecting more. He told the story at seminars on allyship. I never met the friend. I don't know what happened to her. All I know is this: it never made me feel good to confide something important and personal only to watch someone shrug and say, "So what?"
Around that time, I told some liberal coworkers I was autistic. They said, "You don't act autistic."
Oh, okay...
It's not surprising that many of us have come to see liberal allyship as largely performative, something that makes them feel good. It's rarely there when you need it. It expires when the seminar ends.
Over the last week, I've seen some of the most appalling rhetoric coming from those who consider themselves liberals and Democrats. I see justifications for war crimes, along with personal attacks against anyone who criticizes yet another hundred billion dollars going to wars abroad while our own institutions and infrastructure crumble, and while people fight for the right just to breathe clean air. It doesn't have to be like this.
And yet, it is.
My liberal friends talk a lot about their values, and then they do bizarre things. When I taught at an historically black college, they asked me if it was dangerous. "I hear Papa John's won't even deliver over there."
My students knew all about hypocrisy. One of them asked me, "Hey, why do white people listen to Kanye West, and then do such racist shit?" I told him that was a great topic for a paper, and he got an A.
For a year, my liberal friends told me I was going to get mugged because I lived in a poor neighborhood. "You should've asked us for advice before you moved," they said. I didn't get mugged. The only sketchy behavior I encountered was by white people passing through my poor neighborhood.
When I say Biden has already lost, I don't necessarily mean the election. I mean much more than that.
Before anyone gets angry or defensive, consider just for a moment how the elitist entitlement and doublespeak of the most affluent Democrats could be holding us back, rather than "the left." Consider how much more progress we would make if everyone stopped blaming the left for every problem and examined how those at the top work in favor of the status quo. Many of us have endured this hypocrisy our entire lives. Some of us tried to excuse it or ignore it for the greater good. We thought if we were patient, things would work out.
Now, here we are.
We're heading into another crucial election year, and liberals seem to assume Donald Trump will wind up safely behind bars. They love making fun of conservatives, but they don't seem to grasp any of the threats we face.
They don't seem to grasp the threat of fascism. They don't seem to grasp the threat of global boiling. They don't seem to grasp the threat of pandemics both present and looming. They sound just as smug and confident as ever.
That worries me.
Every single election, it's people like us who carry the Democratic party to victory. We've done it for obvious reasons. Republicans always pose a far greater and far more immediate danger.
On the other hand, Americans see hundreds of billions going overseas to other countries while they face their own existential threats. It's not that we object to helping other countries. That's not it. Instead, we feel abandoned.
Democrats routinely remind us there's no limit to the amount of money they'll spend building up our military and those of our allies. There's no limit to what they'll do for corporations for the sake of the economy. There's no limit to the compromises they'll make with our oppressors. There's only a limit to how much they'll do for us. There's a limit to how much they'll spend on our needs. There's a limit to how hard they'll fight.
We always come last.
We've noticed.
Democrats celebrated midterm elections, overlooking just how far to the right they had to shift in order to secure votes. Democratic candidates were quiet about the issues that mattered most to us. They prioritized the interests of the most affluent Americans, including police funding and border safety. They excused or defended their own anti-choice, pro-gun candidates while making dismissive and even snide remarks toward anyone who dared to disagree with them.
Democrats seem less interested in actually fighting fascism than they do in using it as a scarecrow with their voters.
We've noticed.
The economy is imploding. Affluent liberals lecture us. They tell us we're wrong. "Look at the numbers," they say. They point to the low unemployment. They don't understand. Unemployment remains low because millions of people are falling into permanent disability after infections with a virus the liberal media continue to promote as mild. There's major gaps in our workforce.
The Federal Reserve continues strangling Americans with obscene interest rates, trying to drive up unemployment so that CEOs can lower wages.
They're very clear about that.
The president talks about making an economy that works for everyone. Americans sleep in parking lots.
The Biden administration failed to end the pandemic. They simply hid it. They caved to corporate pressure. They've spent nearly three years dismantling every single tool we had. The CDC even changed how they calculate excess deaths to cover up the toll it's taking on us. Liberal universities toss air purifiers in the dumpster while telling us infection control "costs too much." Under Team Biden, we get Paxlovid at $1,400 per course and a few expired Covid tests.
Many liberals have become anti-mask. They've become anti-vaxx by default, neglecting their boosters. They don't do it with the same energy as the right. Instead, they complain about "vaccine fatigue." They come down with "summer flu."
They don't see the double standard.
Biden promised to cancel student loans. That didn't happen. Student loan payments have resumed. And despite promises that borrowers would pay less, many of them don't qualify for these new programs. His most ardent supporters parrot far right talking points, blaming debt-riddled millennials and zoomers for trying to get an education. They say, "If you couldn't afford college, why didn't you just become a janitor?"
The Biden administration has approved more fossil fuel projects than any of their predecessors. There's no end to the pipelines and drilling sites greenlit under this regime. They talk about limitless green energy, forgetting Jevons paradox: When a resource becomes more efficient and cheaper, demand soars. That's what we're seeing with solar and wind. The demand for energy continues to outstrip supply.
You can't talk about reducing demand. You can't talk about steady-state or equilibrium economies. You can't criticize endless growth. It's not just a conservative dogma. It's a neoliberal one, upheld by both parties until the end of time.
Over the last two years, the Democratic party has demonstrated what they're willing to sacrifice for political expediency.
It's a lot.
Time and again, the party demands support and donations. They forbid us from questioning their strategies and their values. If you don't offer your full loyalty, then you're a socialist. If you don't support war crimes in Gaza, then you're a terrorist. You're expected to look away as tens of thousands of innocent civilians are slaughtered. Meanwhile, history tells us that war only ensures one thing: more war.
Many Democrats and liberals don't want to admit this, but they often display the same empathy deficits and condescension as Republicans. Calling attention to it doesn't spur reflection on their part. It only seems to provoke their anger.
Listen: It's easy to be a better human being than Donald Trump or Jim Jordan.
It's a low bar.
It's interesting how there's always a reason why we don't move forward. With every majority or supermajority, just enough candidates turn out to be Republicans in disguise. Just enough problems come up that prevent any meaningful change. Something else takes priority. Like I said, there's no limit to what they'll do for almost anyone and anything but us.
We've noticed.
Will Joe Biden win in 2024? I'm not wondering that. I'm wondering what else we'll have to sacrifice to ensure a victory. I'm wondering what secret promises will be made to billionaires. I'm wondering how many more people we'll doom to misery and death by disease, climate disasters, poverty, and war. And if Democrats somehow manage to secure a supermajority, I wonder what we'll gain from it. I wonder if we'll finally get women's rights enshrined in the constitution. I wonder if we'll get a living wage and taxes on corporations. I wonder if we'll get universal healthcare and serious efforts to start reducing emissions.
I guess we'll see.
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