Today’s story, by Jonathan Chait, is a response to the new bookSolidarity, 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.
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