Posted on 11/26/2020 4:12:50 AM PST by Kaslin
Forgive the self-indulgence here for a second, but there is a point to be made through it. I’m filling in for the great Rush Limbaugh tomorrow (Friday, so make sure to tune in) and, needless to say, I’m very excited about it. As such, I posted it on social media, once I was allowed to. One of the replies was from my best friend, who happens to be a big liberal. He’s always been a big liberal, I’ve always been a big conservative, it’s never really been an issue…until President Donald Trump.
Sure, we’d argued about politics over the years – when you’ve known someone since high school, you’ve likely argued about everything, at one point or another – but we’ve always been cheerleaders for each other, like friends should be. And he always has been, until now.
He responded with a crack about COVID and misinformation, the details aren’t important. What is important is the tone, it was nasty. We haven’t talked much in a while, he’s a doctor living in New Jersey and is married with two small kids so, as you can imagine, he’s busy and stressed, which is understandable. Still, once Trump was elected, the phone calls became returned less frequently.
I should add that we avoided talking politics as much as possible. Years of friendship, fun, and arguing led us to realize there was no point in fighting about the things we aren’t going to change about each other, there are enough other things to talk about that we didn’t need to start pointless fights. That’s what made his snarky reply to my good news so bothersome.
You don’t have to be happy with a piece of news to be happy for someone over that news, or at least you shouldn’t have to be. Yet, that’s how it seemed.
We’d been there for each other through the deaths of our mothers, various girl problems (and there were a lot of those before we both got married), and everything else life throws at people. But Trump, somehow, was different.
I know I’m not alone. It’s tempting to think it’s simply related to Donald Trump, but I somehow doubt it would’ve been any different had another Republican, any of the dozen or so who ran, had won in 2016 instead of Trump. Something seems to have changed with Democrats in the last two decades.
Yes, Donald Trump tweets rude things, but he hasn’t actually done anything beyond the pale or out of left field that would set him apart, as far as norms go, from any other president. In fact, Barack Obama issued more broad executive orders, bypassing Congress, than President Trump did. Obama created laws on his own, Trump did not. Obama ignored laws with the stroke of his pen, Trump did not.
But after four years of “Trump is a criminal who is using the presidency to make a fortune” and “Trump is a monster, a threat to our democracy” stories from the activist press, liberals have taken it all to heart. It’s a testament to the power of propaganda. When you are preached the worst about people who disagree with you, simply because they disagree with you, you start to believe it.
George W. Bush was Hitler. Then John McCain became Hitler when he won the nomination. Then Mitt Romney inherited the title in 2012. Now leftists yearn for the days of those men because Trump is Hitler. Whoever comes next will be super-Hitler on steroids, no doubt.
What they can’t do is point to any proof of Hitler because it’s stupid.
Calling your opponent Hitler allows you to avoid specific, or even vague approximations, of counter-arguments. It makes the job of media-types easier, presenting alternatives or refuting facts takes effort. A Rachel Maddow monologue, while carefully constructed, is easy to write when you can use a three-second clip here, and an anonymous insinuation there. It’s even easier to digest because it challenges no preconceived notions, only reinforces what the audience wants to believe.
That’s why, when someone like Alyssa Milano, who has spent four years smearing Republicans, comes out and says, “I’d like to extend an olive branch to Trump supporters. I am ready to move #ForwardTogether,” the reception is less than friendly.
We do need to get along, but conservatives aren’t interested in enabling an abusive relationship. We’re not going to apologize that we brought out the worst in the left by existing any more than an abused spouse should apologize for “angering” their partner to the point of getting physical. If leftists want to change the nature of the relationship with conservatives they should start with acknowledging that they’re the ones who soured it in the first place.
On a national level, that seems unlikely since there’s too much money and high ratings in the current relationship. On a personal level, maybe we start by getting over the petty. It is, after all, Thanksgiving. So, until liberals get it (and maybe they never will), I’ll start by ignoring my best friend’s Trump Tourette’s and at least pretend he’s happy for me, unless and until the opposite is proven. I suggest others do the same. We’ve forgiven each other for worse over the years. Politics goes on forever, life does not. When it comes to the people closest to you, it’s too damn short to live it any differently.
I hope they “get it” in spades. And they aren’t “liberals”, certainly not in the classical sense.
During the last five years I have cut loose the remaining two liberals that were a part of my personal life. Don’t miss them at all. Both have turned into raving lunatics #metoo. BLM etc.
I made an error in judgement years ago letting them in. That has been corrected.
Still a few relatives to deal with but they are in isolation at the request of the majority of the family.
She only did that because Joe Cornpopper said it. Otherwise, she would not have said it.
