This is an answer on Quora, which I’ve taken the liberty to reproduce here. The question was:
What was the breaking point for you with the “progressive” left?
For me it started in 2010 when Barack Obama was deliriously happy about Michael Vick getting a second chance — and a $100 million dollar football contract — after he was released from prison for torturing dogs. It’s fine for him to feel that way (free country) but for the president of the United States to actually pick up the phone and call the Philadelphia Eagles owner to congratulate him seemed excessive. Vick took part in exceptionally heinous and brutal crimes against dogs and was the most hated person in the NFL (for good reason). And here is Barack all happy for him. Why?
Because he’s black.
And I knew that if Michael Vick had been white, the phone call would have never been made. There is no way that a “second chance” for a white dog killer would have inspired that type of phone call from the President of the United States.
I loved Obama, and at the time I was actively rescuing pit bulls from high kill shelters so it hit me especially hard. But what made it worse was how my left wing fellow animal rescuing friends were remaining silent about it. Or excusing it anyway they could. And I knew that if it had been George Bush who did this he would have been seen as the devil, an evil dog hater, and they would have blasted him 24/7.
That was when I started noticing the inconsistency.
I also started noticing that this fight against racism was turning into something else. Something I didn’t like. Something that didn’t feel like equality. I had been a strong supporter of equal rights my entire life. First of all, my mother was a lawyer for the ACLU for almost 30 years. The first family vacation in my memory was a trip to Selma, Alabama and Memphis, Tennessee if that tells you anything. My mother is white/Jewish and my father is Sudanese/Muslim (both are atheist now). So, I’m mixed race (and mixed everything) and share a lot in common with Obama and was an enormous Obama supporter. I don’t think he had a bigger supporter than me (and my family).
But after the Michael Vick thing, I felt disappointed. Truly let down. Then I started noticing that he mostly seemed to only speak out in a dramatic and public way when it came to black victims. I’m a black person, so I appreciate the support, but I’m also a white person. So is my mother, so are many of my friends and loved ones. And so is Barack Obama. But it started feeling like the “pro-black” movement on the left was turning into something anti-white, and in a very blatant and discriminatory way. And I don’t mean from Obama, I mean from the left. I don’t think Obama is anti-white at all, I think he just showed too much favoritism. Anyway, some of the stuff I was seeing and hearing from progressives was starting to bug me. But I still considered myself on the left because it was part of my identity and being on the right was not even a consideration. I still voted for Obama a second time.
Then there was Michael Brown.
And there was Obama again, now along with BLM, making a big deal because he was black. I mean, the police kill hundreds of people and the majority are white, but here we are again making a black person a giant focus over everyone else. Michael Brown shoved a store clerk then acted violently with a cop and everyone was making him out to be this sweet innocent victimized kid. The media was even using pics that were years old. But the dude was actually 6’4” and weighed nearly 300 pounds. He tried to take the cop’s firearm and it went off inside the squad car. There is forensic evidence and witnesses. That’s enough to get anyone shot if they come charging back in any way. Why was so much being overlooked? It seemed like the only reason was because he was black. I realized then that the left was using black people as pawns for political reasons. If they keep black people and white progressives angry, they will keep voting for them. It’s a strategy.
I suddenly felt like a pawn. I felt used, and deceived.
Fast forward to George Floyd and BLM.
I don’t even know where to begin here. Don’t get me wrong, the cop was negligent and brutal and should have been punished. He deserved some prison time. But folks are getting killed every day in this country by the thousands, even children, and the whole world stops for this one person. Again, it seems like it’s only because he’s black…and a victim of a white man. Something the left can use politically.
Floyd was a felon with multiple arrests, an armed robber, someone who terrified a woman alone in her home and stole her car, a drug addict, someone who hung out with gang members and did porn….and he was suddenly angelic:
I know, I know, his crimes weren’t punishable by death. And he was still a human being. But what exactly is going on here? Why does everything get so exaggerated and taken to such illogical extremes? Angels? Statues? And why doesn’t the left care about the little black kids getting shot almost every day? Beautiful, sweet, innocent children. Where is the anger? Where is the outrage? Where are the social justice warriors?
Aniya Allen, killed in Minneapolis in May 2021. Shot in the head by a gang member.
I care more about her than George Floyd. Where is her protest? Where is her angel mural? Where is her statue? WHERE IS THE LEFT?
Why aren’t we talking about dismantling gangs, professional criminals who regularly kill children, with the same level of passion and determination as defunding the police?
WHY?
If you even bring up these kids getting killed with anyone on the left they get angry, deflect, “yeah but…but” or change the subject. They had rather talk about George Floyd. Why? Why can’t we talk about these kids? Why can’t we talk about gangs? Is it because it doesn’t benefit them politically?
Nothing makes logical sense.
They even went so far as to say that millions of people protesting George Floyd’s death slammed together shoulder to shoulder like sardines — with masks pulled down under their chin, sharing megaphones and screaming in each other’s faces —they said it wouldn’t spread COVID. I’m sorry, what? The same people who won’t shut up about vaccines and masks said that these protests wouldn’t contribute to the spread of COVID.
AGAIN, I’m sorry but WHAT?
Does that sound even close to logical?
Then later when African Americans are affected by COVID more than any other race, the left tries to blame it on racism. As if that is the only possible thing that could be the cause.
I’m sorry but I just can’t.
This illogical reasoning, the excuses, the silence, the extremism, and using racism for everything is why I no longer consider myself on the left.
Once upon a time the left did a lot of good in the world, that can’t even be denied, and I was proud to consider myself on that side. But they have just gone too far and crossed over into something else. Today the folks on the far left are irrational and it’s impossible to reason with them on anything. Most of them just seem flat out crazy to me now. Just as crazy as the people on the far right who I have criticized for years. They are just a different type of crazy. So don’t get me wrong – I have a major issue with them, too – but this question is about why I no longer consider myself on the left.
I want no part of either party. No thanks. I will just sit here and drink my tea.
I would like to respectfully ask those who get this far reading my answer (thank you btw) to please take a few minutes to read this piece by Coleman Hughes called Stories and Data. It’s important for the healing of our nation. Peace. [1]
Footnotes:
America went to the dogs a long time ago. Look for a “Red Dawn” kind of
future. And look up the movie “Salt.”