sublimeone
Footballguy
I've come across some good reading the last couple of days regarding liberal intolerance and how the authors believe it has impacted our current state of affairs. I've ascribed to much of what these authors are saying for a while but it's nice to see some introspection on the left. I don't believe this is the whole ball of wax explaining the Trump presidency but I think it's impact has been extremely significant.
It seems to me that sometime after GWB was elected to a second term the left decided shift course. The new strategy was going to be ridicule (Alinsky tactics). People on the right, i.e. conservatives, were ignorant, redneck, xenophobic, homophobic, racist, Nascar watching, obese, inbreds and didn't even deserve a seat at the table. They deserved nothing but mockery and should be treated with nothing but contempt.
Jon Stewart was the leader of the movement and throughout this time a group parrots arose in media, Hollywood, punditry and trickled down to normal people who took to Facebook, Twitter, message boards, Reddit, real life etc... and mimicked what they were seeing. The left convinced themselves they were intellectually superior and openly ridiculed anyone right-leaning including friends and family.... but the right didn't find it funny. People on the right were being bullied, marginalized and major resentment was brewing.
The cool kids, backed by the media, academia & Hollywood have been bullying, mocking and ridiculing a group of people, who comprise roughly half of the electorate, over their sincere concerns and beliefs for over a decade. Trump enters the picture, and he's the biggest bully of them all and large swath (45% of republicans, if you're going by primary results) can't get enough. Finally they have someone on their side who is capable of standing up to the bullies and those people get him nominated. Most of the rest of the right coalesced behind Trump in the general, not because they agreed with some of the crazier things he has said, but because they don't take a lot of what he says literally (and they hated HRC)... and there you have it.
Consider that republicans dominated all the mid-term elections since Obama took office but Obama wins handily when he runs for election. Why? It's the same reason why Obama has something like a 55% approval rating but only 30% of Americans believe our country is headed in the right direction. PEOPLE LIKE OBAMA. That's it. So Obama's incredible likability has provided cover for all the nastiness that has become the left. This cover caused the left to miss the fact that they were undermining their own cause to such a degree it made it possible for someone like Trump to get elected. This election is not the first evidence of this effect. I believe it played hugely in the republicans gaining control of both houses of congress and the current dominance by republicans in state governments.
Recommended reading:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/opinion/sunday/a-confession-of-liberal-intolerance.html?_r=0
http://www.vox.com/2016/4/21/11451378/smug-american-liberalism
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/commentary-the-unbearable-smugness-of-the-press-presidential-election-2016/
It seems to me that sometime after GWB was elected to a second term the left decided shift course. The new strategy was going to be ridicule (Alinsky tactics). People on the right, i.e. conservatives, were ignorant, redneck, xenophobic, homophobic, racist, Nascar watching, obese, inbreds and didn't even deserve a seat at the table. They deserved nothing but mockery and should be treated with nothing but contempt.
Jon Stewart was the leader of the movement and throughout this time a group parrots arose in media, Hollywood, punditry and trickled down to normal people who took to Facebook, Twitter, message boards, Reddit, real life etc... and mimicked what they were seeing. The left convinced themselves they were intellectually superior and openly ridiculed anyone right-leaning including friends and family.... but the right didn't find it funny. People on the right were being bullied, marginalized and major resentment was brewing.
The cool kids, backed by the media, academia & Hollywood have been bullying, mocking and ridiculing a group of people, who comprise roughly half of the electorate, over their sincere concerns and beliefs for over a decade. Trump enters the picture, and he's the biggest bully of them all and large swath (45% of republicans, if you're going by primary results) can't get enough. Finally they have someone on their side who is capable of standing up to the bullies and those people get him nominated. Most of the rest of the right coalesced behind Trump in the general, not because they agreed with some of the crazier things he has said, but because they don't take a lot of what he says literally (and they hated HRC)... and there you have it.
Consider that republicans dominated all the mid-term elections since Obama took office but Obama wins handily when he runs for election. Why? It's the same reason why Obama has something like a 55% approval rating but only 30% of Americans believe our country is headed in the right direction. PEOPLE LIKE OBAMA. That's it. So Obama's incredible likability has provided cover for all the nastiness that has become the left. This cover caused the left to miss the fact that they were undermining their own cause to such a degree it made it possible for someone like Trump to get elected. This election is not the first evidence of this effect. I believe it played hugely in the republicans gaining control of both houses of congress and the current dominance by republicans in state governments.
Recommended reading:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/opinion/sunday/a-confession-of-liberal-intolerance.html?_r=0
http://www.vox.com/2016/4/21/11451378/smug-american-liberalism
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/commentary-the-unbearable-smugness-of-the-press-presidential-election-2016/
