Critique #3: 3/9/25

On the one hand, the deliberate conflation and confusion between performative liberal identity reductionism and leftist critical race and identity politics keep alive the annoying tradition of democratic socialists repeating Adolph Reed's class reductionist arguments. On the other hand, it will only deepen the ideological war, presenting two paths: a vision for a diverse, multicultural, multiracial, multiethnic, multigender, intergenerational society that embraces diversity of thought and being, or a vision for a society that is austere, inflexible, restrictive, exclusionary, exploitative, and dominated by white and corporate interests. Liberalism continues to hide and whitewash the inequalities caused by a society based on race and racial segregation and exclusion, which is built on the constitutional protection of both private and human property. This makes the intentional conflation between liberalism and leftism all the more insidious. As long as Black people remain under the grip of white domination, women are not free from patriarchy and misogyny, and poor people are oppressed by corporate feudalism, liberalism will fail to address the consequences of these inequities. This is why we talk about identity, class politics, and justice.

Trump is doubling down on the foundations of the core ideology and philosophy of the United States—an explicit imperialist, colonial, and race-based project. He drops liberal pretenses and delusions of unity, justice, and equality for a naked and stripped reality of the colonial and racist American Project. What is absurd is the outrage from Democrats, liberals, and progressives who want to preserve these institutions, whether it stems from a misguided and false belief in the promises of a diverse liberal democracy that never could exist or from a lack of imagination regarding alternatives. The times call for abolition, decolonization, and justice.

The backwardness of self-described progressives and liberals championing a liberal order built exclusively along racial lines that sustains an underclass is absurd. Now, liberals will assert that this is exaggerated, claiming that as a society we have made progress toward achieving the true values of liberty and integration and that Western liberal democracies are superior to the so-called “authoritarian” Global South. This is the delusion and pretense that Trump and Maga have stripped away. There is no democracy where there is a permanent underclass of the racialized and marginalized poor whose existence and livelihoods rest in the hands of corporations, private equity investors, and corrupt politicians. There is no democracy when U.S. foreign policy involves genocide, regime change, the plundering of natural resources, intervention in the sovereign affairs of other countries, and the violent and forced imposition of U.S. hegemony and capitalist culture at the exclusion of any other alternative way of living and being.

This contradiction and absurdity bring chaos, instability, and a culture of rampant corruption and exploitation. Losing oneself’s morality, integrity, and identity is very easy. Perhaps this naked exposure of the true ideological divide will make people confront themselves—partake in the corrupt clown show, or develop a better, enlightened version of themselves. To get to this self-reflection, we can ask what our values are. Where does the U.S. fit in a growing decolonizing world? Colonized and marginalized people—in Asia, the Americas, Africa, and the Middle East—are finding solutions and tools for justice, accountability, and the restoration of an equilibrium of society where white supremacy no longer rules and where a just and equitable order is returned pre-colonization. Will we aid in decolonization? Will we practice democracy amongst ourselves? Will we seek to stand up against corporations, predatory schemers, exploiters, opportunists, and scammers in our communities? Will we reject the false promises of the “American Dream?”