- Somewhat ironically, this is a problem that both some leftist and populist-rightist movements share: their ideology *requires* them to believe that they are the authentic voice of The People and so they are ideologically constrained from recognizing that their ideas are not, in fact, popular.
- My read is that American leftism specifically has been unwilling to reckon directly with its unpopularity and instead falls into a cargo cult form of Leninism, preoccupied with building a “pure” vanguard to lead the inevitable awakening of the proletariat.
- I want to be clear here though with 'some' because of course you have your AOC/Mamdani/(Warren-though-she-doesn't-take-the-label) left-aligned politicians who do recognize this reality and adopt alternate strategies (incrementalism, 'sewer socialism,' etc) to try to shift the public to their side.
