- Equality of opportunity is a fundamental American principle; equality of outcome is not.
- America is not perfect but it is good to be patriotic and proud of the country.
- Discrimination and racism are bad but they are not the cause of all disparities in American society.
- No one is completely without bias but calling all white people racists who benefit from white privilege and American society a white supremacist society is not right or fair.
- America benefits from the presence of immigrants and no immigrant, even if illegal, should be mistreated. But border security is still important, as is an enforceable system that fairly decides who can enter the country.
- Police misconduct and brutality against people of any race is wrong and we need to reform police conduct and recruitment. More and better policing is needed for public safety and that cannot be provided by “defunding the police”.
- There are underlying differences between men and women but discrimination on the basis of gender is wrong.
- There are basically two genders but people who want to live as a gender different from their biological sex should have that right and not be discriminated against. However, there are issues around child consent to transitioning and participation in women’s sports that are complicated and not settled.
- Racial achievement gaps are bad and we should seek to close them. However, they are not due just to racism and standards of high achievement should be maintained for people of all races.
- Language policing has gone too far; by and large, people should be able to express their views without fear of sanction by employer, school, institution or government. Good faith should be assumed, not bad faith.
Given these views, given the very high probability that Republicans will continue to attack the Democratic party on the grounds they are deviating from and even contemptuous of these views and given the likelihood that party activists and intellectuals will continue to press causes that are largely antithetical to these views, the potential vulnerabilities for Democrats are obvious. This will act as a counterweight to Democrats’ attempt to dominate the political center and reap the dividends of successful economic management and benefit distribution.