In The News

Why Dems’ Favorite Scholar Is ‘Running Screaming From The Left’

https://dailycaller.com/

Ruy Teixeira, a prominent scholar at the left-leaning think tank Center for American Progress (CAP), is leaving his job for a conservative organization because of liberals’ obsession with race, gender and other identity issues, according to Politico.

The obsession with identity politics at CAP made it difficult for him to do work involving class and economics, he told the outlet, so he’s leaving for the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute. Left-leaning think tanks have given in to demands of junior staffers and made it difficult for scholars to discuss crime, immigration and other issues beyond a narrow set of default assumptions, according to Teixeira.

The culture within left-leaning organizations “sends me running screaming from the left,” Teixeira told Politico. “It’s just cloud cuckoo land … the fact that nobody is willing to call bullshit, it just freaks me out.”

“My perspective is, the single most important thing to focus on in the social system is the economic system,” he told the outlet. “I’m just a social democrat, man. Trying to make the world a better place.”

Democrats need to win over voters who are moderate on social issues, but staff at CAP and other think tanks aren’t discussing these issues freely, he told Politico. He blames the radical culture on the left for Democrats‘ inability to hold on to the white working class voters who supported former President Barack Obama in 2008.

“It’s become very hard to have a conversation about race and gender and trans issues, even crime and immigration,” Teixeira told Politico. “You know, ‘How should the left handle these?’ There’s a default assumption about how you’re supposed to talk about these things, even the language. There’s a real chilling effect on all of these organizations.”

Teixeira, coauthor of the 2004 book “The Emerging Democratic Majority,” helped pioneer the idea that Democrats had to win with young and diverse voters to see electoral victories, according to Politico.

“I would say that anybody who has a fundamentally class-oriented perspective, who thinks that’s a more important lens and doesn’t assume that any disparity is automatically a lens of racism or sexism or what have you … I think that perspective is not congenial in most left institutions,” he said.

CAP employees were confused by Teixeira’s decision to leave, according to Politico.

“I am confident that he is unable to give expression to a single example when either his research or his thought leadership found resistance in the organization,” Patrick Gaspard, CAP president, told Politico.

Teixeira did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org

Support Conservative Daily News with a small donation via Paypal or credit card that will go towards supporting the news and commentary you've come to appreciate.

Related Articles

Back to top button