Is Left-Wing Illiberalism the Greatest Threat to American Democracy? Response

Is Left-Wing Illiberalism the Greatest Threat to American Democracy?

Daniel Drezner

Response

LAST UPDATED SEPTEMBER 24TH, 2020

As the summer of cancel culture come to a close, the examples that Cathy Young cites in her opening salvo are indeed a source of concern about the future of the liberal idea. Just how worrisome, however, remains the subject of debate. A serious threat assessment would rank other threats more seriously. 

The importance of left illiberalism depends on how much relative power one thinks these groups have. Young acknowledges that, “social justice activists have no political power” but claims “their cultural influence… can hardly be overstated.” It is worth contesting a few of these claims. 

First, right-wing populists currently possess far greater political power and pose a far greater threat to American democracy. President Trump repeatedly describes the free press as the “enemy of the people.” He used the bully pulpit to excoriate peaceful protestors and then used a bevy of federal officers to violently break up a peaceful assembly in Lafayette Square. 

Such strong-arm tactics trickle down to lower-level governments. Tennessee, for example, recently enacted a law that would strip away someone’s voting rights if they were arrested for an illegal protest, whatever that means. Compared to these egregious actions of the carceral state, cancel culture shrinks in relative importance. 

Furthermore, Young’s claim that the cultural power of the illiberal left “cannot be overstated” might be overstated a wee bit. When I look around, I see scores of individuals who have made racist, sexist, speech a part of their brand and nonetheless manage to thieve in the modern marketplace of ideas. Illiberal thought leaders like Tucker Carlson have not been cancelled, but rather talked about seriously as a 2024 candidate for president. Jack Posobiec has promoted all sorts of racist conspiracy theories, and received a Claremont Institute fellowship for his troubles. 

The threat that the illiberalism of the left poses is limited to those institutions in which the left exercises actual power, and to be blunt there are not a lot of these sectors in the United States at this moment in time. Furthermore, their influence on the broader culture is open to interpretation. Academics affect the marketplace of ideas, but as John Maynard Keynes observed, those effects often take generations to kick in. At the present moment, any garden-variety YouTuber moves public opinion more than the most radical tenured academic. 

Young et al have identified a genuine threat, but it is worth being clear about its precise scope and scale. The problem is not that thought is being suffocated by a leftist monolith within the cultural elite. There are plenty of conservatives who have thrived in their belligerence. The problem is that there are intellectuals within these institutions who used to occupy the mainstream and now find themselves closer to the political margins. At the same time, those who were previously marginalized now possess a measure of political power. 

This shift within the left toward identitarianism is worthy of a longer conversation. Is it the Greatest Threat to American Democracy? No, and it is not close.