The Politics of Loser-dom
Why do liberals love failure so much?
The Democrats are addicted to losing elections…
Going into the 2016 Presidential election, there were two commonly-accepted truths about Republican nominee Donald Trump. Firstly, the man was so uniquely sexist and racist and extreme that he would pose an existential threat to America if he was ever to become President. Secondly, this repulsiveness didn’t actually matter because he was so uniquely bumbling and incompetent and stupid that he would be unable to win. At the time, I had internalised these contradictions and was completely taken aback by the fact that Hilary Clinton lost the election.
This was a key moment in the development of my own politics and realisation that established centrist liberal electoral parties didn’t have what it takes to defeat fascism. Rather than identifying as a ‘liberal’ (i.e. a supporter of centrist political parties that want to work within the current system to fix it), I started calling myself a ‘leftist’ and pushed for a politics that challenges capitalism and colonialism instead of just offering a kinder version of it. I genuinely believe that most people are good and cannot accept the misanthropic framing that it was the electorate’s fault for Clinton’s loss. That it was inconceivable that “the most qualified candidate in Presidential history” could have failed—she could only be failed by ungrateful voters. I argued until I was red in the face with liberal friends who blamed poor people for supposedly voting for Trump.
Last week, the Democrats did the same thing again. Like Clinton, Kamala Harris ran a laughably bad campaign. Like Clinton, she pandered to the right, in this case campaigning alongside a series of Islamophobes to scold Muslim voters into supporting the ‘less genocidal’ of the two genocidal candidates. And like Clinton, liberals were quick to blame the electorate for the result with some truly nasty rhetoric aimed variously at Muslims, Latinos, trans people, Black men, Native Americans, anyone but the actual party.
Nearly a decade after Trump first entered Presidential politics, he’s more bigoted and incompetent than ever. Without incumbent Joe Biden to out-dementia him, it has become increasingly clear that Trump’s mental faculties are declining (and the man was always a dumbass). There is absolutely nothing special or exceptional about him.
Why then, do liberals keep losing to people like him?
…because they’re losers!
Chris Luxon may be the most stupid Prime Minister in New Zealand’s history. The man is the LinkedIn AI made flesh. To claim that he won the 2023 general election would be like claiming the iceberg ‘won’ the Titanic incident. No, it was Chris Hipkins who lost.
Similarly, the 2024 European Parliament Elections were framed as a win by the far-right but they could just as easily be seen as a failure of the liberal establishment to articulate any sort of alternative.
In my opinion, the biggest loser of all in centrist politics is the UK’s Keir Starmer. He may have technically won the 2024 election but, given the state of the Tories, it’s embarrassing that UK Labour didn’t do better. Just look at how it was carried by left-wing candidates or how it has continued to crack down on left-wing candidates within its own party. In 2019, Labour Party staffers worked to undermine Jeremy Corbyn and ended up contributing to their election loss. Now Corbyn is no loser, but it is clear that his former party would have preferred to stay in opposition than be forced to stand for something.
Time and time again, we have seen fascism succeed due to the failure of the centre.
If the rule you followed brought you to this, of what use was the rule?
Whether or not these losers actually want to keep losing, it’s clear that given the choice between taking the steps to make the world a better place and losing, liberals will usually pick the latter. Hipkins may have won the election if he’d fixed our tax system but then he’d have to pay capital gains on his three properties. If Harris had committed to ending her Government’s genocide in Gaza and that would have surely motivated more people to vote than going all-in on the Cheney seal of approval but I think the Democrats would rather lose. Given the size of the donations they get from Aipac and the fact that being in opposition to Trump is good for fundraising, there’s certainly a financial incentive to stubbonly refuse to fight for a better world.
Of course there’s liberal, even leftist, politicians who want to win but fatalistic, weak loser-dom has become the lingua franca of the centre left. Just look at the way the Green Party embraced this rhetoric under its former leader:
There are a lot of lessons we can take from the Democrats once again failing to stop the supposed greatest threat to American democracy but I think the most salient is that this attitude is inherent to liberalism. Anyone who wants to push for better things needs to find better vehicles than centre-left political projects. As far as I’m concerned, any better world will be achieved despite, not because of, centrist political parties like the Democrats and Labour.
In Aotearoa, there is no shortage of political actors who are good at projecting and wielding power. The Greens are better now that they’ve rid themselves of Shaw but compare the above emails to the much stronger ones I receive from Te Pāti Māori:
The union movement here is occassionally hampered by bureaucracy and ties to the Labour Party but it’s definitely starting to get its shit together. There are so many tools we have to exercise collective power outside of decrepit political structures. At moments when the right seems to be ascendent, falling into despair is an absolute cop-out.
None of this is to make light of the very real violence of Trumpism. Things are going to get worse for lots of people in America. The point is though that they were already terrible and the Democrats didn’t care. Anyone who tells you that Trump’s election is the beginning of things getting really bad is essentially saying they don’t think Palestinians are human. As Aimé Césaire said, “fascism is colonialism turned inward,” and the Democrats have shown themselves of incapable of protecting their own voters from the violence that America inflicts on the global South.
As 2016 repeats itself, this time as farce, I reflect on all the things that I realised the first time around:
It is easy for any politician with half a brain to defeat a buffoon like Trump by offering a better vision for the future.
Whether or not it was malice or incompetence (¿Por qué no los dos?) that led the Democrats to lose, the fact that they keep doing it means they should not be taken seriously.
Anyone who blames the powerless or says that the path to winning lies in being ‘less woke’ is a grifter. There is no real tension between social and economic justice.
Liberal political parties are not representative of any meaningful constituency and the vast majority of people do not share their addiction to losing. They’re in your communities, your unions, your workplaces and your whānau.
See you all at the hikoi.