Are socialist beliefs unpopular? A response to Freddie deBoer

I’m a big fan of Freddie deBoer’s writing. His book The Cult of Smart is a persuasive critique of the meritocratic ideals proclaimed by defenders of American capitalism. His essay Planet of Cops is one of the best things that’s been written about the moralistic and censorious trends that increasingly distort American culture. He’s been a guest on my show three times, talking about subjects ranging from his book to the Nightmare on Elm Street movies.

So I was excited to see one of his pieces appear in the New York Times. In it, he uses the stinging defeat of India Walton in the Buffalo Mayoral election as an occasion to grapple with a question the socialist left ignores at our peril. Why do we keep losing elections where our candidates at least initially seemed to have a good chance of winning?

Some of what Freddie says in the NYT piece about the problem is compelling. His diagnosis, though, is ultimately unconvincing.

Blaming the Establishment

He persuasively argues that it’s a mistake to tell ourselves that we only lose because of “dirty tricks” perpetrated by “the forces of reaction marshalled against us.” Neither the forces nor the tricks can be dismissed asfigments of the Left’s collective imagination, but if we exclusively focus on that aspect of the problem, we won’t learn anything…