Culture Wars/Current Controversies

In Defense of Punching Left

By on • ( Leave a comment )
Today’s story, by Jonathan Chait, is a response to the new book Solidarity, by Astra Taylor and Leah Hunt-Hendrix. Jonathan is cited by the authors as an example of a commentator whose critiques can have corrosive effects on the progressive movement. He has thoughts on that. As context, it can be useful to think of the Democratic coalition in the U.S. as a partnership between liberals (roughly the center-left) and progressives (the left). Jonathan considers progressives productive and valuable coalition partners with liberals like himself. But, he argues, Taylor and Hunt-Hendrix seem to ignore the fact that he, despite being a political friend, is not a leftist. He differs with the left in some very substantive ways on both ideas and policy goals. The argument that he should always defer to coalition partners while they are free to critique him is, he says, neither realistic nor fair. The coalition remains a good thing — but there are differences, and they need to be discussed. At a broader level, he is making a quintessentially liberal argument: that the best form of politics is based on open communication and persuasion — not trying to shut up people whose views differ from one’s own, whether they be enemies or allies.

—Jebediah Reed, editor, Intelligencer

In Defense of Punching Left The problem with Solidarity.

Photo: Intelligencer; Getty Images
Read the full story
Enjoying One Great Story?
Subscribe now for unlimited access to everything New York.

More From Today
For the Cut, Magdalene J. Taylor introduces us to the self-proclaimed “cake eaters”: adulterers who are happily married and secretly seeking out other partners on the side.
READ MORE »
Manuel Betancourt talks to Baby Reindeer star Nava Mau about separating the character of Teri from her real-life inspiration and her most difficult day on set.
READ MORE »
With potential prison time on the line, the question of whether Trump will testify or not looms large over his criminal trial — and it’s not a tough one, writes legal columnist Elie Honig.
READ MORE »
From Atelier Jolie to Atelier Mira, New York has reached an “atelier” saturation point. On Curbed, Fran Hoepfner tries to figure out why, and when, this happened. 
READ MORE »
“I’ve never had this much exposure in my racing career ever.” Emily Leibert spent three days with the women of the F1 Academy at Formula One’s Miami Grand Prix.
READ MORE »

Streamliner
Sign up for a weekly newsletter of TV and movie recommendations.
SIGN UP

Categories: Culture Wars/Current Controversies, Left and Right

Leave a Reply