The major political parties have remained the same over time (the Democratic Party was created in 1828 and the Republican Party in 1854), however, they have changed enormously in terms of the ideas they defend. It is not only that they need to adapt to the changing times, but also that they must take on ideological currents that are sometimes very different, and even contrary, to those they defended long ago.
To give an example, in the 1932 elections, the candidate who proposed a strong intervention of the federal government in the economy was Herbert Hoover, of the Republican Party, while the one who spoke of a balanced budget and presented an orthodox program was the Democrat, Franklin D. Roosevelt. Then it was Roosevelt who took up the activist policy and gave it a name, The New Deal.
The Democratic Party and the Postmodern Left
Today, the Democratic Party is not the heir of Roosevelt and John M. Keynes. Its program for the creation of a Welfare State has triumphed, and its discourse has been regenerated from very different sources, those of the identitarian and postmodern left that began with affirmative action, and has ended with critical race theory, third wave feminism, queer theory, censorship, cancel culture and the idea that the personal is political. And not all Democrats are happy with that change in their party.
The New York Post has spoken with several Democrats who have ceased to be Democrats because they feel that their former party no longer represents them. One of the reasons this happens is that the issues Democratic leaders talk about do not interest them. Justin Roth is a 42-year-old English teacher. In 2016 he registered as an independent, and in the following presidential election he became a Republican:
My top priorities right now are actually kitchen-table issues — inflation, the price of housing, food and gas. As a voter, I really care about things that affect my life personally and the lives of my family members more than any of this cultural war stuff.
He is still a liberal: "The reason I registered as a Republican has more to do with the Democrats than it does with Republicans. I still consider myself liberal in a lot of ways, but I’m no longer a registered Democrat. They’ve just really gone off the rails for the past several years."
Michael Lee's story is similar, and he has come to the same conclusion: "There definitely are those who are too woke and too left in my taste and are alienating to centrists like myself."
Christina Buttons defines herself as "a fighter for reformed social reform." A 33-year-old artist and writer, Buttons has always voted Democratic. But there is one ideological pill he has been unable to swallow: gender ideology, and in particular support for children to undergo operations that have lifelong consequences in order to change their sex.
"I was very much of the opinion that Republicans were, for a lack of a better word, evil,” Buttons said. “But I sought out some Republicans to speak to them and find out what they are actually like. Lo and behold, I found out that they are not actually evil. They just have different ideas about how the country would be run best. Demonizing the 50% of the country who are Republicans just doesn’t sit well with me.
Censorship and cancellation, or dialogue
It is at odds with Hillary Clinton's position, which compares Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler, and his voters to Nazis. Buttons has been through the same experience as Dave Rubin, who was part of the ultra-left-wing podcast, The Young Turks. He's still on YouTube, but on an account called Why I Left the Left. Rubin took the same initiative to talk to the people he demonized, and this is his conclusion:
I started talking to some people who were supposedly scary, mean right-wingers, and I realized that even though we have political disagreements, they were thoughtful and willing to agree to disagree. That’s something that almost doesn’t exist on the left anymore.
Failure is another reason for former Democratic voters to abandon their party. Lee believes that "Defund the police may be a catchy slogan, but as an actual proposal it is very impractical, and can cause problems."
The Democrats do talk about the issues that I care about, but ultimately I see that even when they have power, they’re just serving their own party. The Democratic establishment isn’t really there to serve the people. In an ideal world, I would want the Democrats to set the agenda and the Republicans to run the country. The problem is that the Democratic Party is terrible at managing things. If you look at any place where they have a monopoly on power, it’s just doing terribly.
The New York Post also mentions the case of several well-known personalities who have abandoned the Democratic Party because of its ideological drift. Elon Musk, Bill Maher or Michael Shellenberger are clear examples.
