Has the US Left Given Up Critiquing Democrats?

From the happy, coconut-strewn island of the Democratic National Convention, where Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) and Hillary Clinton get the same rapturous response and the voices of Gaza protest are quickly silenced, it is easy to forget how fast History can move. But much has changed in the last few years, especially within the world of left politics.

In the decade that began with Occupy Wall Street in 2011 and ended with Bernie Sanders’s primary defeat in 2020, a new American threw itself into national politics — at outdoor rallies, marathon canvassing sessions, and yes, the trenches of social media warfare. If the unashamedly electoral focus distinguished this generation from earlier left-wing movements, Bernie Bros, much of Democratic Socialists of America, and the “dirtbag left” online retained a deep skepticism toward both major party establishments.

Scanning social media over the last year — and especially the last month — this no longer feels remotely true. In place of a once-defining hostility toward the Democratic leadership, we now see an enthusiastic affirmation of the party’s major players and personalities. This is not limited to progressive figures like AOC or Elizabeth Warren, but extends eagerly to the mainstream leaders of the really-existing Democratic Party: Kamala Harris, Tim Walz, Gretchen Whitmer, Andy Beshear, and so on.

Like everything else online, much of this is caked in protective irony, but the direction of movement is clear. “Socialists for Pritzker” was a bit until it obviously wasn’t. With Bolshevik mob boss Nancy Pelosi now on side, after the ruthless disposal of Joe Biden, only a small fraction of older or “centrist”-branded Democrats seem exempt from the love.

For liberals, this may look like the online left that has grown up from the irreverent, unproductive “dirtbag” era. Interestingly, though, it seems to me that the optimistic, pro-Democratic energy comes from a generation younger than the original Berniecrats. It’s easy understand the stated reasons for this: the apparently anti-neoliberal turn of Bidenomics, the rise of more vocally pro-union Democrats, and of course a general fatigue and disgust with Trumpism.

But looking back a decade, it’s worth asking: How many of the fundamental 2010s problems — the ones that launched Occupy and fueled Bernie in the first place — have been addressed by today’s Democrats?

Here I mean the Big Things: universal health care, the power of capital over labor, class dealignment, the crimes of US foreign policy. How much progress have we made on these? The child tax credit and more money for green infrastructure are wonderful little wins, but are they really building a bridge to social democracy, much less democratic socialism? If I sound sour, it’s because I worry that some of our best young people have been bought cheap.