The new liberal consensus, born of a shared “exhaustion,” is that it is time to “tune out,” or “take a break,” or simply close one’s eyes and ears.
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Capital slurry. (Michael Galkovsky, Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
By Patrick Lawrence
Special to Consortium News
I simply cannot figure American liberals and “progressives”—’pwogwessives,’” as the late Alexander Cockburn used to call them.
They do nothing when faced with calamitous events and call it hard work. Then, when the political process (such as it is) takes a radical turn for the worse and there is serious work to do, they announce that they are exhausted and must “take a break” from it all.
And then they go off to Mexico City or Barbados or the Cotswolds.
Can’t figure it. When the going gets tough, liberals get… tickets to Santorini or Sicily.
I propose a brief investigation of the conduct of liberals during the Biden years and now, as Donald Trump takes office, not as a matter of ridicule, although at this point there is much in the culture of American liberalism that is ridiculous. No, my concern lies in the larger implications of what amounts to mass frivolity.
Liberals have never struck me as a very reliable lot. Their stated positions and “values”— a ridiculous word in its own right — are by tradition always of the highest order. But they so frequently and predictably cave to reaction.
Cold War liberals proved the worst in this regard: Ever prepared were they, whenever authentic political principles were challenged, to line up behind conservative Cold Warriors.
O.K., there is a long, unfortunate history here. But since the Clinton years in the 1990s, matters have taken another turn. Capitulation itself has become the position, the value.
This became perfectly obvious once Hillary Clinton — warmonger, interventionist, cultivator of coups, all-around authoritarian — assumed a prominent voice among liberal elites. Since the 2016 political season, and one can scarcely fail to notice, liberals have vigorously favored … wars, interventions, coups, censorship, a certain apple-pie authoritarianism.
They count the military and “the intelligence community”— a term that reflects the liberal embrace — their allies and friends. They are, in a phrase, the direct descendants of the Cold War liberals of decades past.
I have this acute urge to write the following sentence. American liberals trust the Central Intelligence Agency.
Clean, simple, bald and bold, irrefutable. Just seven words give a useful idea of how far things have gone. And you will know now what I mean by ridiculous.
The Biden regime’s four years in power and Trump’s election last November cause us to mix an alloy of ridiculous with critical, maybe even grave, as we characterize the culture of liberals.
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Official inaugural portrait of President Donald, Jan. 15. (Daniel Torok, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)
We have witnessed in this period the collapse even of the weak, drowsy liberalism of the past. I see a qualitative difference I mean to say, between the liberalism of yore and what has become of liberalism these past years.
Liberalism as we find it out our windows seems now to consist of little more than performance and signifiers. You have posturing and authorized speech, and you have consumption patterns certified as a sort of semiology by way of liberal media.
Look at any day’s edition of The New York Times: What are effectively latter-day Good Housekeeping seals of approval—“T–shirts we love,” the right olive oil, “our favorite banana bread” — are considerably privileged above anything resembling serious news as measured in column inches.
And you have above all, the rest being subsets, a shockingly submissive worship of authority. And this, in turn, induces among liberals something between a refusal to act and an inability to act, a paralysis.
You could read liberalism’s slide in the direction of the supercilious in all those supposedly panicked cries as Trump’s momentum gathered during the 2024 political season. Fascist, tyrant, totalitarian, dictatorship, and above all, an existential threat to democracy: It was all very grave, historic in magnitude.
But I had to wonder what all the people saying these things were doing about so menacing a prospect as a second Trump term. I couldn’t find much; it was all signification. Saying was somehow sufficient, all that needed doing by way of political action.
Turning the matter another way, while there were great reservoirs of alarm about the prospect of a Trump presidency, and setting aside the principled minority who demonstrated on university campuses and elsewhere, liberals seemed to have little to say as Joe Biden dragged the United States into a genocide.
Where were these people? I still want to know.
It was good enough by way of action, it turned out, to pull the lever for Kamala Harris last Nov. 5 — this even as she endorsed Israeli terror as openly as the president.
