Posted on 01/18/2017 8:22:52 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Protesters against Donald Trumps inauguration are flooding to DC and putting forth their best effort to ensure that there will be a second Trump inauguration to protest four years from now.
Im not boasting or gloating about this outcome. I didnt want there to be a first Trump inauguration, and I probably wont be too happy about a second one, either. Yes, a lot can and will go wrong with the Trump administration over the next four years, so its impossible to predict the next election. But everything in the behavior of Trumps opponents on the Left tells us they are determined to learn nothing from this past election and to double down on everything that drove voters into Trumps camp.
Lets start with the fact that protesting a presidential inauguration is a bad idea. The whole purpose of the inauguration is for the great and good in our nations capital to recognize the peaceful transition of power through the electoral process laid down in our hallowed Constitution. So naturally a bunch of Democratic representatives have decided to boycott it, Rep. John Lewis is declaring Trump illegitimate, and busloads of leftists have already headed to DC for a week of protests. A week.
Is this because Trump is somehow supremely, exceptionally awful? But this didnt begin with Trump. It began with George W. Bushs inauguration in 2001, when leftists refused to accept the election result because of the recount in Florida. Yet even after an indisputable re-election victory in 2004, they protested Bush again. It has become their way of coping, I guess, with the rejection of their favored candidate by the American people.
A lot of themI asked someone I know who is goingjust see it as a way of voicing their opposition to Trumps agenda. I hope that makes them feel better. But thats not the way it comes across to everyone else, and the protesters dont really want to see it from anyone elses perspective, and thats their problem.
This doesnt really come across as a protest against Trump. It doesnt even come across as a rejection of the American political system or the process of presidential succession, because if they were really serious about that, they would do a whole lot more than a few lame street theater protests. Instead, this comes across as a temper tantrum against the existence of recalcitrant voters who dont agree with them. Its like the old Bertolt Brecht poem about the attitude of a previous gang of leftists: the desire to dissolve the people and elect another. They are protesting the fact that the rest of the American public isnt good enough for them.
This all comes across as a statement of contempt for anyone whos not on board with their political agenda. Or I should say another statement of contempt for their fellow citizens. Because thats what the Left has been conveying all along, and its part of what drove people to Trump, no matter how inadequate and inappropriate a vessel he is for such a protest vote.
The strength of the religious vote for Trump initially mystified me, until I remembered the ferocity of the Lefts assault on religious believers in the past few yearsthe way they were hounded and vilified for continuing to hold traditional beliefs about marriage that were suddenly deemed backward and unacceptable (at least since 2012, when President Obama stopped pretending to share them). What else do you think drove all those religious voters to support a dissolute heathen?
A lot of Americans have become tired of being called racists and bigots, particularly during the Obama years, when this accusation was trotted out to smack down anyone who opposed the president for any reason. So these voters have taken to completely, reflexively, even obstinately rejecting such accusations, even when theyre valid. Thats a problem, but its not going to be solved by shouting louder.
So what are the inauguration protesters doing? Describing Trump voters as a bunch of fascists and backward redneck bigots whose opinions shouldnt count.
The pressure on entertainers to withdraw from performing at the inauguration under the threat of never working again is indicative of the problem. We can laugh at the Left for living inside a bubble where everyone agrees with them or else. But this increasing ability to rule over miniature one-party states in fields like entertainment and academia is eliminating their capacity to deal with disagreement. Thats the really ominous message of the inauguration protests: that this is all theyve got, that its their only way of communicating with their fellow citizens.
The message of the inauguration protests is that its not a bubble any more, its a bunker. The Left has dug in deep, and all were going to hear from them is shouting. In all likelihood, that will only keep driving voters away.
They would be doing this to any Republican who won.
But none of the other (R) candidates could have ever made it through the attacks during the General Election campaign.
They would do well to consider the extreme “enthusiasm” of the Bikers For Trump.
They are utterly drooling for this day to come.
Excellent story. “Its their only way of communicating with their fellow citizens.” I saw a bumper sticker with Love Trump Hates as if Trump voters are hateful and not loving. It was an old lady with leathery skin from too much sun in an old 1993 Saturn. Sadly, the bumper sticker is her only way to communicate to other Americans.
I agree. I don’t think any other (R) candidate could have withstood the onslaught from all directions. There would have been a slew of apologies and backtracks from every other candidate had they won the primary....just think what some of them would have said during the whole John Lewis dust up.
I’ll admit that I’ve said not so nice things about New Yorkers before, but I think that is exactly the type of personality that was required to bust through the “Politically Correct/Media Bias” Wall. Having manners and being gracious to the left is nearly impossible in the political arena.
Trump was forged in the crucible that is New York City.
Thanks New York!
...I’ll try to be more tolerant of New Yorker’s from now on.
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