Stormy Daniels

UGCR

For The Washington Post

RUSSIA-US-DIPLOMACY-BASKET-COURT

Contributor

The Washington Post

(Michelle Kondrich/The Washington Post)

**ONE TIME USE ONLY FOR OP-LAMOTT

Sonia Sotomayor,Clarence Thomas,John Roberts,Samuel Alito,Elena Kagan,Amy Coney Barrett,Neil Gorsuch,Brett Kavanaugh,Ketanji Brown Jackson,Michael Dreeben

Children holding hands

ONE TIME USE FOR OP-CARNEY KIDS 

FEDERALISTGALA

Four Dalmatian Puppy

other

People visit the site of the Nova festival, in Reim

Fake Electors Indictment Arizona

Israel Palestinians Campus Protests

US-PALESTINIAN-ISRAEL-EDUCATION-CONFLICT

**ONE TIME USE ONLY FOR OP-SMITH-HIGHER-ED

Former U.S. President Trump's criminal trial on charges of falsifying business records continues in New York

POOL

Respond to prefers-color-scheme dark in app web views

Follow section front redirects in Spectrum

Enable NLP source in PCS for load testing

Switch off the News Alerts Survey Widget when we have enough responses

Poll to determine if new LUF updates are available

Allows the winning A/B test variant to be turned on without Spectrum deployment

Show infinite scrolling sections in Assembler MultiView

Show option for NLP article summaries in Action Bar

Show NLP summaries collection recirc on article pages

A general feature flag for Recipe Features that aren't yet released

Feature flag for media team features that aren't yet released

Use new Orca video player for preroll plugin in Spectrum

Show the snow tracker (instead of the heat tracker) on Spectrum

Tens of thousands in Georgia protest Russian-style ‘foreign agents’ law

Israeli operations in north and south Gaza force displaced to flee again

‘Nothing left’: At least 300 dead as flash floods devastate Afghanistan

5 big travel lessons from an accomplished conservationist

Cruise ship drags dead whale into New York, prompting investigation

The case for eating at Italian gas stations

Carolyn Hax: Keep scrolling seven hours per day, or give therapy a try?

Ask Amy: Mother isn’t accepting of her gay son

Ask Amy: What do I say about my former walking buddy who yelled at me?

An unexpected sight to behold: Ted Cruz working bipartisan deals

Narrative of Trump snoozing in court takes hold — much to his annoyance

Manafort will no longer take on Republican convention role

Fooled by AI? These firms sell deepfake detection that’s ‘REAL 100%.’ 

Apple apologizes for iPad ad after blowback 

Google’s new ‘Find My’ device network is useful but a stalking risk

Eighth-inning decision burns the Nats in a 4-2 loss to the Red Sox

Nats win opener at Fenway behind Patrick Corbin and a lockdown bullpen

Commanders rookie DT Johnny Newton needs a second foot surgery

The urgent air defense lessons of April 16 

Are smartphones destroying childhood? It’s complicated.

In the campaign against Donald Trump, do the ends justify the means?

‘Bunker mentality’ at Columbia lit protest spark that spread nationwide

A mystery illness stole their kids’ personalities. These moms fought for answers.

The greatness — yes, greatness — of the Planet of the Apes

Kristi Noem’s dog killing is pure Southern gothic

Claire Messud turns her family’s history into a masterpiece

Joseph Epstein, conservative provocateur, tells his life story in full

Courtroom photo ban adds to hurdles for Trump trial journalists

Israel’s shameful ban on Al Jazeera

Checks, not sex, and other takeaways from Trump’s New York hush money trial

Bishop vanished. His species can still be saved.

VCU grads walk out during Gov. Youngkin’s speech

Northern lights glow worldwide

I used to dismiss my mom’s advice. Then I found a note she wrote before she died.  

Photos of his mom at lunch are a balm people didn’t know they needed

Dog hit by car loses leg, is adopted by firefighter who helped her

US President Joe Biden Departure

Demetrius Freeman

President Biden and the Democratic Party are in the position just about every ruling party finds themselves in as they approach the first midterm election of a presidency: low approval ratings, difficulties passing legislation and apparently headed for an electoral defeat.