Routines of Entitlement
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Luxury sports car solidarity fist, Washington, D.C., November 2020. (Diane Krauthamer, Flickr, CC BY-NC)
I had to laugh after the election when a conservative commentator whose name I cannot recall wondered in print why all the liberals flinging around “fascist,” “dictator,” “tyrant,” and so on hadn’t taken to the hills in the manner of the old French maquisards — you know, the wartime guerrillas who gave up work and family to wage armed actions and sabotage ops against the Nazi Wehrmacht from mountain hideouts where they subsisted on leaves and weeds.
Such a vacuum of silence and what amounts to indolence.
Ridiculous is as ridiculous does not, I say. How can you take seriously people who tell you that they now live under a fascist dictatorship while going about their business entirely per usual?
Maybe the word I seek is infantilization — the infantilization of liberalism. Is there a better term for what has become of liberals since Trump’s ascendancy?
At the very moment, according to the liberal narrative, political action of a great variety is urgent in the cause of saving our republic, the new liberal consensus, born of a shared “exhaustion,” is that it is time to “tune out,” or “take a break,” or simply close one’s eyes and ears.
How many news reports have I read to this effect? Politico: “The resistance is not coming to save you. It’s tuning out.” The Associated Press: “Americans are exhausted by political news. TV ratings and a new poll show they’re tuning out.”
And from The New York Times: “Certain kinds of left-leaning, reflective New Yorkers declare… they were drained, exhausted, resigned, ready to choose a plaintive ignorance.”
I just love the Times some mornings. Reflective New Yorkers — left-wing, of course — retreating honorably into ignorance. You just can’t beat this kind of thing.
Bingeing on chocolate, watching British crime dramas morn ’til night, people wearing themselves out on treadmills: Move over to social media and you discover all sorts of close-to-the-ground modes of escape. And then, of course, you have the virtuous travelers.
You have to have clearance to indulge in this kind of thing, let us be clear. You have to have the sanction of a new liberal consensus, and these come thick and fast nowadays, a new consensus every time you look. Worry not, liberals: the Times is once again here for you.
This is Charles Blow, the arch-liberal Times columnist, in a piece that appeared in the Dec. 18 editions under the headline, “Temporarily Disconnected from Politics?”:
“Should anyone feel guilt for choosing not to constantly ruminate or pre-emptively panic? For choosing to take a breath and a beat before re-engaging in the fight… that is almost surely in the offing once Donald Trump returns to power?
Absolutely not.”
Re-engaging with the fight? What fight was that? He must mean voting the “Joy and Vibes” ticket in the polling booth last November. I gather from all this it was exhausting.
The now evident consensus — see what I mean? Another one — is that so long as the liberal American feels the right feelings, the approved feelings, it is sufficient: There is no need actually to do anything. Nothing can be permitted to break the liberal’s routines of entitlement.
And we find, too, a flat refusal to address or even acknowledge the half of America that, having put Donald Trump in office, does not conform to the liberal version of reality.
This is what I read in the sudden impulse to travel: It is a flinch, a turning away, nothing more. Anything to avoid recognizing the grievances of the non-liberal majority, anything to avoid facing the true composition of the American polity, anything to protect the liberal bubble from a puncture.
How did it come to this? Again, I cannot figure it. Scholars now debate the future of American liberalism and whether it can be salvaged or salvage itself to serve some useful purpose in the polity. I cannot figure this, either.
I do not like to think of liberals as representative of anyone other than themselves, but to the extent they may reflect anything close to prevailing sentiment in America their conduct of late saddens me. Are we a nation so pathetic as they?
Are we lost, as they seem to be, in memes and narrative dreams that seal us protectively from reality and relieve us of all responsibility to act?
Patrick Lawrence, a correspondent abroad for many years, chiefly for the International Herald Tribune, is a columnist, essayist, lecturer and author, most recently of Journalists and Their Shadows, available from Clarity Press or via Amazon. Other books include Time No Longer: Americans After the American Century. His Twitter account, @thefloutist, has been permanently censored.
