On November 18th of last year, an editorial at the New York Times warned the left against playing into Trump’s hands by acting like deranged lunatics.
Mr. Berlusconi was able to govern Italy for as long as he did mostly thanks to the incompetence of his opposition. It was so rabidly obsessed with his personality that any substantive political debate disappeared; it focused only on personal attacks, the effect of which was to increase Mr. Berlusconi’s popularity. His secret was an ability to set off a Pavlovian reaction among his leftist opponents, which engendered instantaneous sympathy in most moderate voters. Mr. Trump is no different.
We saw this dynamic during the presidential campaign. Hillary Clinton was so focused on explaining how bad Mr. Trump was that she too often didn’t promote her own ideas, to make the positive case for voting for her. The news media was so intent on ridiculing Mr. Trump’s behavior that it ended up providing him with free advertising.
Unfortunately, the dynamic has not ended with the election. Shortly after Mr. Trump gave his acceptance speech, protests sprang up all over America. What are these people protesting against? Whether we like it or not, Mr. Trump won legitimately. Denying that only feeds the perception that there are “legitimate” candidates and “illegitimate” ones, and a small elite decides which is which. If that’s true, elections are just a beauty contest among candidates blessed by the Guardian Council of clerics, just like in Iran.
So, the left was faced with a choice of going for the gratifying thrill of lashing out at Trump with constant, unhinged outrage; or doing the grown-up thing and setting out to make a rational care for opposing those things Trump wants to do. And they chose.
Violence solves nothing. I want a rhino to fuck @SpeakerRyan to death with its horn because it's FUNNY, not because he's a #GOPmurderbro
— Joss Whedon (@joss) January 14, 2017
Nailed it. The Left and the Media learned nothing from the election and continue with the same bizarre political theater that put Trump in office and caused Hillary to lose. Protest marches, personal attacks, Occupy This or That — keep it up, guys.
You’re right. They really can’t help themselves, even the editorial is lunacy. Missing the point of everything, unable to see what was really happening. The partially blind attempting to talk sense to the blind. I see no understanding on the Left. Their fictional worldview is their downfall. Meanwhile, reality marches on – everywhere – & unmitigated power [I’ve been tallying up the individuals of the new cabinet & other assorted lesser agency & military positions forthcoming] is even now descending on DC.
The ability to overcome one’s impulses is what separates humans from animals. How many Democrats would fail that “hand in the box” test from Dune?
You’re right about the left. Trump Derangement Syndrome is already so extreme that the only place it can go is to get even crazier. The Berlusconi comparison is a good one–and it is also one that I referenced in my longish post this summer about backing Trump:
I’ve been working on some ideas for posts again that I need to finish up, but one of them does start from the same premise–the left is revealing themselves so much in their reaction to the impending inauguration of Donald Trump–that it is bound to turn more people off. Even in the first weeks after the election, some on the left were already embarrassed by the ridiculous “safety pin” campaign.
Kurt,
The unhinged response by many “normal” liberals scares me. They are prone to violence because their worldview endorses violence for “The Cause”.
I think it may be be a while till the left mounts a strong opposition to Trump. To do so would require them to become grownups. That will be a long time coming.