“Liberalism always finds itself beleaguered at a moment of radical polarization,” journalist and historian James Traub writes in his deft and thoughtful biography of Hubert Humphrey to be published next month. While the right wing has organized around the destruction of liberalism and the far left denounces liberals as gutless sellouts, Traub argues that studying the life of Humphrey—the late mayor of Minneapolis, senator, and vice president—is instructive, cautionary, and inspiring. His thesis is correct on all three counts. Despite the powerful position of liberals in government, including President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, liberalism has descended to a cultural nadir. Unpopular and misunderstood among the authoritarian right and socialist left, liberals must defend themselves against the self-contradictory accusations that they are intent on “destroying America,” in the words of Donald Trump and his right-wing media acolytes and that they are cowardly guardians of the status quo who, to quote independent presidential candidate Cornel West, offer nothing but “self-righteousness against Donald Trump.”
[Washington Monthly]
