Among the more curious and revealing remonstrations from the Cultural Left in the aftermath of the 2016 presidential election is its deeming the victory of Donald Trump to be “not normal.” Curious because progressives project great concern over shielding individuals from the wrath of a paternalistic society that would impose on everyone its heteronormative (and many other) norms rather than “celebrating diversity”; revealing because it suggests that progressives are actually more concerned with replacing society’s norms with norms of their own.

The totalitarian streak on the Left is universal, as is the contempt with which it holds anyone who strays from its current orthodoxy. Consider the loathing expressed by Remainers for the majority of UK electorate who voted to exit the European Union in the aftermath of the Brexit vote. It is in the same vein as Hillary Clinton’s disparaging “deplorable” comment about Trump voters or Obama’s slicker-than-thou dismissiveness for voters who “cling to guns or religion.”

In all three instances the political establishment — left-of-center virtually by default — performs a switcheroo and then proceeds to lambast anyone who refuses to take their eyes off the pea. From the Democrats’ Russian meddling meme to Labour’s “soft Brexit” — whatever that means — progressive rhetoric suggests that in a sane world, un-woke voters should be subject to the kind of Three-Fifths Compromise applied to American slaves during the Constitutional Convention.