To Those on The Left

Please don't mistake my criticisms for dismissal

To all my Leftist friends and readers:

I understand (most of) you. I grasp the dream: a low-carbon, pro-social, egalitarian democracy; a place where wealth doesn’t guarantee legal immunity and poverty doesn’t crowd a person into social pathology and prison; a place where education and culture are supported publicly and the rapacious externalities of the free market (obesity, debt, ignorance, desperation, parental neglect) are mitigated.

You want great schools for everyone, not just those in the top quintile of the income distribution. You believe that this country has the resources to provide basic medical care to all of its citizens and that it will benefit society as a whole (not just those particular patients) if it does so. You want police forces less focused on arrest and more responsive to community leaders. You want a transportation and housing infrastructure less focused on raw profit and more well-designed and mindful of the public good. You want a political system less saturated by money and secrecy.

You regard many people who complain about trans athletes, and CRT in schools, and sentencing reductions for certain crimes as borderline reactionaries, fueled less by a deep knowledge of public policy than by inchoate hostility toward groups that you feel affinity for and so you feel hostile towards those people.

You consider a liberal approach to criminal justice, support for a mixed economy, and a concern for environmental damage as markers of education and compassion.

You truly want what you believe is best for the United States-as a collection of individuals, and as an international actor, and as a political entity-now and in the future.

I get it.

Please comment if I’ve missed anything or misrepresented your concerns or values. Thanks for your attention and…

Thanks for reading!

Østergro, Denmark’s first urban farm (Copenhagen)