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The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
Hillary described to a “T”…
While I’m not particularly enthused with the future reality as I see it at my age I’m likely not to have endure what I suspect is coming in the near future for too extended of a time.
We have clues already. Haters hating, predators of all persuasions wreaking havoc on their choice of victim and getting lost in the court system. The social fabric becoming invisible and non-existent. All the while half-assed successful conservatives and liberals will bask in self delusion believing if they can just hold out long enough someone will come and save their humanity. Other wise quietly praying to be included in the rapture.
This is the result of a total lack any true motivation to change the status quo. The going is just too good to rock the ship. Unless of course you are a billionaire addicted to greed!
American liberals and conservatives both are addicted to the self delusion of their being superior than the other and compromise their values because D.C. works that way by virtue of the duopoly, the so called two party system .
The only actions I see capable of breaking the lock the duopoly has on our government is a third party dedicated to getting enough of the masses to vote in numbers large enough to overcome the bogus electoral college.
What I’m describing here isthe only method I see currently capable of overcoming the fuax power from the jerrymandering of voting districts.
It is either that, the reversal of the overturned Citizens Unite vs FEC decision by the lame SCROTUS or simply doing away with the now very destructive electoral college. The two parties are never going to willingly kill the goose that lays those golden eggs.
It is perfectly clear to me the simplest way to fix U.S. elections is to limit the funding of candidates. Nothing liberal or conservative in nature involves the honest vote of each eligible American voter being the deciding factor and not money. The vote is a form of free speech while the awarding of wealth to the other to overcome the personal choice of the voters, if it is speech, which it may be construed as is coercive in nature and illegal. SEE the current status of the congressional lobby.
Shameful.
Look around the politically successful liberal and conservatives who react only to getting their palms crossed with gold and silver.
No one seems willing to take the responsibility of righting the government but instead choose to use their authority for personal gain instead. As I see the authority, government power, is currently falling to the attentions of whom ever paid the highest price for the big chair in the Oval office. The SCOTUS has assured this future by anointing money with a human voice. Money equal’s free speech. It is instead an oxymoron.
We have some seriously large government faults to eliminate in our government and it may already be too late from the looks of things in D.C. The neither the republicans or the democrats at this point will be willing or able to answer the call, it will take new blood of a third party in D.C. and this will prove extremely difficult to achieve with the obvious lie money equals free speech.
On it’s face the naked result of an overly activist court bowing to the big money at the time dominating American politics. Look closely at the obscene amounts of money now involved. From 201o to now. This is drastically wrong.
The class war has already started. The streets, as Warren Buffet himself states, when they are covered in blood being the time cash in.
The reality presently, the blood is about to flow, it simply has not started yet.
No one will have to call for revolution or horrible civil strife it is coming. Look around. Government’s two party system is reacting and has become the most divisive groups in the U.S.. What was it Lincoln said about a house divided.
We now find ourselves in between the supper wealthy elites and a rigged justice system where money buys the only justice available justice that which answers to the almighty dollar only.
There is an old Russian tale about a small species of bird that burrowed into the large piles steaming of horse manure lying in the streets of frozen Russian cities. A foreigner asked why do these birds choose to roost in the horse manure.
The old Russian said, “well there is plenty of food and warmth there which is decidedly better than any of the alternatives.
Mr.Lawrence what say ye? Can it be that the liberals and conservative alike are caught in the same catch- 22?
We need a party of free thinkers who can come up with an acceptable alternative if they can win the battle for control of congress, don’t you think?
Completely off the subject some whole food for thought. A long time successful food store chain had a press release today that entertained using AI to monitor the shopping public who patronize their establishments. Using facial recognition to ID customers and how well of they are to automatically set store prices.
It’s just a thought Kids! Just a horrifying thought.
Robert E. Williamson Jr., “This is Golden!!!”
Agreed, “GREED makes U.$., do embarrassing things.” No doubt, the duopoly “got” the monopoly on using, abusing, abandoning plant, animal & human life. The basics, food, shelter, re$ources, ought not be a universal struggle.
