Editor’s note: The following is an adapted excerpt from “Liberal Misery: How the Hateful Left Sucks Joy Out of Everything and Everyone,” by Federalist D.C. Columnist Eddie Scarry, available now on Amazon.
It made some sense that liberal Democrats would be bitter immediately after the 2016 election. The country had just denied Hillary Clinton—yes, Empress Hillary Clinton—as heir to her throne and instead chose to elevate a foul-mouthed barbarian named Donald Trump to the presidency.
A true outsider who represented all the things liberals hate— masculinity, optimism, independence—ruined the illusion that America was now exclusively their domain, a place they had hoped to use for their racial fixations, “green energy” projects, and weird gender-bender social experiments.
They lost. And losing hurts. But it’s not supposed to be permanent. The next critical election is always within arm’s reach and there are more productive ways to spend time than holding on to the pain of the last one.
As of 2016, though, liberals and Democrats no longer saw things that way, if they ever truly did at all. After that election, they believed there was no reason to pretend that they understood differences of political opinion, nor that they could tolerate them. They no longer viewed Republicans, conservatives, or even just open-minded independents as the opposition in an honest democracy. They saw them all as an existential enemy that needed to be extinguished.
And thus began our long journey through hell. Pussy hats. Public crying. Fake hate crimes perpetrated by nonexistent Trump supporters. Safe spaces. Angry, vulgar protests broadcast on network television under the guise of being Hollywood award ceremonies. The tragic rise of liberal “civil rights attorney” Ben Crump. On and on.
And if you thought the four years under Donald Trump were bad, those were a piece of cake compared with what would come. A presidential election was approaching in 2020 and the economy was booming. What were Democrats and their reliable friends in the news media left to do other than turn up the dial to a breaking point, generate mass race rioting and covid hysteria, then promise the public that it would only go away if they were put in charge?
It was fraudulent but enough voters found it persuasive. The bigger problem, however, was that by validating the tactic and voting for Joe Biden, Americans effectively encouraged the Left’s worst impulse, which is to spread its own bitter, joyless misery.
Even when Democrats emerged victorious from the suffocating bonfire of 2020, having control of the White House and all of Congress for two years, has their mood change? No. It’s only gotten worse.
They may have traded their pussy hats for Fauci prayer candles, but the attitude has never been angrier or more spiteful. Vengeance has animated them each and every day.
There are scores of studies, surveys, reports and data to back up that truism. But like others, I also know it so well firsthand.
As just one (perfect) example, in November of last year I was sitting with two friends at the bar of All Purpose, a popular pizza restaurant in Washington, D.C. One friend, a white woman in her early 30s, had exchanged niceties with the bar server, also a white woman who appeared to be in her 30s, and with dyed hair that made it look like a mix between silver and very light purple.
My friends and I at one point were discussing the not-guilty verdict that had just been rendered in the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse. I mentioned that it was amazing how many people were under the impression that Rittenhouse was prosecuted for shooting blacks, when in fact all parties involved with his case were white. My friend said that nonetheless, she believed that racism colored the outcome of the trial.
“What makes it racist?” I asked.
Immediately, the bartender with the dye job looked up from the drink she was preparing to declare, “WHAT MAKES IT RACIST IS—”
But just as quick as she was to insert herself, I held up the palm of my hand and said, “We were just talking among ourselves.”
“Okay, no problem,” she said. And then I watched her for the duration of our time sitting there as she walked around, alerting every other member of staff about the belligerent racist who wouldn’t let her speak.
I mean, I don’t know for certain that’s what she was telling her coworkers, but is there any doubt? That’s precisely what an obnoxious liberal would do anywhere.
This isn’t normal behavior. Normal people don’t assume it’s their place to butt in on the discussions of strangers, let alone when those strangers will be deciding how much of a tip to leave. The level of discomfort that these monsters are willing to instill on well-meaning, unassuming people has no boundaries. It can be minor, say a cold shoulder at a social gathering, and it can be extreme to the point of obscenity.
Their thoughts and feelings about politics are no longer a piece of their lives, but all-consuming. It’s not without consequence. When half the country chooses to exist in a perpetual state of irritability, vindictiveness, and intolerance, we’re all forced to share in the misery.
