Shame They Can’t Both Lose

Left on left conflict does not need a right wing savior

Since the October 7th Hamas attacks on Israelis, the left is divided. They are all same team each November, but right now there is a major rift between owners, the managers and the shop floor. The latest manifestation of this is the campus protest phenomenon. Because of the locations, this creates a spectacle made for video and poor optics for the left. The right should sit back and let the left decide how these end.

Never intervene when the other guy is messing up. This should not be hard. It involves patience and standing firm. We have examples even in our recent political history. A famous American political example of the Napoleon quote "never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake" was the 1964 presidential campaign between LBJ and Barry Goldwater. JFK’s assassination created a subdued early campaign, the GOP went through a bitter liberal wing-conservative wing primary fight and Goldwater spent months promoting his true conservative nature, which was a bit out of step with the national mood. No Republican was winning in ‘64, but Goldwater underperformed as the electoral realignment was just getting started. During the 1964 campaign, Johnson's team refrained from directly engaging with Goldwater's more conservative positions, allowing Goldwater to make critical mistakes that the media could frame as extreme.

LBJ’s campaign team recognized the opportunity presented by Goldwater's polarizing positions. Rather than directly attacking Goldwater or debating his ideas, Johnson’s team used a strategy of amplifying Goldwater's more controversial statements and letting voters infer. The most famous examples of this strategy occurred with the release of the "Daisy" advertisement. The television ad featured a young girl counting daisy petals while a voiceover counted down to a nuclear explosion, juxtaposed with images of nuclear destruction. The implication was clear. Goldwater's statements on nuclear weapons in Vietnam could lead to catastrophic consequences. While the ad never mentioned Goldwater by name, its message resonated with voters and reinforced concerns about Goldwater's judgment and temperament. LBJ just let Goldwater talk.

The right should sit tight, watching as deep blue cities and college administrators figure out how to handle protests. If they are soft, pro-Israel donors might change their 2024 plans. Voters at home will see chaos and woke mobs running wild. Chaos from protests helped Trump in 2016. If they beat down protesters, it is more chaos for voters to watch in already disorderly cities and the unique exception on the left is reinforced demoralizing the far left and setting up a tense convention in Chicago. Maybe the far left stays home or protest votes in November. Biden’s team is caught catering to the AIPAC donor list and swing state Muslims. Let Biden and his hierarchy of political figures take the fall angering on side. Jumping in only substitutes a red flavored police villain for a blue one.

Let the left police their own. This is an intra-left battle. They are just fighting over the control of those education institutions and rhetoric that the left will deploy for this small, foreign affair. College administrators are in a bind, but let them squirm. The pro-Israel donors have to realize that every single action they take now while still maintaining loyalty to the left is doomed. They can blacklist doxxed protesters, but there are thousands who silently agree with the ideology. Those silent students will fill the institutions and have the same beliefs as the handful blacklisted. They lost the universities, and BDS measures were just a warning. If this is a fight between woke students, blue cities and anti-West administrators, let them sort it out.