The Radical Left is Now Mainstream

Reacting to the first African American Republican woman being elected to Congress, the lynchpin of liberal political and cultural commentary, the Huffington Post, published a column by Darron Smith, Ph.D., creepily titled:

“She Looks Black, but Her Politics Are Red: What Mia Love's Victory Means for the Face of the GOP.”

The implication is that Congresswoman-elect Mia Love is not really black. As Mr. Smith writes, she only “looks black.”

Rational Americans might ask, what could that possibly mean and does anyone take this tripe spewed by a smarmy radical leftist seriously?

Some leftists might respond that being black is not simply a matter of skin color. It’s every bit as much a matter of ideology. If your skin color is black and you embrace the hard left agenda, you’re legitimately black. If your skin color is black, but you support principles of limited government, then you’re not a legitimate African American.

It’s the left-wing equivalent of Todd Aiken’s infamous “legitimate rape” comment, only it’s not universally mocked and derided. Just the opposite: it’s celebrated and inexorably advanced across the liberal media landscape.

The stark reality is that this one Huffington Post column is not an anomaly. It’s the new normal.     

Once confined to niche left-wing publications, fringe political movements, and ultra-liberal university faculty lounges, radical leftist dogma is now embedded in the liberal media establishment.

Terms like "white privilege" and "cultural appropriation" pervade mainstream media outlets. They’re no longer considered fringe or controversial on the left. And anyone—including people  of color—who dares question the merits of these ideas will be bizarrely vilified as a benefactor and purveyor of “white privilege.”  

In short, radical leftist views have been mainstreamed by popular websites like Gawker, The Daily Beast, and the Huffington Post.     

It’s as if in a cruel twist of fate the radical left has won the civil war against the liberal establishment many thought it had lost in the 1960s. This victory over the relatively moderate liberal establishment is evidenced by the fact that The New York Times, The Washington Post and other standard bearers of mainstream liberalism don’t dare counter radical tripe, such as the notion that American institutions are inherently and irreversibly racist. Occasionally, they even publish these diatribes in their op-ed pages.   

Perhaps the most alarming aspect of the mainstreaming of the leftist school of thought is that  scores of apolitical and ideologically diverse readers regularly visit the Huffington Post, Gawker, et al. for celebrity news and entertainment, not for politics.

But when those outlets do delve into politics directly or indirectly, they invariably infuse their columns with leftist ideology, such as the notion that all white Americans enjoy genetic privilege. This is a far cry from the time when only ideological readers browsed The Nation.

By targeting audiences seeking entertainment or soft news and then hitting them with leftist propaganda, these outlets cultivate far more influence than their fringe predecessors.  

It is supremely ironic that the counter culture failed so spectacularly to mainstream their ideas  during the glory days of left-wing radicalism in the 1960s, yet today, when left-wing radicalism is no longer a credible political movement, their ideological successors enjoy mainstream status.