The Left’s Victimhood Is About Strategy not Sympathy

Just when you thought the Left’s victimhood fetish couldn’t go further, it has. Welcome to the Lindsay Clancy trial, where a mother who clearly killed her three children avoided conviction on a hung jury. The Left cheered on Clancy and the wheels of justice stalled. (RELATED: Five Quick Things: Is the Lindsay Clancy Case a Windfall for the GOP?)

Clancy is hardly alone on the Left’s victimization of criminals. There is Luigi Mangione, who stalked and killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. There is Tyler Robinson, Charlie Kirk’s killer. Tomorrow there will be another. (RELATED: Iryna Zarutska, Lindsay Clancy, and the Politics of Who Gets Mourned)

Nor are killers the Left’s only outlet for their victimization fetish. Virtually across the board, the Left rush to thrust the martyr’s palm into the hand of all they champion. To be a leftist cause is to be a victim. Just ask Hamas, the 9/11 terrorists, Iran, Cuba, Venezuela’s Maduro: the list is endless and ever-growing.

Victimization gives the Left distinct advantages in any confrontation they choose to provoke.

Yet those who mistakenly believe the Left simply like casting themselves as victims overlook a larger strategy. Victimization gives the Left distinct advantages in any confrontation they choose to provoke. (RELATED: Racism, Victimhood, and Louisiana v. Callais)

First, it puts the Left’s opponents on the defensive. By confusing a debate, or seizing control of its narrative, the Left’s opponents are forced to divert their attention away from the real issues and spend time knocking down the Left’s victimhood assertions.

If the victimhood argument gains traction with the public, all the better for the Left. It shifts the grounds of debate away from terrain that is almost always unfavorable to them — after all, you don’t try to redefine arguments where you already hold the stronger position.

Second, their victimhood strategy divides their opponents, while uniting the Left. At least some of the public will buy into the Left’s victimhood argument (being told you are not responsible for your problems and predicaments is addictively alluring). Often, a not insignificant segment. This is important under any circumstances: more support is always better. But this is particularly important for the Left because they are America’s smallest ideological group by a substantial margin.

To understand how small America’s Left is, just look at 2024’s exit polls. Although the Left has been rising, “liberals” still only constituted 23 percent of 2024’s voters. That means that 77 percent, over three-quarters, of the country is not of their bent. (RELATED: Why All Leftism Is Now Far Left)

And the further left on the ideological spectrum the Left goes, the smaller a percentage of the electorate they are. Liberals are just a subset of Democrats (who were 31 percent of the 2024 voters); so-called “progressives” are just a subset of liberals (Pew Research found they were just 7 percent of U.S. adults).

The Left therefore cannot hope to win a debate against the rest of America’s ideological spectrum. And they need to gain far more supporters than any other ideological group to reach a majority. So, for the Left to win, they must divide their opponents: their victimhood strategy is a great way to start.

Third, if victimhood is granted to the Left, they claim the status inherently entitles them to compensatory benefits. If you have been wronged, then you are entitled to compensation, to be made whole. It is no mystery that America’s Left wants a redistribution of the nation’s wealth, resources, and power. Their victimhood strategy plays perfectly to this, the Left’s ultimate goal.

The establishment of victimhood also gives the Left an opportunity to promise goodies to their supporters. And what better way is there to attract supporters than to promise people that you can give them something for nothing? If you don’t believe this, notice how many mainstream commercial ads entice the general public with offers of “free” services, estimates, gifts, and more. (RELATED: After We Laugh, We Must Treat DSA Program As Deadly Serious)

Fourth, the Left’s victimhood strategy absolves them from failure. It is the perfect excuse for why their policies always fail. “The system was stacked against us; we’re victims after all.” “We could never have succeeded because we were so victimized.” And “we would have succeeded had we not been so victimized.”

Notice too, how the Left’s victimhood is perpetual. So onerous is their victim status, they can never be made whole. Therefore, their victimhood continues indefinitely; it is never something purely encased in the past but lives on into perpetuity. It follows that there is never an endpoint at which compensation should end. The Left will simply let you know when enough is enough.

Finally, victimhood justifies their actions. The Left justifies all their actions as righteous retaliation because they are victims. Because they are aggrieved, in their mind, they can do no wrong — even when they are doing wrong. Civil disobedience, interference with law enforcement, criminal acts — increasingly even violence and assassination — the Left claims all as their due. Their victimhood strategy therefore gives a carte blanche to the Left.

Unquestionably, the Left enjoys the role of victim. By predilection, they migrate to it. But they also come to victimhood by premeditation; it does much more for the Left than makes them feel good. It advantages them, even as it disadvantages the rest of us.

READ MORE from J.T. Young:

Republicans Can’t Win Telling Only Half the Story

Democrats’ Failure Runs Far Deeper Than Graham Platner

Debunking the American Left’s Favorite Lie

J.T. Young is the author of the recent book, Unprecedented Assault: How Big Government Unleashed America’s Socialist Left from RealClear Publishing. Follow him on Substack.