Right-wingers are collectivists who quickly respond to calls to organize.
On the other hand, the definition of the modern left-winger is extreme individualism.
Interesting analysis. I disagree in general, but interesting nonetheless.
As someone on the right (albeit more libertarian and far less enamored of the Republican party, et al) I see far more individualism on the right and collectivism on the left. Organization occurs across the political spectrum and in general has gotten much harder over the years as there is less cultural and societal cohesiveness (see the 2000 book: Bowling Alone). A lot of people will complain on the internet but actually getting hundreds or thousands of people to show up in person or dedicate real time to an organization is very difficult. It doesn't matter if that organization is trying to advocate for or against a left-wing or right-wing issue. Civic engagement in general is far less than it was in decades past.
As someone who no longer respects either party in the USA I think that the left was about individualism during say The Enlightenment. It was all about how you could disagree and have the free exchange of ideas. Now (in the USA) it appears to be about wokeism. Which yea, seems pretty collective today.
We have to be careful to watch what people are actually doing rather than what people are saying on the internet. 1,000,000 memes plus 500k clicks of the "like" button matter less than one real world group of a dozen people physically meeting every weekend and planning activities to further their civic agenda. Some people may disagree, and my response is that your Facebook petitions don't actually go anywhere either. Political power is for those who show up, cooperate, and organize IRL. If skeptical, find me an exception to this rule (something bigger than the latest media frenzy that won't result in anything).
In reality, anti-abortion protesters take shifts to show up to the clinic every single day and have formed a little community around this activity, and the pro-choice side musters a relatively small annual event where almost everyone there is a stranger to each other. People who like guns have shooting clubs, ranges, hunting clubs, gun shows, and entire industries/professions - the gun control movement meanwhile is kind of a mail-us-your-money lobbyist operation. IRL, right-wing milita are training in every state every weekend, but there is no such thing as a formal antifa meetup with more than a handful of friends present, nor is there an "antifa" organization to join. It's nothing more than a hashtag. The truth is, you'd be hard pressed to find - even in cities - a cohesive community of left-wingers that has been around 10+ years coordinating their activities at the same level of organization as a single right-wing church, of which there are tens of thousands. Such a creature may exist somewhere, but even if you did find it you'd have to pass dozens of pro-Trump, anti-BLM, anti-abortion, pro-gun, anti-tax, anti-science evangelical churches to get there.
BTW, Bowling Alone was a great book. I don't know how the author didn't assign more causation to the rise of electronic media, and our behavior of spending more and more time over the decades staring at screens, even up to 1999. That time came from somewhere. It came out of the time people used to spend building communities. FWIW, my conservative friends are constantly talking about things they did while my liberal friends are constantly talking about things they watched.
This is 180 degrees from accurate. Off the top of my head, I can think of three things that prove the effectiveness and scope of liberal organizing and influence.
2013 Susan J. Komen decided to stop making an an $800,000 annual grant to a few Planned Parenthood affiliates. PP parlayed that 'loss' into millions in new donations. Komen's reputation and donation level never recovered.
2018 Pride is now a corporate sponsored event. Brick & mortar locations as well as social media emblazoned with rainbow flags and support for Pride. A CrossFit franchise owner who declined to have a Pride-themed exercise class loses his business and his job.
2020 Black Lives Matter takes in hundreds of millions in corporate donations. By 2021, Anti-racism training is part of every major corporate training policy, including the US Military. Critical Race Theory incorporated into nearly every single school curriculum. Every subject, every school, every level of education. This didn't happen overnight with the murder of an unarmed Black man. Andrew Sullivan noted in 2018 that "we're all on campus now" as college campus activism was, by then, quite mainstream.
Each of these were decades in the making. People who care about human rights have been active in every corner; within institutions, organizations, academia and the corporate world. That a movement seemed inevitable, like the right thing to do or just business-as-usual is even further testament to the breadth and depth of the organizing that has taken place over the past half century. That your liberal friends can sit and watch is evidence of just how powerful liberal activism has already been. You can do nothing and it's still happening.
I disagree about CRT being in every school - it's actually being banned by multiple states, which is to say students in the future will learn less about the civil rights movement and modern thought on it than students in the past. Frederick Douglas could be banned next. IDK about military training, but I do know the police and military are highly infiltrated by white supremacists. The FBI knows it too.
I hear this sort of cherry-picking of wins a lot. It's often done by liberals who want to argue that their mode of operation is not a losing strategy. They argue it is possible for liberals to "sit and watch" and "do nothing" and the wins will inevitably come all on their own because demographic destiny, because the courts will save us, or because everyone in their blue enclave thinks the R's are nuts. No amount of losses seem able to challenge this entrenched idea, because in the end hyper-individualism is about letting somebody else do the hard work of making collective structures like government function.
But Democrats are objectively in decline. The scoreboard reads as follows:
*30 state legislatures are Republican-controlled, vs. 17 Democrat-controlled and 3 split.
*6/3 control of the Supreme Court by Republican nominees.
*Majority of state governor offices in Republican hands.
*Republicans successfully pass gerrymandering laws to make most state and federal seats Republican locks, even if D's win the popular vote.
*Joe Biden has a 42.4% approval rating, and the R's are well-positioned to retake Congress in this year's elections. If that happens, Biden could be impeached for whatever reason before the end of his term.
*Fox News remains America's most popular news network.
On single issue topics:
*Roe v. Wade will be effectively overturned within the next few months. Abortion has been effectively regulated out of existence in many states within the past 20 years anyway. A nationwide ban could occur within the Biden presidency if the R's win enough seats to override a veto.
*The gun control movement is in reverse, with open carry laws expanding across multiple states.
*Nearly 0% chance of expanding access to healthcare in the next 3+ years.
*Nearly 0% chance of immigration legislation in the next 3+ years.
*Voting rights legislation has a near-zero chance of passing before the midterms, and an even lower chance than that.
*Police reform legislation " " " " " " " "" " "
*Significant climate change legislation " " " " " " " "
Interestingly, 100% of the actual win examples mentioned above are cases where a tiny percentage of liberals formed organizations with features such as memberships, dues, executive leadership roles, committees, organizational infrastructure, local meetings, recruitment of new members, and most importantly the opportunity to build a social life around the creation of meaningful impact. That's how the civil rights movement achieved its successes too.
My whole point is that Democrats could win if they did these things consistently, and actually participated in the grass roots. Instead there's this emphasis on fundraising and electronic advertising, which are important, but in the absence of grass roots communities it leaves the party with the appearance of a media company supported by the rich, ironically enough. Until Democrats snap out of their denial and look at the actual, objective scoreboard, the losses will continue.
