The Left Isn't Perfect

There has never been a bigger divide between the two main political parties in the U.S. and the right choice in the Presidential race is crystal clear because the Trump-Vance ticket is just so bad, while Harris-Walz is basically decent, serious, well-meaning, and relatively speaking vastly more honest.

This said, there are grass-roots aspects on the left that aren't perfect, which admittedly, is natural, because the Democratic Party has been forced to have such a big tent.

* The left leaning conspiracy theories about the two Trump assassination attempts are just as bad as the many right wing conspiracy theories.

* The dismissal of the media or other institutions as a source of credible information about the world, which is shared by the far right.

* The far left nihilistic attitude that there is no difference between the two major political parties is myopic and troubling. 

* Stubborn refusal to understand that in our political system, support for a third-party candidate helps whichever candidate is most unlike that third-party candidate in terms of policy. In a better electoral system, this wouldn't be the case, but in our current one, third-party candidates are simply treasonous con artists.

* Excessive reliance on qui bono (who benefits) as an explanatory tool for how the world works. More often than not, this isn't a good explanation.

* Denial that IQ is a real thing.

* There are a variety of left leaning Luddite-like policy movements that I don't support: opposition to nuclear energy, the excessive fear of chemicals and pharmaceuticals, distrust of vaccination, and the movement for local food and making your own food and other daily needs yourself. At its worst, some of these ideas spill into general anti-science sentiment.

* Support for small and family owned businesses and farms just because they are small, and opposition to big businesses and farms just because they are big.

* The tendency by some to pit veterans and other sympathetic groups of citizens against foreigners and immigrants.

* The refusal to acknowledge legitimate generational conflicts, and that Millennials and Gen Z really are up against steeper hurdles than Boomers faced.

* A tendency to make the best the enemy of the good.

* The tendency, in reaction to Israeli mistreatment of Palestinians, to dismiss just how truly bad military organizations like Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis are, and a failure to recognize how much they have provoked the treatment that they receive.