What's Up Doc?

Why is it that Democrats seem never to miss a chance to ally with the worst in society?

I struggle to understand why some Democrats seem quick to defend deeply flawed individuals or causes. Take Washington state’s law that eases penalties for child murderers if they’ve killed two or fewer kids—hardly a sympathetic group. Or consider Mahmoud Khalil, whom CNN calls “a prominent Palestinian activist who helped lead Columbia University’s student protests for a Gaza ceasefire,” while glossing over his calls to dismantle Western civilization and his support for Hamas.

What drives this?

Two factors stand out to me. First, some Democrats seem to view laws, or at least certain ones, as tools that create criminals rather than prevent crime. It’s not a dominant belief, but it surfaces in critiques of power and inequality. Pair that with a messiah complex - a belief they’re uniquely positioned to save or redeem - and it starts to explain the pattern.

The “law as oppressor” idea has roots. Historically, vagrancy laws in medieval England or post-Civil War U.S. targeted the jobless and homeless, effectively criminalizing poverty. Critics like Howard Zinn highlight how Southern “Black Codes” after 1865 punished minor acts (like loitering) to trap freed slaves in convict leasing - prisons filled with Black men for petty offenses by 1890, a setup some call intentional. The 13th Amendment’s punishment exception didn’t help. Anarchists like Lysander Spooner, writing in the 1800s, saw laws as elite weapons to control the masses, pointing to victimless crimes like drug possession. The War on Drugs backs this up: arrests jumped from 581,000 in 1980 to over 1.5 million by 2019 (Sentencing Project), mostly for possession, hitting minority communities hardest despite similar usage rates across races. French philosopher (and alleged serial abuser of young boys) Michel Foucault, in Discipline and Punish (1975), argued modern law defines “deviant” to manage society, not just stop crime - think speeding tickets padding budgets more than fixing roads.

Skeptics push back. Most see laws as protecting order, with criminals arising from breaking them - FBI’s 2022 data shows 1.2 million violent crimes, suggesting intent matters. The “law creates criminals” view stays fringe, popular among radicals or reformists.

Then there’s the messiah complex: a psychological urge to save others, often tied to grandiosity or narcissism. It’s not a formal diagnosis, but picture someone convinced they alone can fix society’s woes, ignoring limits or input - like a politician framing every fight as their heroic crusade. It might stem from insecurity masked as confidence or empathy gone overboard. Studies (e.g., Leadership Quarterly, 2019) link it to narcissistic traits, seen in about 1% of people (NIMH). Think Jim Jones preaching salvation to death in 1978, or subtler cases of self-appointed saviors.

I’m no expert in law or psychology, but something pushes certain Democrats to back questionable figures or groups when much of society sees them as indefensible. Maybe it’s these dynamics - or maybe it’s something else entirely.

Maybe it is just that they see Republicans – or anyone who does not share 100% of their values – as evil and society sees opposing evil as laudable.