If there’s something the Woke Left hates more than anything, it’s fighting crime, with all that implies: more cops, more aggressive policing, more imprisonments. The Wokes take their commitment to being anti-anti crime almost as a religious vow of faith. You have only to read what Cat Brooks, Carroll Fife and people like them have written. Over their dead bodies, they say in essence, will they allow crime-fighting to become public policy.
Which explains why the Woke Left is in such a predicament. Public attitudes toward crime have shifted dramatically, now that people see how ineffective and downright dangerous are Woke Left policies. Brooks, Fife, Bas, Thao, Price—they’re all running scared, because they see, not only their own political careers in jeopardy, but even the very movement they have invested into, and that has succored them for years, being utterly rejected by the middle classes.
Some far leftists will be tempted to double down on their pro-crime rhetoric. Cat Brooks, for example. This mentor to a generation of Woke radicals will never stop promoting her racist ideology, nor will her disciples, like Fife, who see criminals as the foot soldiers in their war. As for the others, including Thao, they may realize that they have to moderate their views, at least in public, but they’re not going to fundamentally shift them. Well, let me explain why they should.
I have nothing in principle against the Left, although I frequently rail against wokeness. There’s a huge difference between “Left” and “woke.” The Left has brought Americans very fine things over the last 90 years, from the start of FDR’s first term. I need not list them. The problem for the Left is that they’ve gotten so addicted to massive, expensive social interventions that they don’t know when to stop. They want more, more, more—and we’ve reached the point where “more,” far from helping anyone, is killing us. But as long as there’s an iota of social or economic inequality in Oakland, they believe they have to continue their struggle.
But the Left is in peril, and crime is their kryptonite. The view is widespread (and accurate) that crime is the inevitable result of Woke Left policies in Oakland, where they’re had power for years. Voters are beginning to figure it out: We keep electing Wokes, crime is getting worse, there must be a connection. Duh! Therefore, the Woke Left faces an existential challenge: If it is to survive, it has to address public concerns about crime. But if it does, it will have to renege on the very policies it has long promoted. This is a terrible dilemma for them. If the Woke Left can’t deal with this challenge, it will cease to exist. And then, what will we be left with? The Right is muscling in everywhere, bringing heinous policies that threaten all of us: Blacks, Gays, Muslims, Jews, women, scientists, humanists. By their truculence, by their insistence on letting crime thrive, the Left is inviting a voter backlash that will mobilize decisively against them.
I don’t want to see the Left pulverized. The Left still has much to offer, especially as the loyal opposition to MAGA rightwing extremism. But the Woke Left must compromise. They can’t continue to insist “My way or the highway.” They have got to understand that people’s fear of crime is legitimate. My suggestion to Thao, to Bas, to Kaplan, to all the Left Wokes who might still possess a modicum of rational thought, is that they apologize for their role in bringing about the current emergency, and join with those of us who wish to fight crime with everything we have. This will make some Woke Leftists uncomfortable, but it’s the only way they can salvage their political philosophy without a vengeful public storming it with torches and pitchforks, as they are doing in Europe, South America, Russia and elsewhere. If you want rightwing nationalism to thrive in America, support the Woke Left. If you don’t, well…don’t.
Steve Heimoff