I’m afraid I did not find this piece very satisfying. You spend a LOT of time railing against the centrists. That seems to me like a wasted effort. I think most of the people you call centrists are probably anti-Trump so why are you antagonizing them so much and dismissing their efforts? Your first step of essentially dissociating yourself from potential allies seems pretty dumb.

Second, you imply that only the left can “defend our democratic institutions”, that’s nonsense. Even if I accept your thesis that centrists are weak and that we should not be afraid of partisanship, I think this kind of *needless* partisanship cannot possibly help. Plenty of people across the spectrum dislike Trump and his authoritarianism. Again, why alienate them by implying that the left or the only possible saviors of our society?

Finally, you utterly fail to address the single biggest issue with “the left”, political correctness. If the left really wants to “rebuild” itself, it needs to show all these safe space seeking, trigger warning craving, micro-aggressed snowflakes the door. It is precisely these people who attempt to suppress any kind of political discourse via hooliganism that have driven otherwise left leaning people like me (and many others) toward the center. The irony is that we generally support your goals, but we cannot abide by such tactics. How about you take aim at THOSE PEOPLE instead of spending half of your time admonishing people in the center as ineffective? It is precisely these cry bullies on the left who have galvanized support for Trump and his authoritarian policies. Get rid of them and you’ll be half way to solving half your problems. If you refuse to address the destructive aspects of your own tribe, you are no better than the Republicans who are willing to look past Trump’s horrendous policies and conflicts of interest just for the sake of winning.