Richard Rorty's Lecture

There is a nice piece over at Vox about a lecture/book Richard Rorty gave 20 years ago about the potential rise of Trumpian politics.  He gives different names to the same forces that I've been calling Liberals and Leftists.  He uses the phrases Reformist Left vs Cultural Left.  The Reformist Left is a liberal constitutional left that seeks to make pragmatic reforms to the system in an incremental way.  It defines the Democratic Party from 1932-1964. The Cultural Left is based around identity politics and the idea of oppressed groups advocating for their proper place at the American table.

His main point is that the Cultural Left is a political loser.  This is largely the case Bernie Sanders made, in his focus on economic conditions over issues of race and gender.  Clinton did run hard on those issues, though her policies were ultimately very similar to Sanders'. 

What Clinton failed to do - and Rorty's essay predicts this - is tell a story about America.  She microtargeted messages at various groups, which you do, but failed to integrate that into a compelling narrative that America can tell about itself.  Obama did that, Bill Clinton did that, too ("I still believe in a place called hope.").  I've felt that Democrats do best when they nominate charismatic candidates, but perhaps it is less the personal sparkle of the person and more the ability of the candidate to create a compelling vision of America that can speak across lines of class AND race.

Luckily, the piece does note that we are perhaps over-reading the election of Trump, which was fluky and influenced by any number of factors that have little structural or long-term consequences.  Hillary Clinton and her unpopularity won't be on the ballot again; Trump is bad at being president; the Republicans are bad at doing government.  It is unclear whether Trump represents a trend or an end point to the politics of white racial grievance.  My opinion is that he's an end point, but we just don't know.

The "liberal world order" that America inculcated after the Second World War and has nurtured and developed after the Cold War is under siege.  Germany elected a startling number of far right members to its new Bundestag this weekend.  But an assault is not the same as a victory. 

It will be incumbent on the Reformist Left to work with the Cultural Left to launch a counterattack based around a shared vision of America.