Kids: Just say no to liberal centrism
Parents these days have it tough. They are endlessly accosted with the dangers facing their children: drugs, gangs, TikTok, strangers, junk food, Fortnite, vaping.
So while it pains to add to the list, there is a much greater threat that never gets a second of airtime: liberal centrism. Luring victims into official politics with talk of “change from within” only to suck out their souls and fill the hollow shell with careerist ambition—now that’s scary.
Parents from the radical left should not think their offspring are immune. Former US President Barack Obama, aspiring president Kamala Harris and federal Transport Secretary Pete Buttigieg all had a socialist parent. But each embraced the Democratic establishment abyss with the imperial nihilism of the glassiest-eyed Washingtonian dynasty.
Barack Obama Sr., an economic adviser in newly independent Kenya, criticised the government’s pro-market development strategy, advocating the maintenance of communal land ownership and the nationalisation of foreign companies. “We need to eliminate power structures that have been built through excessive accumulation, so that not only a few individuals shall control the vast magnitude of resources”, he wrote in a 1965 paper for East Africa Journal. “The government should tax the rich more ... Theoretically there is nothing that can stop the government from taxing 100 percent of income.”
Barack Obama Jr., on the other hand, bailed out America’s largest banks and companies, destroyed union agreements and cut spending on social security. During his first term, 95 percent of all income gains in the US went to the richest 1 percent. In his second term, Obama appealed to Republican lawmakers to help him cut the corporate tax rate from 35 to 28 percent.
Joseph Buttigieg produced the first English translation of the Prison Notebooks, written by Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci while imprisoned under Mussolini. Buttigieg described Gramsci’s legacy as one of “selfless commitment to the socialist vision ... of unwavering dedication to the cause of the oppressed; of brave, unyielding and very costly defiance of the fascist dictatorship”.
The legacy of his son Pete Buttigieg, formerly an intelligence officer in Afghanistan and corporate consultant for McKinsey & Company, now the transport secretary to Genocide Joe, is decidedly less noble. “The secretary has focused on intervening to support American supply chains ... including measures to help cut in half the long-dwelling container congestion at America’s largest ports”, the official US Department of Transportation website notes.
Liberal centrist ghouls stalk elite universities’ law schools and political science departments, hunting for prey. Those in freshman tutorials who flirt with notions such as social justice and systemic racism are shepherded like proverbial lambs into career politics.
In his Oxford University days, Pete Buttigieg and his friends talked of pushing the Democrats of their native US to the left and away from the “Third Way” centrism of Bill Clinton. But “over time, I’ve come to appreciate more the policy work that comes out of moderate organisations”, he told National Public Radio in 2019, ahead of his failed presidential nomination bid.
Donald J. Harris, a left-wing academic at Stanford University, was once described by the Stanford Daily as a “pied piper leading students astray from neo-classical economics”. He dedicated his 1978 Marxist work Capital Accumulation and Income Distribution to daughters Kamala and Maya.
Kamala Harris apparently loved the first two words of the book’s title but didn’t care for the rest. Economist Adam Tooze called her a “straight-up, main-line, big tech-identified happy Californian Democrat” on his podcast Ones and Tooze. Her presidential campaign has “invigorated” Silicon Valley, as venture capitalist cash flows back into Democratic coffers.
Between her father’s generation of radical Caribbean diaspora, who understood the criminal “justice” system to be a weapon of racist oppression, and Kamala’s campaigning as a tough prosecutor who knows how to put felons behind bars, something went terribly wrong.
The liberal centre is clearly a danger to our youth. So let’s picture the television advertisements we might run if we finally sounded the alarm.
A middle-aged radical sits on a couch, Che Guevara on her T-shirt and a copy of the Autobiography of Malcolm X on her lap. Low strings begin to throb menacingly. A deep voice-over asks: “Do you know where your child is right now?”
Cut to the Sine Institute at the American University in Washington, DC. Nineteen-year-old College Democrats in blue blazers are conversing politely with Young Republicans in red blazers. “The best part is that they’re going to talk about what they agree upon”, says Sine Institute director and disgraced former Democratic National Committee CEO Amy Dacey, laughing maniacally into the camera.
Fade out.
“Is your child seeking common ground with Republicans? Stop it before it’s too late.”
We pan down thousands of billowing, blood-soaked American flags to reveal Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi grinning and shaking hands with a conga line of Republican congressional representatives in celebration of the record number of bipartisan bills passed under Biden.
Cut back to the university room, now all but empty. One last student from the audience, slinging a backpack over their shoulder, is about to leave when a shadowy figure in a knee-length power coat approaches. A leaflet is placed in the curious student’s hand: “Campaign launch for Kamala: Meet your elected officials!”
Next shot: a speechifying Kamala Harris sports a sheriff’s badge the size of Arizona and wields a red-white-and-blue judge’s gavel in each hand. The lectern is branded with her official campaign slogan: Vote Blue Literally No Matter What We Do. The voice-over asks: “Does your child accuse you of supporting Trump any time you raise a criticism of the Democrats?”
Fade. The music grieves now, like a requiem mass. The screen fills progressively with a collage of photographs: college students smiling rapturously in selfies with Obama, Biden, Clinton, Harris, Schumer or Pelosi.
A man strolls soberly into the centre of the shot.
“Every eight minutes, a law student accepts a summer job in a Democratic Party office. Look at these photos: notice the deadness behind the eyes, the ruthlessly pragmatic grip. At this point, it’s already too late. Liberal centrism claims thousands of young people like these every year. Without early intervention, your child could be one of them.”
A young woman’s blurred face speaks to the camera: “I told Mum and Dad I wanted to study law to fight systemic racism in the courts. But in sophomore year, I joined the College Democrats. Now I see everything is a lot more complicated than Daddy made out. If we don’t get tough on crime, we’ll lose office. Then how would we begin cautious police reform in 2044?”
A black screen; silence. A line of text appears: “Don’t let your child be sucked into the centre”.
We hear a final, sombre voice-over: “Know the warning signs. A meme about brat girl summer or coconut trees might look harmless at first. But suddenly, your child is canvassing for Top Cop Kamala. It’s never too early to start talking to your child about the true history of the Democratic Party”.
