Ana Kasparian and the left-to-right transition exercise

Politics is not theology. Whether that’s the good news or the bad news, or for which side, is hard to know.

Theology has to do with eternal divine truths. It has the advantage and disadvantage of not being verifiable in the material world.

The 11^th-century philosopher and theologian Anselm of Canterbury (1033–1109) famously described theology as “faith seeking understanding.” And faith, as St. Paul defined it (or whoever it was that wrote the New Testament book of Hebrews) is “the evidence of things not seen.”

Politics is also intensely concerned with ideas, principles, and ideology. But it at least takes place in the material world. Which is not to say that it’s always more reality-based than theology. Or even that it invokes more passion than religious beliefs do. But at least political theories and practical politics have to do with interests, values, and desires of real people living in actual material conditions.

Which means that politics deals with goals and interests in the context of particular political events like elections, wars, economic cycles. And it always involves concrete events situated in complicated and ever-changing contexts. So even people who agree on political ideologies and programs still have to wrestle with tactics, programmatic appeals, prioritization of issues, advertising strategies, fundraising.

All this is by way of contextualizing the ever-intriguing story of the political converts who used to be leftists who pivot to become rightwingers. Right-to-left pivots also happen, of course. But there’s generally more money to be made and attention to be grabbed in the left-to-right version.

The Never Trumpers are perhaps an exception to that trend. But the NTers like David Frum and Liz Cheney for the most part don’t claim to be ideological converts. They are reacting to the practical reality that Trump wants to destroy the democratic, Constitutional system and they aren’t ready to do that. At least not with a sociopathic freak leading the charge. But they haven’t suddenly converted to Keynesianism or become supporters of labor unions, much less adopters of the Marxism and Communism of which the unhinged Trumpistas accused Kamala Harris and the Democrats of being. NTers like Cheney and Butcher’s Bill Kristol make effective campaigners for Harris because they are Republicans, and Republicans believe in fighting for their own side – which in their case in 2024 is the Harris campaign. In contrast to Democrats, who so often are chronically reluctant to fight for their own side.

This applies to the conversion narrative that Ana Kasparian, longtime co-anchor to Cenk Uygur on The Young Turks (TYT) network. I’ve been following them ever since they were on Al Gore’s Current TV network. Gore himself sometimes appeared with Cenk on the network. Former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm – one of my own favorite US politicians – also had a program on Current TV and would sometimes appear with Cenk, as I recall.

This is a report from over a year ago from The Hill on the early stages of Ana’s conversion process¹:

Ana is currently attracting attention as the latest very visible figure among the ideological left in the US who is making a distinct pivot to the right. Joe Mayall recently analyzed her particular conversion process in a Substack column. As he explains, Ana’s melodramatic justification for “leaving the left” (as it’s called) isn’t terribly convincing, i.e., that some online critics were mean to her:

Here’s the thing: people are mean and stupid online, regardless of their political beliefs. … [But] As a professional political commentator, you shouldn’t be changing your views on immigration, affirmative action, or housing because StalinLover420 told you to fuck off. Your politics should be based on critical analysis of the material world around you, not the digital insults of an account that can be blocked with the click of a button. Anyone who shares their political opinions, whether on a radio show, podcast, YouTube channel, or Substack article, will get criticism and blowback. It will come from all sides of the political arena, even those they’re most closely aligned with. It’s happened to me many times. That’s part of the job. It always has been and always will be. Criticism, even when mean and overwhelming, is not a valid excuse to cast your political beliefs into the wind, just as a baseball player who strikes out and is booed by hometown fans isn’t justified in throwing the game to his opponents.² [my emphasis]

More importantly, Mayall explains that the quality of Ana’s reporting has visibly slipped to conform to the not-entirely-fact-based claims that are unfortunately so often standard fare for the rightwing “influencers.” One thing I’ve always appreciated about TYT’s main coverage is that while generally taking a progressive viewpoint consistent with the Bernie Sanders Democrats, they have been careful about factual reporting.

But Ana has now adopted a conservative law-and-order perspective on the homeless and on crime issues more generally. And she no longer parses the factual information as carefully as had been the TYT standard for years. Mayall provides an example of how Ana gave a standard rightwing spin on a story about a Culver City, CA high school making changes to its honors program, apparently being sloppy about the facts of the program while giving it a typical Republicans spin as an example of political correctness gone awry. She has also boosted Trump’s widely exaggerated spin on Venezuelan gangs in Aurora, Colorado.³

To experience Ana’s present approach to reporting, you can check it out on TYT or on her new Substack column, Unaligned. It’s a standard approach for the left-to-right rebranding to start “just asking questions” about some aspects of left positions. Of course, anyone familiar with left political environments knows that fretting over the nuances of particular left positions is part what the left is about. And that’s not distinct to the left, however narrowly or broadly you want to define it. That happens across the political spectrum in all kinds of politics-related groups and organizations. Because “factions,” as Jimmy Madison referred to them long ago, are a characteristic of the human enterprise known as politics.⁴

Facts matter in politics, at least in the sense that actual policies matter in the real world. And any constructive brand of politics at the very least benefits by operating with facts. When it comes to faith, “the evidence of things not seen,” facts may not be so relevant. Although in actual ecclesiastical institutions run for actual mortals, they matter at lot even there.

One of the most (in)famous left-to-right political conversions in US political history was that of Whittaker Chambers, a former Communist and Soviet spy who later switched sides and became the accuser of Alger Hiss in a celebrated scandal in the early post-World War II era. Chambers got a lot of attention in what became known as the “Pumpkin Papers” affair, which had the effect of making a young California Congressman named Richard Nixon a popular figure in the Republican Party.

Chambers became a conservative icon, including for movie start Ronald Reagan. Reagan also did his own version of a left-to-right conversion. One of Reagan’s favorite lines was, "I didn't leave the Democratic Party. The party left me."

More recent left-to-right transitioners like Ana Kasparian are also known to use such lines. As her critics have noted, she has made a big deal about what the right calls Political Correctness, expressing outrage that someone might refer to her as a “birthing person,” a term sometimes used as a gender-inclusive term for trans men.

This is one corner of a larger and longer conversation over “identity politics,” which some on the left and center-left argue can be a distraction from class politics and therefore an unnecessary hindrance to rallying support from working-class people. I won’t try to summarize the long and complicated history of that dispute here except to say that, well, it’s long and complicated. And that people who make a “left” case that progressive politics should avoid confronting racism, discrimination against women, or xenophobia – often end up doing the rightwing’s work for them. Which also provide a route for left-to-right conversion narratives.

1. TYT's Ana Kasparian Leaving The Left? Host Admits 'I DON'T KNOW What To Label Myself Anymore'. The Hill 07/05/2023. (Accessed: 2024-23-10).

2. Mayall, Joe (2024): After Years of Criticizing “Why I Left the Left,” Ana Kasparian Leaves the Left. JoeWrote 10/10/2024. (Accessed: 2024-23-10).

3. Kasparian, Ana (2024): Martha Raddatz Downplays Gangs Taking Over Just a 'Handful of Apartment Complexes' in Aurora. Unaligned 10/17/2024. (Accessed: 2024-23-10).

4. Madison, James (1787): Federalist 10: The Union as a Safeguard Against Domestic Faction and Insurrection. <https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed10.asp> (Accessed: 2024-23-10).