A past-focused outlook is dominant on both the left and the right. The left looks at the sins of the past, and shapes policy based on those sins. The right looks at the positives of the past, and shapes policy based on those positives. But both are effectively saying that way the world evolves should be tied to how we got here. Neither has a strong future-focused vision of what the world should look like, with policies based on how to get us there.
Each has something they can gesture towards as a plausible future focus, but those things aren’t really motivating their policy preferences. Consider, for example, the left’s desire to address the past sins of racism. They can gesture at a future-focused goal of a more equal world, but their policy preferences don’t reflect that focus, instead emphasizing benefits to groups that have been wronged in the past. A universal basic income would do more to create an equal world than would race-based reparations, but the left would, it seems, prefer the latter, which serve to right a past wrong without a particular focus on whether they are the best and most efficient way to create a certain world.
The right, for it’s part, looks at a past of what you might call small-town social values, those that existed before the snooty left stuck their feminism etc. in everything. But rather than shape policies that encourage that kind of world (preferences for local businesses, support for stay-at-home moms and the elderly), their policy targets the threats of the past: punishing blue states and liberal social programs, and trying to lock down the borders to prevent the diverse society that already exists.
This trend is bad for the world. An over-focus on making sure that people get their just deserts, on closing the barn door after the horse has escaped, leads to a confused set of policies that don’t address any of the looming problems society faces. Policy should be based on what we expect to happen and how we can improve it. History plays a role in that, but not as the main focus of policy. History should only inform expectations; our policies should be future-focused. Both the left and the right need to do more to shape and articulate a vision for the future, and clearly explain how their policies will get us there.