Posted on 01/28/2017 5:23:17 AM PST by raccoonradio
So much for unity – not that it was ever a probability after the “unprecedented” election of Donald Trump. Trump did his share to undermine it, of course. Before he took office this week, he managed to get into a pointless battle with U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., the civil rights icon; alarm European allies; and irritate adversaries like China.
It was enough to give dozens of Democrats an excuse, as if they needed one, to refuse to attend the inaugural. But Trump is not the only reason for the toxic divisions at the launch of his presidency.
Why Hillary Clinton lost the presidential election is still being hotly debated. But to those of us who aren’t in the Washington bubble or members of the media or government elite, it continues to become clearer with every week that passes.
Let us count the ways.
Start with the absurd claim that liberals are big supporters of diversity and that’s why they have to attack conservative Trump voters. No, they’re not. Liberals are enemies of diversity.
Sure, they practically demand quotas on things like gender, gender identity, race, sexual preference and ethnic background. But that kind of surface diversity is the only kind they will tolerate. Alleged liberals or “progressives” (their preferred term) are both contemptuous and hostile to a diversity of thought or belief.
Before the election, Clinton famously called half of Trump supporters “a basket of deplorables.” Not the best line for somebody who claimed she was going to campaign for every vote. But she was only reflecting how her supporters feel, that those who don’t pledge allegiance to the Democratic agenda are essentially knuckle-draggers.
The litany of insults became so common that it became a badge of honor for Clinton opponents. They turned it into an acronym: SIXHIRB - sexist, intolerant, xenophobic, homophobic, Islamophobic, racist and bigoted. As Clinton and President Obama said a number of times, those who disagree with them are “not who we are as Americans.”
Got that? You don’t even belong in America. No wonder the heartland was willing to vote for anybody but Hillary.
Then there is arrogance. Obama campaigned - and got wall-to-wall media coverage - for Hillary on the theme that “I will not be on the ballot, but everything we’ve done is going to be on the ballot.”
Then, after Trump won, he said, “I believe that we have better ideas. But I also believe that good ideas don’t matter if people don’t hear them.”
Didn’t hear them? When they were on the news every night? The reality is that, in his view, it’s impossible for anyone with a brain to disagree with him if they listen to him.
I witnessed that mindset multiple times at the local government level. People would come before a city council seeking something – a policy change, rejection of a proposed development – and if they didn’t get their way they would insist that the council members “didn’t listen to us.” In Obamaworld and Clintonworld, the thinking is the same. They don’t believe it is possible to hear what they are saying, consider it, then reject it. Perhaps it is Obama, Clinton and their supporters who are not listening.
Progressives view cultural conservatives not as people with valid political opinions but as an unenlightened, exotic alien species who need to be told how to vote or not allowed to vote.
That arrogance trickles down to social media. Liberals forever talk about how “divisive” conservatives are, but more of them unfriend their Facebook “friends” who defend Trump than the other way around.
There is incivility. They complain that Trump is not civil, and most of the time they’re right. But then they are as ugly or worse than he is.
There is a saying, backed up by vast evidence, that “conservatives think liberals are wrong. Liberals think conservatives are evil.”
Slate columnist and CBS analyst Jamelle Boule wrote, “there is no such thing as a good Trump voter. People voted for a racist who promised racist outcomes. They don’t deserve your empathy.” Check out the video of the woman who threw a toddler-level tantrum when members of Wisconsin’s Electoral College delegation met to certify the results for Trump. “You sold out our country,” the woman screamed. “Every one of you, you’re pathetic. You don’t deserve to be in America. This is my America! This is MY America!”
I hope those two, and thousands of others, remembered to pick up their “Love Trumps Hate” signs after expressing themselves with the kind of dignity and compassion they claim to be all about.
And then there is hypocrisy: Recall how Clinton supporters, confident that she would win, worried aloud that the loser would contest the results and undermine not just confidence in the system but democracy itself? They were right. It just wasn’t Trump.
Film propagandist Michael Moore, cinema’s most successful purveyor of fake news, offered to pay the $1,000 fine for any faithless Republican elector who would vote against the will of the majority in his or her state. Moore is worth an estimated $50 million. Imagine the reverse – that Clinton lost the popular vote but won on electoral votes, and a conservative multi-millionaire offered to cover the fines of any electors who voted against her.
Remember how ferocious they were about how the Supreme Court needed a replacement for the late Justice Antonin Scalia? Now they say they are prepared to block any high court nominees for perhaps all of the Trump presidency. There is more, but you get the idea. America is divided – deeply divided. But it is not all the fault of Trump or his supporters.
Leftists, and Communists. Not Liberals.
Back when Trent Lott was in the Senate, Paul Wellstone from Minnesota, a prominent Dem died. Lott went to his funeral.
The Dems, led by the man’s son, turned the funeral into a political rally condemning Lott and others vociferously during what was supposed to be the eulogy.
Embarrassing for them and prescient for those paying attention.
The battle, actually, was quite instructive and Lewis is an icon only in the same sense that Madonna is.
Really. It’s like they couldn’t wait to display to the world how vulgar they could be. What happened to women wanting to have just a little class?
The Great Wellstone Funerally !
That was a boon to the GOP, as it occurred right before the 2002 midterms and helped them to regain the Senate (including Wellstone’s seat).
They don’t believe it is possible to hear what they are saying, consider it, then reject it.
There’s a word for people like that.
Not Lunatics but Fanatics.
Like Jihadists right?
tl;dr
I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s not a ‘growing divide’. It’s a war.
The key sentence in that article - No wonder the heartland was willing to vote for anyone but Hillary. Libs are starting to get it.
Bad example. John Lewis attacked Trump, and Trump defended himself. Had Lewis not attacked, Trump probably would not have noticed him. That fact leads me to think that Lewis attacked because he wanted the attention.
There is a saying, backed up by vast evidence, that “conservatives think liberals are wrong. Liberals think conservatives are evil.”
This is incorrect, at least as far as I am concerned. Liberals are not only wrong, but also stupid and evil.
LIberals are the cause of the disunity......always about them, can’t keep their childish mouths shut, whine like crybabies, racist, sexist, et al hypocrites, do as they say, not as they do
They are the scum of the earth
The kid went home crying and never hit my brother again....
I remeber that. Wellstone WAS a prominent Leftist from MN.
That woman should have been tazed within an inch of her life, and then one inch more. The more hilarious thing about that video was the dozen old bluehairs sitting in the middle couldn't get their hate mantra going again and so left abruptly when the remaining LEOs gave them the side-eye.
The absolute worst video was the black woman telling her very young,terrified, son that he had to leave the house because he voted for Trump in a school election.
.
They left knows only the politics of personal destruction, because they have no principles, ideas, or intellect. Dissent is their worst enemy and will be their ultimate downfall.
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