He ain’t no conservative if his best friend is a liberal.
Ah. Peace in our time, eh, Alyssa?
What do we look like? Neville Chamberlain?
Sheeeeyit. As if she knows who Neville Chamberlain was.
I think you have the answer.
The author should ask himself, and answer, at what point his friend ceased being a Liberal and became a Communist.
The liberals are the “fresh” troops of the Communists, and when the author and his friend were young, his friend probably was liberal in his thoughts. But, he did not remain so, and they did not talk about it.
Milano being willing to extend an olive branch warrants two questions:
1. So you’re willing to make nice with a bunch of racist, sexist, xenophobic Hitlers? Really?
2. Or did you know you were spouting lies every time you accused conservatives of those things? And why did you do that?
It is an ill wind that blows no man good.
In my family, the 2 “smartest”, IQ wise, hate, hate hate Trump and are totally against anything Trump does or says.
They are just mean and hateful, their envy is disguised but it eats them alive.
Trump actually has LOST MONEY DUE TO BEING SHUT OUT BY PELOSI OVER COVID CLOSURES.
Yet not 1 of them donate to help people out. PRESIDENT TRUMP GAVE 2 QUARTERS OF HIS PAY, MINUS THE $1.00 he is required to take.
That's where I am. I have jettisoned my three remaining liberal friends. They were shocked. One actually said, "YOU'RE dumping ME??" and it was clear that she felt it should be the other way around. After all, I'm the troglodyte that supports Trump and she's the enlightened liberal who tolerates me. I don't want to be tolerated any more, nor do I appreciate people who drop little hints that I am a racist, but they (apparently) enjoy having a pet monster in their friends category. One in particular made me livid, because she's such a champion for blacks, but when her daughter married one she really curled up her lip about it. And said some pretty nasty things in private.
This whole last year has made me really ask myself, "What made us friends?" We went through things together? So do hostages. I don't know if that means we have to be friends for life if we don't share the same values.
It made her feel good, and it made her feel relevant. That's why she did it. She hasn't a brain cell in her head, so someone had to have told her what to say and do. 8>)
Exactly. Either they are friends with monsters, or they've been on a campaign to gaslight, defame, and bully us for years. Either way, they can drop dead.
Most of my high school friends are now rabid leftists who live in leftist beehives. I cannot relate to them anymore. It has made me realize that high school friends are friends by happenstance — same school, neighborhood, sports, etc. Great memories were created in those years, but those memories cannot be the primary foundation of a healthy friendship later in adult life. After high school we actually get to choose our friends based on things that matter.
“Extending the olive branch to Trump supporters....”
Empty offer, cheap words, cost her nothing, doesn’t really mean it. She publicly needs to apologize sincerely to Trump first and seek his forgiveness. Why apologize to Trump supporters without the prerequisite apology to Trump?
We have a liberal acquaintance who drops by sometimes. Socialist, actually. His wife and I were quilting buddies for many years and never discussed politics. Anyhow, she died, and Bob still drops by. Hubby decreed that he is verboten in our house or even at our front door, so had me order curtains for the door so he can’t see whether or not we’re home.
So I ordered curtains and they’ll arrive tomorrow. Bob came by yesterday. Arrrrgh! He couldn’t have waited TWO DAYS?!?
Would she be extending that same olive branch if she thought Trump had won?
Didn't think so.
I think there was a sea change in 2015. The country was a different place in 2014 than it was in 2016. The cancel culture accelerated at lightning speed and and liberals/progressives became more outright Marxist. Three things precipitated this:
1. The evil racist teenager who shot people in a black church in South Carolina. This horrible crime had an undeniable racist motivation and the left used this smear white Southerners in general, to stir up racial tension, and to “cancel” anything to do with Southern history. This has gone from moving Confederate statues to tearing down statues of Emancipation leaders. Now, history in general is rewritten or censored.
2. The Supreme Court approving of gay “marriage.” This put the left in overdrive. Now, anyone who opposes such “marriages” is the modern equivalent of a segregationist. Since gay “marriage” is seen as a civil right, this has opened up many ways for the left to attack First Amendment rights, including freedom of religion and freedom of speech. First speech was canceled, now people - conservatives and even leftists who don’t follow the Party Line in exact detail, are canceled.
3. The beginning of Trump’s campaign. Trump could have fit in with the world of rich leftist oligarchs but instead he became an unapologetic conservative voice and he fought monopolies and corruption. I think the left feels a real sense of betrayal that Trump could have been one of them - maybe even as a Bloomberg-type establishment Republican, but instead of that Trump stood for the Constitution and for all of the “deplorable” people out there. So the left has an insane rage against Trump that they didn’t really feel for establishment figures like McCain.
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