The Great Divorce

This part of Peter Beinart’s attempt to bring liberals to sanity on immigration stood out to me:

Between 2008 and 2016, Democrats became more and more confident that the country’s growing Latino population gave the party an electoral edge. To win the presidency, Democrats convinced themselves, they didn’t need to reassure white people skeptical of immigration so long as they turned out their Latino base. “The fastest-growing sector of the American electorate stampeded toward the Democrats this November,” Salon declared after Obama’s 2008 win. “If that pattern continues, the GOP is doomed to 40 years of wandering in a desert.”

The increasing aggression and stridency of the Left is not monocausal, but surely the sense that the Left didn’t need white voters anymore (specifically, white Christians) helps explain why even supposedly moderate lefties did almost nothing to rein in or dissociate themselves from the extremists on campus, in Black Lives Matter, etc.

I’ve mentioned before how the very possibility of divorce makes marriage itself worse. Marriage requires total dedication, a lot of compromise, and self-denial. And fidelity in marriage requires us not to even acknowledge that there are options besides sticking around. Once you commit to be with someone, you think of every reason why you should be with them. You cultivate the love that you have; you see your spouse through Marriage Goggles.

But once you start thinking about divorce, you take the Marriage Goggles off. You may even put Divorce Goggles on. This is how marriages end.

The Left and Right in this country used to at least try to live with one another. But then the Left’s eye began to wander to those younger, more exotic and exciting immigrants. They work so hard for such low wages! They appreciate the Left’s ideas in a way the Right never could! They make such delicious sandwiches!

But what happens when bringing someone new into the home doesn’t result in the eviction of the old spouse?