January 29, 2025, marked the first day of “The Year of The Snake,” specifically as “The Year of the Wood Snake,” in China. “The snake symbolizes wisdom, intuition, and strategic thinking.” Imo, “The Year of The Two (2) Headed $nake,” in the Divided $tates of Corporate America, began on January 20, 1993, w/POTUS #42; &, to date, “LIVES,” on The Hill, “Making that money pile up, making it pile up, higher!” X Ambassadors.
…… “The two parties are never going to willingly kill the goose that lays those golden eggs.” Robert E. Williamson Jr.
However, Robert, there’s NO doubt, imo, the Democrats’ “goose” is cooked!!! The “Eagle,”#47, banks on “The Era of The Golden Age.” BTW, it’s coming ‘N-“HOT!” And, the “meltdowns,” abound!
…….. “One day, may we all meet together in the light of understanding.” Malcolm X.
…“Completely off the subject some whole food for thought. A long time successful food store chain had a press release today that entertained using AI to” track Con$umers, digitally/electronically. A paperless (Ca$h less) Society.
Robert, “For The Win,” WHO is “Whole Foods?” TY, Robert E. Williamson Jr., “Keep It Lit!”
Liberals made it quite clear who they were when they signed onto cold war politics in 1945. They did nothing to support people being persecuted by the government for their political opinions. I have never been a liberal and never will be; perhaps that is because both of my parents were left-wingers.
On the individual level, I have a liberal acquaintance who is the perfect example of what Mr Lawrence is writing about. She took antibiotics for colds and flu, and ended up with three autoimmune diseases. The last time I heard from her she was shocked by the election results, obviously believing all the lying crap promulgated by the MSM and not paying any attention to people around her. Willful ignorance is a very ugly state of being, and it has profound consequences both personally and socially.
“Maybe the word I seek is infantilization — the infantilization of liberalism. Is there a better term for what has become of liberals since Trump’s ascendancy?”
Yes. Not just only since trumps ascendancy, well before .
There is one word that fully describes an otherwise unnecessary complicated attempt to explain Democrat’s “failures”. Merely (as a very wise man once said) , “follow the money”. $20 billion in 2024 election cycle alone. The (approx) half going to the “opposition” Dem Party , bought one thing, their continued duplicity, to covertly support “donors” interests. The Democratic Party transparently feigns “working hard for you”.
Man, I miss Cockburn.
I remember, he and the great Gore Vidal died within about a month of each other. Bad year.
How did it came to this?
Simple, elites hijacking the liberal movement and using it as a platform to promote the proverbial excrement as a cake.
No cellphone here / hear: Michael Hudson & Richard Wolf, economists extraordinaire;
hxxps://michael-hudson.com/2024/10/brics-summit-in-kazan-setting-the-stage-for-a-new-world-order/
One problem we have is that organizing is getting tougher. Impossible? Try finding any information on protests in your community and the results come back nadda, zilch. The internet is totally devoid of information. We have the leader of Israel’s genocide heading to the US next week and I cannot for the life of me find any sign of revolt. If there is any, you can be sure the MSM will either downplay it, or pass it off as anti-Semetic scum doing what they do to those poor downtrodden victims.
On the other hand, both parties are making it impossible to organize a demonstration as the weight of the State can come down on you like a ton of bricks. Better to keep your head down and survive to another day, not stand boldly before the crowd and have the spotlight shining bright. Most of can’t afford a few days, weeks or months of jail time, lost wages and legal fees.
I’m still looking for a place to stand, but it’s getting harder by the week.
Some priceless, LOL gems here:
“How can you take seriously people who tell you that they now live under a fascist dictatorship while going about their business entirely per usual? ”
“Re-engaging with the fight? What fight was that? He must mean voting the “Joy and Vibes” ticket in the polling booth last November. I gather from all this it was exhausting.”
And of course there was Phil Ochs, Love Me I’m a Liberal: “…but now I’ve grown older and wiser, so that’s why I’m turning you in.”
I haven’t see one substantial street level protest against anything Trump. Winter didn’t stop up back in the days. The disconnect between any category of regular folks and the professional identity influencers is total. The ‘staffers’ cannot muster up people who respect them.