Which means it’s time for a vigorous round of liberal self-flagellation.

“Have they gone too far left?” everyone asks. Reporters seek out Democratic centrists who are eager to explain how all the party’s troubles are the fault of party activists. Can we ascribe far-out positions to elected Democrats who don’t actually hold them? Let’s do it. Is there a liberal jurisdiction where officials passed measures that conservatives would disagree with? Put ‘em on the front page and elevate them to national status.

While we’re at it, let’s return to those Rust Belt diners for another round of <a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-elections-pennsylvania-lifestyle-election-2020-fc79679ef54d850c0245f96dac37456c">articles</a> about why the heartland folk regard these out-of-touch Democrats with contempt. Liberal columnists will write piece after piece on how the party has shifted too far. Every Democrat will face demands to condemn the supposed extremists in their party.

Meanwhile, actual extremism is not only more prevalent in the Republican Party, extremism reaches into its highest echelons. Yet Republican elected officials are far less likely to be weighed down by their own right flank than Democrats are by their left.

What accounts for the difference? It’s partly a matter of psychology. Democrats tend to be timid and self-critical, always gripped by the fear that at any moment the public will reject them. On the other hand, Republicans have embraced a political style that values aggression and shamelessness.

But more important is the informational environments the two parties exist in.

At the center of the Republican universe sits Fox News, a network devoted to stirring outrage, resentment and White grievance. Fox News is the hub of a propaganda wheel, where each day’s programming is filled with stories of liberal excess and the supposed threat it poses to everything that is right and good.

No single outlet — not MSNBC, not the New York Times, not The Washington Post — is as central to Democrats’ worldview as Fox News is to that of Republicans. Meanwhile, the outlets Democrats rely on regularly police liberal excess, drawing attention to it, encouraging Democrats to be embarrassed by it, and initiating cycles of shame and condemnation on the left.

So a report such as that of three members of the San Francisco school board <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/02/16/san-francisco-school-board-recall/">being recalled</a> gets enormous national coverage, framed by the idea that wacky leftists went so far off the rails that even ordinary liberals could no longer tolerate them.

That’s how the article was written after the recall succeeded. Had it failed and those members stayed on the board, it also would have been taken as proof that the left has gone too far.

Democratic centrism is never blamed for the party’s failures; it’s always the fault of the left, even when progressives <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/01/18/dont-blame-the-left/">are the ones</a> doggedly pursuing the president’s agenda and centrists such as Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) are the ones sabotaging it. Leftists even got blamed for the defeat in Virginia of Terry McAuliffe, as much of a corporate centrist as Democrats could find.

That isn’t to say that liberals don’t call attention to conservative excesses — they certainly do. You can hear reports of book-banning, loopy conspiracy theories and galloping white nationalism on many liberal websites or on MSNBC. But conservatives don’t feel much need to answer for it; the most uncomfortable question they’ll get is whether they admit that Biden is the legitimate president of the United States.

Meanwhile, every Democrat has to face repeated questions about “defund the police,” an idea advocated by almost no Democratic elected official. Do they believe in it? Why haven’t they denounced it more often? Aren’t they worried it will drag their party down?

Here’s what this all adds up to: Everything in the informational universe liberals inhabit encourages them to be critical of their own side, while the opposite is true of conservatives. You then have an allegedly two-sided debate in which Republicans say “Look how crazy liberals are!”, to which Democrats respond by saying “Look how crazy liberals are! Let’s try not to be so crazy!”

The entire debate winds up revolving around the question of how extreme liberals are, at a time when the Republican Party has all but abandoned democracy itself.

Large portions of the public will inevitably conclude that yes, liberals are crazy. They might be trying to make material improvements in people’s lives while Republicans shovel fabricated culture war nonsense at them, but it’s the Democrats who are said to be out of touch with what folks are going through.

