I'm going to keep saying this until I'm blue in the face, but the left desperately needs to learn to speak the language of American civic religion.

There's a reason why the most influential and/or electorally successful left politicians -- from Bernie and AOC on down -- actually do this, even when their own supporters accuse them of being sellouts for doing so.

So laugh all you want about the inauguration being "cringe," but the joke's on you, because cringe is powerful.

I realize this is difficult, because left-wing radicalization in America is usually premised on realizing that the American dream is actually a nightmare, but it is what it is.

Part of being unsentimental about politics -- which is what the left is supposedly good at doing -- is understanding when sentiment is strategically necessary.