REGARDLESS OF TRUMP, LIBERALISM IS IN TROUBLE: After noting that the liberalism of the rule of law and skepticism of government power and foreign adventurism and so forth was abandoned during the Obama years, Oliver Traldi writes: “Perhaps the most interesting dynamic post-Trump is that there has been no reassessment this time. Instead, there’s been an acceleration. Just as a terrorist attack can be spun to support counterterrorism policy — it’s not that the policy didn’t work; it’s that we need more of it! — the 2016 election seems to have proven to liberals not that their shift in principles was wrong, but that they didn’t shift enough, because they didn’t realize just how powerful the hateful, mystical forces arrayed against them really were.”

I have seen virtually no soul-searching among progressives about what they might have done differently that might have prevented the Trump counter-reaction. Instead, it’s all about how to seize power back and crush the enemy.