Why is progressive activism so ineffective?

In 2021, a scandal arose in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. It began with the irregular dismissal, by the regional leadership, of a pastor serving a mostly immigrant mission congregation that had more people but less money than many self-governing congregations. An ad hoc investigation by the national church turned up bizarre decisions made by the bishop, some with implications that seemed racially insensitive at best. Claims and counterclaims of racism and transphobia (the bishop was the first transgender person to hold that office in the denomination) escalated. The failure of governance had ugly dimensions. An overwhelmingly White denomination appeared to disregard the dignity of a Latino and Spanish-language community within its fellowship. A church body supported mostly by the middle-class advantages of homeownership and professional employment was stepping on a mission that lacked the defense of financial resources. In the end, the national leadership issued a long and self-flagellating official apology and committed to more anti-racism training.

This was a case study in the limitations of liberal institutions, starting before but intensifying after the 2020 wave of racial justice activism. Material inequality and concrete injustice were answered with symbolism and a call to moral self-improvement, as if more talking, better language, and more classes could overcome the inequalities of a system in which self-governance and independence are goods a congregation can, in effect, pay for. According to Fredrik deBoer, this is not an accident. How Elites Ate the Social Justice Movement seeks to explain why the righteous anger and mass mobilization that swept through the progressive quarters of America in the summer of 2020 receded with little policy change or concrete gains in equality.

DeBoer’s story begins with the failures of the 2003 protests against the Iraq War and the 2011 Occupy Wall Street movement. These movements were unstructured, unfocused, and, in the case of Occupy, unable to formulate clear demands. When the intersection of pandemic disruptions, the crisis mood of the Trump presidency, and the George Floyd killing erupted in unprecedented protests, the maladaptive habits of past movements and contemporary progressive culture were amplified and set loose on a larger public than ever before.