The Year in Moderation, 2024 Edition

The election of an unstable, hard-right, populist authoritarian to return to the White House notwithstanding, it was actually a pretty good year for moderate politics. The country may have swung hard-right at the top, but in a lot of other ways it nudged to the middle.

Let’s take a quick look back.

Kamala Harris. Yes, she lost. But she made a valiant attempt to recast herself as a moderate. She emphasized middle class issues, like housing affordability, she stepped back from some of her earlier hard-left positions and she campaigned with principled conservative Republicans, like Liz Cheney. But it wasn’t enough to outrun her previous California liberal views or Joe Biden’s tragically liberal presidency. Still, Democratic candidates without hard-left baggage can find in her approach a winning formula for the future.

DEI. Efforts to make workplaces and schools more inclusive and welcoming to everybody are a good thing, but there’s evidence that, as currently practiced. diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs do a lot more harm than good. That’s because too many of these programs have been hijacked by the bizarre teachings of writers like Ibram X. Kendi and others who believe that you have to impose discrimination now to make up for past discrimination. In fact, Harvard sociologist Frank Dobbins, an architect of some DEI programs, has acknowledged that, far from helping, they “just piss people off.” This year corporate America started to step back from these programs and Republicans in the Wisconsin Legislature ordered up an objective audit by the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau of how DEI is administered throughout state government. Democrats even opposed the audit — they don’t even want to know how DEI functions — because it has become like religion for the hard-left. Ever wonder why Democrats lose so many elections?

Progressive prosecutors. Starting with San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin’s recall in 2022, the “progressive prosecutor” movement has been in welcome retreat. This year soft-on-crime prosecutors went down in Portland, Los Angeles and Chicago among other places. Even in some of the most liberal places in America, people want the laws enforced. The reaction against progressive prosecutors has not necessarily been a return to a lock ’em all up approach, but to a more pragmatic balance between getting tough and staying smart.

College admissions. Since the Supreme Court struck down race-consciousness in college admissions, there has been mounting evidence showing why that was the right thing to do. Most recently, Harvard Law School reported that, under their new race-blind policy, the number of Black admissions has plummeted. Why is that a good thing? Because it shows that students had been being admitted because of race, not merit. The common enemy is discrimination. Nobody should be discriminated against because of their race. Americans can get behind that. What they can’t support is current discrimination to make up for past discrimination. Moreover, race conscious admissions paper over the real problem. If Black candidates aren’t well enough prepared to compete for admissions to top schools, then the answer is to improve elementary and secondary education for students that are lagging, not to discriminate in their favor this late in the game.

Hard-left Democrats. In all of the soul-searching since the November disaster, the dominant theme seems to be that the Democrats lost because they’ve moved too far to the left, especially on social issues. With Joe Biden’s departure it’s not clear who speaks for the party now, but it was significant that Alexandria Ocasio Cortez’ attempt to move up in House leadership fell flat. The logical choice for party spokesperson would seem to be House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries. That’d be more than fine with me because he’s given indications that he understands that the party needs to move to the center

NPR. The voice of the hard-left is in decline. National Public Radio’s listnership and sponsorship took a well-deserved hit this year. Long-time NPR editor Uri Berliner did them a service by pointing out what’s wrong, but of course NPR staff and leadership blamed the messenger and forced him out. Still, you can’t fix the problem without first identifying it. So, we can hope that continued decline in listeners and funders into 2025 will force NPR to move away from its leftist biases. And, by the way, why do my tax dollars go to support this? We’ll deal with that question later this week.

Wisconsin Legislature. At least two of the hardest right legislators, Sen. Duey Stroebel and Rep. Janel Brandtjen, were defeated. Also, thanks to finally fair maps, the Democrats gained four seats in the Senate and 10 in the Assembly. They’re still in the minority, but by a margin that better reflects the purple nature of the state. If they play their cards right and hew to the center, they have a reasonable chance to take back the majority in one or both houses in 2026.

Overall, I was deeply disappointed by Harris’ defeat and I am not looking forward to four more years of Donald Trump. But if the shock of that forces my party, the Democrats, to abandon their worst, hard-left positions and move to the middle that would be something to cheer in the new year.

Enjoy your New Year’s eve. See you back here next year.