"The dirtbag left, as it became known, mostly revolved, at its start, around the podcast "Chapo Trap House," the Democratic Socialists of America, and a few scattered high-follower social-media accounts. Its adherents were largely disaffected Bernie Sanders supporters who believed that the populist movement behind their candidate had been upended and diverted by a cabal of soulless careerists in both politics and, perhaps more pointedly, in the political media."
"Among the targets of the dirtbag left were Neera Tanden, a Hillary Clinton operative; Clara Jeffery, the editor-in-chief of Mother Jones; and various reporters and editors at the Times, the Washington Post, and so on. The accusation was simple and alluring: by torpedoing the Sanders campaign and running an unelectable cipher in Clinton, these blinkered establishmentarians were responsible for Donald Trump's victory. The dirtbag left's job was to never let them forget it."
"I've been thinking about that era in online politics while observing the campaign of Graham Platner, the Democratic Senate hopeful from Maine. In some ways, he looks like an updated version of the ideal dirtbag-left candidate. Here is a working-class veteran who has talked about America's "new Gilded Age," called out the "billionaire economy," and explicitly avoided the sort of "neoliberal" identit"
The dirtbag left emerged during the early Trump administration around the Chapo Trap House podcast, the Democratic Socialists of America, and prominent social-media accounts. Its supporters were mainly disaffected Bernie Sanders backers who blamed establishment Democrats and political-media figures for undermining Sanders and enabling Trump's victory. Targets included Neera Tanden, Clara Jeffery, and mainstream reporters and editors. The movement mixed profane rhetoric with sustained public shaming and media skepticism. Graham Platner's Senate campaign in Maine mirrors that posture through a working-class veteran identity, anti-billionaire messaging, and an explicit rejection of neoliberal identity politics while converting online energy into electoral appeal.
Read at The New Yorker
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]