Republicans are engaged in an endless campaign of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/02/11/republican-race-baiting/">race-baiting</a>, but it’s liberals who are supposedly “obsessed” with race. Liberals beat themselves up for not getting more votes in small towns and rural areas, but nobody asks Republicans why they do so terribly in cities and how their party is going to change to get more urban votes.

The result of all this self-flagellation is that Democrats wind up not concentrating on their opponents — not putting them on the defensive, and not giving voters a reason to vote against them. If the only question being asked is how bad Democrats are, the outcome of the November elections is all but inevitable.

Swarthmore College, BA in Political Science

University of Pennsylvania, PhD in Communication

Paul Waldman is an author and commentator whose work has appeared in dozens of newspapers and magazines.

Paul Waldman

washpost

Democrats wage another round of self-flagellation

the-washington-post

President Joe Biden departure 

staff

Editorials

Columns

Guest opinions

Cartoons

Submit a guest opinion

Today's Opinions newsletter

Opinions

iptc-media/politics/political_process

iptc-media/society

iptc-media/science_and_technology/social_sciences

iptc-media/science_and_technology

iptc-media/politics

iptc-media/politics/election/voting

iptc-media/science_and_technology/social_sciences/philosophy

iptc-media/crime_law_and_justice

iptc-media/politics/political_process/political_system

iptc-media/society/values

iptc-media/society/values/ethics

iptc-media/politics/political_process/political_parties_and_movements

iptc-media/politics/election

iptc-media/politics/government

iptc-media/science_and_technology/social_sciences/psychology

iptc-media/politics/political_process/political_system/democracy

client-blocklists/Client List: Becton Dickinson KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/CLIENT LIST: Nomura KWs 2021 - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Johnson & Johnson KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Bed Bath & Beyond KWs - INCLUDE ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: Exxon Mobil  - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/WaPo: Combined Disaster Keyword List - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: USAA KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: T. Rowe Price KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Google PG KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: Discover Card KWs – EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Microsoft KWs 2 - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/T. Rowe Price KWs - INCLUDES ANY

advertising/B2_Automotive Interest 2.5.15_legacyaux_jqs

client-blocklists/HBO KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Ford/Lincoln KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Capital One (One Tech) KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: Navy Federal Credit Union NFCU KWs 2 - EXCLUDES ALL - 12.23.20

client-blocklists/Louis Vuitton KW List - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: Diageo - Johnnie Walker KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/ Client List: Mercedes EQS KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/FlexForm KW List - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Boeing KWs 2021- INCLUDE ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: Morgan Stanley KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: Organon KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: AT&T KWs 2021 - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: Verizon KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: Optum KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/P+ Halo KW List - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Synchrony Financial KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/ExxonMobil 03312021 KWs - INCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Ukraine-Russia (Apple News) KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: Showtime KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Apple TV+ KW – INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: Ronald McDonald House KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client Neg KW List: Omega KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Marcus Goldman Sachs Neg KW List - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/PMI KWs 2021 - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/GEICO KWs - INCLUDES ANY_4.26.21

client-blocklists/Client List: Eli Lily KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: IBM KWs ALTERNATE Watson - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Citibank KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: IBM KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Citibank KWs 2021 - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: Purina KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: Fidelity Investments KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/CME KW List 2022 - EXCLUDES ALL 

client-blocklists/Bank of America KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

advertising/Racing and Nascar Enthusiasts

client-blocklists/BP KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/National Instruments KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Intel KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

advertising/B2_Liberal_legacyaux_1a5

client-blocklists/Client List: AT&T Digital Divide  - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Samsung 2021 KWs - INCLUDE ANY

advertising/B2_Politically Active - DO NOT REMOVE_legacyaux_lmp

client-blocklists/Google PG Competitor KWs - EXCLUDES ALL 

advertising/B2_Politics_legacyaux_8f3

advertising/B2_Positive News_legacyaux_hlt

advertising/B2_Women's Beauty_legacyaux_9jv

advertising/B2_Men's Grooming_legacyaux_1ve

client-blocklists/Client List: GEICO KWs

client-blocklists/Client List: KPMG KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Navy Federal Credit Union NFCU KWs - EXCLUDES ALL