A Critique of Critique

Critique. 

It’s everywhere these days. Everyone has an opinion about something and modern technology gives them the tools to share it. But this may be a case where smart people got so caught up in what they could do, they didn’t stop to think about what they should do. 

Negativity is a powerful force. Have you ever seen a movie, enjoyed it fine, and then as you were walking out of the theatre, one of your friends said something that just completely ruined it for you? Humans are social creatures, our perceptions and memories are shaped by the reactions of those around us. This is true of works of art, but it’s also true of our experience of events in our lives, people we know and, most relevantly here, political figures.

The job of a politician is to lead people. They are supposed to make people feel heard, address their concerns, and guide them towards the most productive courses of action, all the while making resources available to them to solve their own problems. But, because of this, they are vulnerable to a class of grifter that can never be satisfied. 

No project is perfect. No solution will address every possible edge case. So if you look, you will always find something wrong with any political project. This makes it possible to make a career around finding problems with political figures, even ones you mostly agree with, and then writing essays, hosting podcasts and doing interviews criticizing every little thing you can about their course of action. In some communities, this is honestly called “hating”, and is treated as the unproductive nonsense it is. In intellectual circles, it is called “critique”, and is elevated as somehow a valuable thing to do. This is why when Cornell West, who I would call a “professional hater”, posted “strong yet loving critique of my dear brother Zohran Kwame Mamdani!”^[1] only a few days after Mamdani was elected, he was invited on podcasts and legacy media, rather than being laughed out of the room. He has made a career of this, with Obama being another of his favorite targets. 

Left or right

This has long been a weakness of left-wing circles. Obama himself referred to the “circular firing squad”^[2] on the left, with people spending time and energy trying to catch their nominal allies in every little mistake, while missing the egregious errors committed by the actual opposition. This helps create the opinion in the minds of voters at all levels of information that “both sides are the same” and “voting never changes anything”. Meanwhile people are being separated from their families and children, being held without trial, and sometimes even dying in prison for committing the “heinous crime” of being born in the wrong place and caught at the wrong time. 

This has been the greatest strength of the right wing for a long time. What the left criticizes as their “hypocrisy” and “low standards” is in reality a staunch pragmatism focused on getting what they want, no matter who helps them do so. This is made easier for the right because most of what they want is destruction. Being an anti-government government party means that you don’t have to govern. You don’t have to create any new programs, point to any meaningful accomplishments or sell the American people on anything difficult. You can just defund and destroy, and your base will cheer you on for “sticking it to the man”. 

Meanwhile, Obama spends years of his life and half the color in his hair making the most progress on healthcare since Medicare, and all anyone on the left can talk about is how it’s not good enough.

Never mind that it’s saved tens of thousands of lives^[3], never mind that it’s so popular that it’s survived numerous attempts at repeal^[4] , the broader opinion on the left seems to be “well, it’s ok, but it’s not single payer!”. These people are impossible to please, and should not be given the microphones they somehow seem to have found. 

The Way Forward

This is why we, as Americans left of center, need to do better. Democratic politicians are working hard to protect democracy; the programs that it’s built and the people it serves. They will never be perfect. They will always make mistakes. But if they just wanted to make money, there are so many easier ways. Many of them have advanced degrees, some of them are successful entrepreneurs or NGO CEOs. They could easily step out of the spotlight, leverage their name recognition to get a cushy board job somewhere, and sleep calmly at night knowing no one is counting on them to fix the largest, most complicated and hardest to please country in the world. 

But they don’t.

They choose to stay in congress, to fight for what they know is right, to leave their families and communities behind to go to DC, because they know that if they don’t, if we all take the easy way out, our nation will finally fall completely to the narcissistic parasites who are currently trying to destroy our democratic republic once and for all. 

So we need to stand up for them. Unequivocally. Faithfully. Respectfully. Because the more shit they get from our side, the harder it is for them to do anything. This is the fundamental challenge of liberalism. It’s hard to imagine John F. Kennedy’s famous quote, “Ask not what your country can do for you, Ask what you can do for your country”, resonating now the way it did at the time. People have grown entitled, spoiled by convenience that the wealth of America, built by the labor of past generations, has given them. 

But America is not just a country. It is a group project. It is an ongoing effort across generations and communities to work together to build something better. A better country, a better world, and a better life for our children. And that is something that takes all of us. Liberalism is hard because it asks us to be better. To see a problem, and to ask, “What can I do to fix it?”, when it’s so much easier to just complain. This is something that the right, in their own twisted and polluted way, seems to understand. They’ve been hijacked and corrupted by people acting in their own interest, but, fundamentally, they are willing to sacrifice, to tolerate and to excuse behavior because they want a better country. The left prefers to eat itself, because it’s easier than taking a close look at themselves, realizing they’re not perfect, and then putting their head down and building something anyway. It’s up to the pragmatic liberals on the left to show them the true path forward, to show them the real results of the progress we’ve made, and how we can reach even higher.