If you've ever been to the beach, you may have played around in the deeper water near the shore from time to time. After even just a few minutes, you may find that you've somehow drifted pretty far from where you left your things without noticing it. The tide can work that quickly if you're not paying too much attention.
I think something similar has happened to leftists. Their ideological rigidity mixed with the political current has carried them so far to the left that they didn't notice. Yet, when people point it out to them, they almost seem to have some sort of instant denial response. They aren't crazy, you are!
I was watching Charlie Kirk have a debate with a young college student, as he tends to do, and the young lady who challenged him wanted Kirk to defend MAGA against the accusation that it's a cult. Naturally, Kirk was able to not only successfully defend MAGA, he also turned it on the young woman, pointing out that the left is far more cult-like than the right ever has been.
You should watch this small conversation yourself, as you can truly see the gears in the girl's head wanting to turn, but ultimately being denied any movement.
It's pretty clear that MAGA isn't a cult, but moreover, many on the left aren't either. Democrats came out in large chunks to vote for Donald Trump, and there are even leftists in his cabinet. If MAGA is an ideological cult with all the cultish trappings one would usually see, then it's a really bad one.
But moreover, even Democrats see that the left has gone way too far into their own ideological territory, even to the point where they're out of touch with the people.
As first reported by the Daily Caller, former Clinton pollster Mark Penn told Maria Bartiromo that the Democrats are looking "purely partisan," and that working with Trump is out of the question, no matter what:
“Chuck Schumer is one of the least popular politicians here in the country. I think he’s seen as really these days as close to a partisan hack rather than somebody who’s trying to solve the problems of the country,” Penn said. “And I think that’s the problem with the Democrats now. They’re seen as purely partisan, but off the deep end on some policy issues, not trying to be constructive, not listening to the will of the people to try to get things done together with the president.
March polling by NBC News and CNN/SSRS showed Democrats with record low popularity ratings — 27% and 29%, respectively.
The left left the left in droves because they leaned too far to the left, yet the remaining left wants to go further left.
READ MORE: The DNC Is Having Its 'Modern Audience' Moment
The thing is, there's not a lot of wiggle room when you're that ideologically fixated. You are bound to behaviors and decisions that don't even benefit your cause anymore, because doing anything that could be remotely interpreted as friendly with your political opposites could result in being ostracized from the group.
You can ask Chuck Schumer about that, as the remaining leftists still haven't forgiven him for working with Trump on the budget.
Penn is mostly right. The Democrats aren't just "seen" as being off the deep end. They are.
They are dangerously close to cult-like territory, but they'll never see that because they are fully convinced the right is a cult, despite exhibiting no overarching cult-like tendencies. I'm not going to say there aren't people out there who would stick by Trump no matter what he did — a pro-politician mentality that I would consider entirely un-American — but we're talking about the "vote blue no matter who" crowd.
You can't be that partisan and expect to function with any semblance of sense. It's ultimately self-destructive, especially when the people aren't on your side.
And self-destruction is a hallmark of a cult.