I’d call this bluff if I could. Trump can fill stadiums. Hmmm…
“Are we lost, as they seem to be, in memes and narrative dreams that seal us protectively from reality …”
Yes.
“… and relieve us of all responsibility to act?”
No, the responsibility remains. But what happens when we, collectively as a nation, not just the liberals, abdicate that responsibility? I’m afraid we’re about to find out. Civil war? Fascist oligarchy? French revolution? Chinese vassal state? Post-industrial, post-environmental / ecological hellscape? Nuclear armageddon? It’s not looking very promising.
Talk about reading the room, “Where Have All the Liberals Gone?” is, imo, the wholly, f/bomb dot com!!! It’s beyond spot- on!!! TY, Patrick Lawrence.
…… “Buckle your seatbelt!” Patrick Lawrence zigs, zags, zooms in & zooms out: and, it’s a fun f/ride-on “Uncle Joe’s Amtrak.” The liberals’ crazy train. Last stop, “La La Land,” Home of the American Liberals, a calabash w/holes!!!
Liberals. Indeed, they yap. They yell, They clap like seals; never f/ever, taking ownership of 12 years of nothing, nada, zip, zero fundamentally changing, i.e.., ObamaCare! Health Care is still a for profit, healthcare in$urance plan, the minimum wage is $7.25/hr., since 2009, 15 YEARS! Bidenomics $ucks. It’s NOT surprising Biden-Harris leave the WH w/a 30% Approval rating. In addition to being 100% bankrupt!
Imo, liberals best practice, lose’em! Say, “Buh-Bye,” to the label & the Party of War, the Democrats. After all, the Democrats have been relegated to REHABoth, for f/ever!!! Imo, @ the least, the next twelve (12) years. Imo, the Democrats’ liberals, progressives, Green Party wanna bees but ain’t got what it takes, consequently,”They’ve” all been Busted! Done & Dusted!!!
Keep It Lit! TY. Ciao
I am 80 years old.
Born in 1945 prior to the Boomers.
I have always considered myself to be a Liberal.
I spent 7 years in a Catholic seminary in the 60’s, got to play soldier from 67-69, got married and helped rear a family.
After Johnston and the war, I vowed never to vote for a Democrat.
After Nixon I vowed to never vote Republican.
I voted for Jill Stein.
I’m reading Revolt of the Rich.
I remember a lot of the events and names that pop up.
Yes, more that anything else, I am exhausted to learn that there really was a conspiracy by the rich to subvert the foundations on the US democracy into a kleptocracy run by a kakistocracy!
I am emotionally numb regarding these events.
(Proof): Pelosi sale of Nvidia stock one day prior “news” release on China A.I. prowess….
I put it on Hillary. Give us Bernie Sanders in 2016 and the clown would still be frequenting brothels.
Hi, Daniel M Ellis,
“I’m stoked, “to learn that” you “voted for Jill Stein.” Indeed! Stein-Ware, 2025, “the Doctors who would be President & Vice-President!!! Dr. Stein’s Second term, 2025, coulda, woulda shoulda been, IF, only, all Liberals took the “SMART Risk” versus “falling in line.” IMO, the liberals are the DNC’s “hanging chads,” they just can’t fully detach themselves from the Mother$hip, DNC. “NOT, Good.”
No doubt, Daniel M Ellis, you “got” Gold, i.e., “A Moral Compass!!! “Keep It Lit!” TY. Ciao
“Shockingly submissive worship of authority,” says everything you need to know about liberals.
Patrick Lawrence:
You speak of liberals and progressives in the same “breath.” This is an insult. Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden are NOT progressives! They are sort of liberals. Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, AOC, Jeff Merkely are progressives, and there are a few others in Congress. And we are not do nothings. I am 85 years old and have been a member of Indivisible since its founding. I have “bothered” my MOCs mightly for many years. I am living in Georgia, not exactly a progressive state, but in 2022 we elected two progressive senators, Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossof.
I will accept your apology.
