Gage Skidmore
The past few weeks have seen some of the most contentious showdowns over President Trump's cabinet picks.The past few weeks have seen some of the most contentious showdowns over President Trump’s cabinet picks, with lawmakers putting the clamps on HHS Secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and prospective Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
Counterintuitively, these historically left-wing figures have drawn more fire from left-wing media than known conservatives like Marco Rubio and Pam Bondi. This is due to the quasi-religious nature of leftism, in which defection is viewed as the most serious offense one can commit. Our two-party system would do well to eschew this mindset.
Though many leftists would deny any religious affiliation, the ideology certainly has some parallels to established religion. Christians believe our rights come from God; the Left sees them as coming from the state. Catholics adhere to a holy calendar, celebrating periods like Advent and Lent; the Left recognizes Pride Month. Jews look forward to Yom Kippur; Leftists observe Trans Day of Visibility and Earth Day. Blasphemy is taboo for many world religions; political correctness governs speech in a similarly authoritarian manner for the Left.
Perhaps most evident is the puritanical nature of the Left. An off-color X post, a bad joke, or a slight deviation from the party line is enough for a leftist to be cast aside. Democratic New York mayor Eric Adams is an excellent example of this as he fell from grace by pointing out that high levels of illegal immigration were simply unsustainable for his city and its citizens.
In Dante’s Inferno, based on a medieval Catholic worldview, the deepest depths of Hell are reserved for “the treacherous against lords and benefactors.” In daring to work with President Trump or find common ground, former Democrats like Gabbard and RFK have committed the gravest of sins against leftist hegemony, and are treated accordingly.
Trump’s cabinet picks aren’t the only targets of this ire. Joe Rogan, famously a “Bernie bro” in 2016, was brutally mocked for questioning the “settled science” governing the COVID-19 pandemic. Tim Pool, a former supporter of Occupy Wall Street, has been called a far-right bigot. Even President Trump himself was once a Democrat, and he’s maligned every day as not just misguided, but evil by the American Left.
This puritanism reveals something true about politics that the Democrats have forgotten: It’s a consensus-building business. No party can govern a country as vast and diverse as the United States without working across the aisle.
<img alt captext="Gage Skidmore” class=”post-image-right” src=”https://conservativenewsbriefing.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/rfk-jr-and-tulsi-gabbard-the-latest-pariahs-of-leftism.jpg” width=”450″>The Democratic Party has weakened itself considerably by operating as a religion and not as a party. They’ve cast aside lifelong Democrats in their religious fervor, people who were perhaps supportive of big-government policies but rolled their eyes at the “sacraments” of getting the 16th COVID booster or attending a Pride parade.
The Left thought it could sacrifice these heretics on the altar of cancel culture, but they didn’t count on one thing: the Republican Party emerging as a “big tent” party. Republicans, led by President Trump, have largely welcomed these pariahs of the Left, and used that to their advantage in the 2024 election.
These exiled heretics are especially dangerous to the Left because they represent a better kind of politics. One that is less about an all-or-nothing virtue signaling approach, and more about making deals and working together wherever possible.
But Republicans shouldn’t rest on their laurels. The same puritanical tendency bubbles up from time to time on the Right. I experienced it myself when I wrote a piece decrying Matt Gaetz’s nomination for Attorney General. For such a slight deviation of opinion, commenters insinuated that I wasn’t a “real conservative.”
Political parties should operate as such. Despite their frequent use of symbols and icons, they ought not be religions in themselves. Rather, they’re vessels to move the needle Left or Right depending on the will of the people. To do that, they have to make compromises and be willing to set aside differences in one area for the sake of getting things done.
If our political parties continue to cultivate increasingly-small sects of true believers, they’ll continue to hemorrhage supporters until they’re unable to accomplish this core function. The parties will push further right and left, leaving most Americans in the middle, partyless and forced to choose between two extremes that don’t match their views.
Every election would become a choice between the lesser of two evils, two monolithic parties embedded at each end of the political spectrum putting up party-line-regurgitators. The victors would win the privilege of going to Washington, D.C. and virtue-signaling for their terms, never accomplishing anything because they’re too busy demonstrating their fealty to the “Left” or the “Right.”
Varying opinions are an inescapable reality, and political parties must parse through this variety to find where the overlap exists. Then, issue by issue, they can advance a policy agenda. But making an ally on immigration and tax policy persona non grata because of their stance on abortion would be counterproductive. It’s time for our political parties to make inroads and alliances, not excommunications.
Ethan Watson is a Young Voices contributor and prospective law student. He holds a degree in Political Science from the University of Kansas, as well as a degree in Accounting. His commentary has appeared in RealClearPolitics, The Daily Caller, and InsideSources. He has also appeared on the David Webb Show and Point of View Radio. Follow him on X: @erwatson13.
Image: Gage Skidmore
