One of the issues the left always has, well, issues with is the hagiography of its own agency. When revolution or radical reform happens, the left sees itself as the prime protagonist. But the truth is, when the left is able to successfully exercise agency, it's often because

its target is weak or vulnerable (often because of the regime's foreign entanglements and obligations). That was true of the last days of the ancien regime, the Tsarist regime, a Jim Crow that was made internationally illegitimate because of the Cold War, and more. For me, the

implication of the whole argument about the right's weakness that I, @samuelmoyn, and others have been making for the last four years is not complacency (one of the weirdest acts of misreading) but confidence and emboldenment. Push harder, don't be cowed, the fear of a backlash

is way overstated. I think there are actually two groups on the broad spectrum of the left that get that right now. One was Black Lives Matter and the protesters of the summer, who rightly understood that the dynamics of racial backlash were now working against the right, and so

didn't back down when others warned them to. The other group are more liberal Democrats in Congress, not even super-left, but people like Wyden and so on, who simply do not seem cowed by the GOP's screams. Both of these groups seem to really understand the opportunity we have, an

opportunity that, again, is premised upon the weakness, not the strength, of the right. I hope others on the left follow their lead.