On an especially contentious Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the Left offered two more concrete examples of its ideological rigidity. As growing numbers of Democrats announced they’ll be skipping President-elect Trump’s inauguration, media outlets and publications engaged in a contest to pen the most outrageous op-ed.
In the New York Times, there was a strong assertion that MLK’s dream was not merely one of racial equality, but was also steeped in the tradition of Democratic Socialism. On Twitter, #ReclaimMLK trended, attempting to deny anyone of a non-leftist persuasion (including most whites) the right to venerate the Civil Rights era icon.
Meanwhile on the feminist front, New Wave Feminists, a pro-life feminist organization, was dropped from the Women’s March on Washington after a torrent of online backlash. Upon news of the group’s inclusion in the march, pro-choice feminists sought to define the terms of their worldview, one which they argued makes no accommodation for pro-life perspectives. “If you don’t believe in allowing women to make choices about their bodies, you are acting against feminism,” writer Roxane Gay said.
After Hillary Clinton’s surprising defeat in the presidential election, there’s been significant discussion about whether Democrats has become too reliant on identity politics. While a la carte appeals to specific demographic groups may or may not remain a winning electoral strategy, the Left, both before and after the election, has increasingly taken a pernicious step further, demanding full progressive purity in no uncertain terms.
It’s why the concept of a black Republican can be discussed openly as though it’s an impossible phenomena, and why women who hold pro-life views, much less vote for the GOP, are seen as having sold out the sisterhood. There is an illusion of inclusion on the Left, where flyover country is routinely castigated for being narrow-minded while those living on the coasts are compelled to adhere strictly to the values of social justice and wealth redistribution.
Incapable of detecting the irony, the modern Democratic Party is a paradox, wielding high-minded claims of diversity and heavy-handed clamps on dissent.
Tamer Abouras (@iamtamerabouras) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is a writer and editor from Williamstown, N.J. Thinking of submitting an op-ed to the Washington Examiner? Be sure to read our guidelines on submissions.
