Calling for Self-Criticism    
   Part 1 of 2

 This opinion (summarized) in the Wall Street Journal 

 by a liberal writer in Austin, Texas 
explains much.

by Ioannis Gatsiounis

   (Trump) stands a good chance of reelection. I blame my fellow liberals. Most (are) blaming everyone but themselves - Hillary Clinton, Russia, the Electoral College, "white supremacists" - and expecting to win on the strength of their hatred. 

   Part of the problem lies with unpopular positions Democrats have taken - from decriminalizing unauthorized border crossings to banning private health insurance. The main problem has less to do with policy than with attitude. To many ordinary Americans we appear unhinged, haughty and out of touch.

FIRST, STOP OBSESSING OVER IDENTITY 

   Our tendency to insert race, sex and sexual orientation into everything gives the impression we are more committed to narrow groups than Americans as a whole.

SECOND, CHANGE THE MANICHAEAN* OUTLOOK 

* Philosophical doctrine that the universe is dominated by 

two opposing principles, one good and the other evil.

   Liberals tend to shame and "cancel" anyone who doesn't conform to our thinking on complex social issues. We wield political correctness like a club. 

   Eighty percent of Americans - including three-quarters of blacks and more  than 80 percent of Asian-Americans, Hispanics and American Indians - disapprove of political correctness. 

THIRD, CULTIVATE A FULLER UNDERSTANDING OF JUSTICE 

   Our fanatical embrace of the oppressor-victim narrative finds us quick to assign guilt or innocence based on narrow identity markers like race and sex...seeing women as always victims, men as always aggressors, minorities and immigrants as, by definition, innocent. 

   We've rightly drawn attention to disparities...but we've become reckless in the process. 

Tomorrow: Items Four and Five