Hate binds a bizarre coalition of contradictory leftist forces

Before you enter a battle, it is best to understand the kind of monster you are fighting. With its use of mob violence, censorship, propaganda, and even criminal prosecution, it can be easy to conceive of the left as a unified tyrannical colossus. Not so. While a thin veneer of vindictive Marxist rhetoric is smeared across the coalition to create the appearance of a solid front, progressives in reality are a snarling mass of contradictory interests unified by their hate for America.

This distinction is critical, as it radically shifts the tactics one can consider when engaging in combat, and make no mistake, we are in a fight for the future of our country. The progressive coalition is powerful but contains many critical fault lines, and a proper understanding of this foe can help to strike decisive blows at critical moments.

The left truly believes conservatives are an existential threat and that progressives have a moral duty to rule over and punish red America.

It is easy to become demoralized and paralyzed by inaction when you see your opponent as an omnipotent and omniscient leviathan capable of crushing all opposition. Conservatives and right-wingers need to realize the totality of the forces arrayed against them, but only with the goal of increasing urgency and gathering courage.

With the rising awareness of the deep state and the fact that the American ruling class is largely organized in opposition to the interests of those they govern, there is a tendency to view the left as a highly coordinated and monolithic force. It is a critical mistake to attribute unified intention and strategy to mass coalitions. It gives the illusion of playing chess against a single grand champion, when in reality, you are dealing with a loose but powerful oligarchy that is herding increasingly rabid cattle.

The deep contradictions at the heart of the progressive coalition often baffle conservatives. Trans activists work alongside African-American and Muslim communities that find their lifestyles repulsive. Marxist radicals agitate for economic revolution but end up supporting woke multinational corporations. Liberal pro-Israel Jewish donors fund the same political movement that contains Palestinian activists who chant “from the river to the sea” across college campuses.

These groups would be fighting to the death in any other context, but somehow, they find a way to work together and dominate the political landscape.

Many on the right have attempted to explain this curious phenomenon by attributing it to the prevalence of postmodern neo-Marxist thought on the left. This is tempting, as many on the left explicitly embrace Marxist language or apply the “oppressed and oppressor” frame to their evaluation of every social ill. I think it fair to say that, to some degree, Marxist thought has become the superstructure that grants a level of coherence to the leftist coalition, but ultimately this is not the deciding factor that causes “Queers for Palestine” to cheer for a group of people who would kill them in a heartbeat.

Naked desire for power

At its core the left is a movement unified by hatred of the average red-state American. The rural, white, small-business-owning evangelical Christian male with a wife and kids is the evilest thing progressives can imagine. Every faction inside the leftist coalition has its own interests and grievances, but they are united by the fact that they hold red America in the deepest contempt and blame them for everything wrong in the country. This is why the left seems fine with discarding and adopting contradictory narratives at a moment’s notice.

Ultimately, the left is held together by a naked desire for power and vengeance, and that power comes from dismantling the civilization built by previous generations of Americans and distributing the spoils to the various client classes that serve the progressive movement.

Under any other circumstances, the different factions inside the left would tear each other apart, but that animosity is held at bay by a general fear and loathing of conservative America.

There is a reason that universities, corporations, and even the United States military have identified “whiteness” as an evil that must be suppressed or expelled from public life. Many in the progressive coalition are of course white, but they see themselves as “one of the good ones” — allies against the deplorables and bitter clingers who wear MAGA hats and attend church on Sunday.

As wild as it may seem due to the meek resistance offered by the Republican Party, the left truly believes conservatives are an existential threat and that progressives have a moral duty to rule over and punish red America.

Hatred and fear are powerful motivators, but they cannot paper over the critical fault lines in the progressive coalition forever.

The leftist civil war over Israel and Palestine that has erupted on college campuses during an election year shows how quickly rival factions can turn on each other without a shared enemy to fight. The right should keep these hostile divisions in mind and look to exacerbate them at every opportunity.

Conservatives should also know when to get out of the way and let warring factions fight each other, rather than riding to the rescue by providing a shared symbol around which the left can rally. While it’s highly unlikely that any of these groups will suddenly flip and begin voting Republican, sowing chaos among the ranks of the enemy in a critical election year is always a good tactic.

Conservatives’ task now

The hatred shared by the different factions in the progressive coalition can galvanize them into an intimidating force, but the right should never be blind to the fact that these groups have very different interests and goals.

Conservatives should also avoid the temptation to over-intellectualize the motives of a movement that is driven entirely by resentment and the lust for power. The left is only capable of acting as a force of hatred and deconstruction, which means it has nothing to offer but the gutted ruins of a civilization progressives are intent on destroying.

Progressives are clear about what they hate and seek to dismantle, so conservatives should be clear about what they love and what they intend to build, while taking every opportunity to expose and exacerbate the rift between factions in the leftist coalition.