There are a lot of us who wish we could just give something to the supremacists and it would be enough to satisfy them, and then we could go back to whatever it is we liked doing back in more peaceful times. A prominent example of this worldview is the podcaster and writer Ezra Klein. He’s an incredibly influential voice—several close family and friends are on a first-name basis with “Ezra.” Unfortunately, when push comes to shove, this New York Times columnist is willing to trade away, you know, the rights of trans people to exist or women’s bodily autonomy, in the hopes that it might mean electoral gains for democrats and a return to a fantasized state of harmony. This is “enlightened centrism.”
If you’re having some doubts after the last heel turn from the wonk himself—a column titled “Charlie Kirk Was Practicing Politics the Right Way”—the best piece of writing I’ve seen on it is A. R. Moxon’s “Eventually You’re Going to Have to Stand for Something.” Moxon’s essay focuses on this telling exchange from Klein’s follow-up conversation with Ta-Nahesi Coates:
Coates: Would you define for me how you see what your role is?
Klein: I don’t know what my role is anymore. I’ll be totally honest with you, man. I feel very conflicted about that question. The role I want to have is a person curiously exploring his political and intellectual interests in political peacetime. And the role I somehow have is sometimes that. But I’m a political opinion writer and podcaster and so on, and I’m in the business of political persuasion.
Political peacetime sounds great, man. But appeasement ain’t getting us there.