Dear Kate: Patrick was painting with a broad brush, not directing his piece at you, personally. I’m confident he would appreciate your stand. If he could talk with you, he might even say, “We need more like you.” Cheers!
Well, Kate, I understood when the term “progressive” popped up that it was just a new phrase for “liberal,” as liberal had gotten such a bad reputation. Your examples of “progressives” are very poor as Sanders, Warren, AOC, etc, are scumbags who support war, militarism, genocide, doing their best to make ordinary people hate “progressivism.”
I have never been a liberal and certainly didn’t make the switch to progressive. I am a radical leftist who supports peace, anti-militarism, anti-capitalism, free speech, the meeting of people’s basic needs. I have no respect for your progressive senators and stopped contacting my MOCs when it became clear they were no longer even bothering to pretend to listen to their constituents. I have two lousy senators — Collins and King — and a goddamn Israeli representing northern Maine, Jared Golden. We almost got rid of him but not quite, but maybe we will next time.
The Democratic Party “leadership” spends more time and effort suppressing real liberal progressives in their own party like AOC than they do fighting Trump and the GOP. This is the result. Get rid of Schumer and the rest of the old guard.
AOC is about as progressive as Hillary Clinton, whose ass she would most likely kiss if it were available. If you want to talk about Democrat shenanigans, how about the way they pushed out McKinney and Kucinich?
This is a coincidence – I just read a German review of Samuel Moyn´s latest “Liberalism Against Itself: Cold War Intellectuals and the Making of Our Times” (2023, Yale University Press).
Don´t know if it offers more of the same. Or worse. Or not?
This discussion with Moyn – among others – I found from one year ago on the occasion of his then new book – and Anthony D’Agostino from Glasnost in Our Time.
Well may be I give it a try. Probably I have heard worse. But wanted to quickly share.
Cold War Liberalism: A Discussion With Samuel Moyn
Dec. 2023 60 min.
hxxps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDr3mMVWXwE
I told Moyn and David Schleicher that yeah they could email me when a new podcast is out…”Digging a Hole: The Legal Theory Podcast.” Heard him first on Useful Idiots. I’m three behind with the two of’em, but would definitely like to hear what Schleicher has to say about Trump. Thanks for that quick mention/link.
Maybe we’re in a gnostic era, maybe it’s like the Renaissance. Fairly visual, but what’s important is the right words for the right excuse for not knowing a thing about the issue at hand. First came the phase when we thought we’d get answers from online, the gnostic phase. But then came things that tripped us up. Credit default swaps, CDOs. And then a new kind of vaccine. Two formidable challenges right there. Later on one of the best economics explainers started writing pieces every month. He was good but there were gaps (I mean for those not in the field). The articles I think were close to the actual secrets of the temple…I mean they are currently as well. With commentary that good and free one at least must try to comprehend; but then either your head’s torqued off, or you quit and say it’s all too complicated. I favor illustrations cause computers are made for illustrations, but paradoxically liberals don’t create many these days that explain much.
Maybe the knowledge thing is key. Some want knowledge of the issues from their phones. Like I say, some want knowledge of the hip I-don’t-care-attitude, which I guess they get watching clips of Hollywood people or rappers or somebody…on their phones. Everyone has a phone, which makes things more competitive. Things are more competitive, because that’s all anyone has. Why waste money for a degree when the economy’s the way it is? The phones make everyone too alike, “undifferentiation” Rene Girard might say, but I don’t think he’d said anything about phones in this respect before he left us.
With the liberal traditions crashing like they are, I mean when Israel itself starts acting like a certain whacked out group we know from history, it’s almost the most dispiriting thing possible. It makes you think: socialism [in Europe] can’t hold up, Marxist predictions aren’t happen’n. Humans think they know wise things, but evidently they don’t. There was a flaw in the concept all those years. We have to look away from this plane of existence? Or maybe one day when single payer frees up money for more actual nurses there’ll be enough Americans move’n too much to care if our wisdom didn’t end up such a big deal.
Thanks, Pattrick, for helping to orient us. You see it all.