Left, Left, Left-right-left

Today's Chaitian liberals aren't radical leftists, to be sure, but they're far more offended by conservatives who make a big deal about radical leftists than they are by the radical leftists themselves. They don't seem to mind that the academy is overrun by leftwingers. Indeed, they seem to think that while the Marxists and the critical race theorists go too far, at the end of the day they're on the side of the angels. The radicals' only crime is "caring too much."

And as you say, when it comes to taking them on, TNR-style liberals have lost their fighting spirit. Even a decade ago, TNR regularly hammered the leftist academy. Nowadays it does so far more rarely. The party simply relies too much on the left to make room for that kind of criticism.

Chait's TRB is very well written, but hearing him criticize leftwingers as a way toward demonstrating that rightwingers are fools, is not quite the same thing as taking a principled stand against his enemies to the left, assuming he really has any.