A reckoning is coming for blue-checked progressives


President Biden may be a lot of things, but Extremely Online isn't one of them. In fact, his allies have often boasted that he won the White House precisely by ignoring progressive chatter on the internet.
"There is a conversation that's going on on Twitter that they don't care about," a Democratic strategist said during the 2020 presidential campaign. "They won the primary by ignoring all of that. The Biden campaign does not care about the critical race theory-intersectional Left that has taken over places like the New York Times." This attitude, the argument goes, went on to serve them well in November.
But some of the people who have gone to work for Biden care a great deal about the Twitter conversation, in which they are enthusiastic participants. And it keeps getting them in trouble.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
New White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre may be a subdued presence in the briefing room, but she certainly popped off a good bit on Twitter (and a handful of MSNBC appearances). Those tweets about stolen elections and the alleged racism of a network she now takes questions from got attention. Perhaps someday someone will even ask her about them!
Neera Tanden's nomination for Office of Management and Budget director was withdrawn in no small part because of mean tweets that offended various lawmakers. She now must confine her employment opportunities to parts of the White House that do not require Senate confirmation.
Tweets, and comments about Twitter, played an outsized role in the ouster of Nina Jankowicz and the shuttering of the government disinformation board she ever-so-briefly helmed.
Generations of Democrats from the age of 45 on down are going to have plenty of controversial opinions that they have painstakingly preserved on social media. It will be easy for their opponents in Congress and the press to track them down. It will come back to haunt them as surely as that college Facebook picture of a keg stand that is now being viewed by a consulting firm's human resources department.
Republicans are not immune from this trend either. Some Trump appointees ran into a version of this problem too, though usually lower-level ones. The former president's real-time Twitter habit was a constant source of controversy until his pre-Elon Musk ban. But younger people will hold higher positions in the next GOP administration and see their profiles scoured for wrongthink.
Blue checks won't be allowed to go unchecked.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
W. James Antle III is the politics editor of the Washington Examiner, the former editor of The American Conservative, and author of Devouring Freedom: Can Big Government Ever Be Stopped?.
-
Ghislaine Maxwell: angling for a Trump pardon
Talking Point Convicted sex trafficker's testimony could shed new light on president's links to Jeffrey Epstein
-
Does depopulation threaten humanity?
Talking Points Falling birth rates could create a 'smaller, sadder, poorer future'
-
Gavin Newsom mulls California redistricting to counter Texas gerrymandering
TALKING POINTS A controversial plan has become a major flashpoint among Democrats struggling for traction in the Trump era
-
The Supreme Court and Congress have Planned Parenthood in their crosshairs
Talking Points Trump's budget bill and the court's ruling threaten abortion access
-
The last words and final moments of 40 presidents
The Explainer Some are eloquent quotes worthy of the holders of the highest office in the nation, and others... aren't
-
How Zohran Mamdani's NYC mayoral run will change the Democratic Party
Talking Points The candidate poses a challenge to the party's 'dinosaur wing'
-
Is Trump's military parade 'just a parade'?
Talking Point Critics see an 'echo of authoritarianism'
-
Is Trump's LA troop deployment about order or authoritarianism?
Talking Points President: 'We're going to have troops everywhere.'