He may be finding himself without a political home. From his recent New York Times column:
Go ahead and denounce Trump’s lies and bigotry. Stand firm against his disastrous policies. But please don’t practice his trick of “otherizing†people into stick-figure caricatures, slurring vast groups as hopeless bigots. We’re all complicated, and stereotypes are not helpful — including when they’re of Trump supporters.
But what if the problem isn’t Trump but the 46% of voters who voted for him? And is it any wonder that I’m concerned that civil war is the logical outcome of our present political circumstances?
Think talks, talk radio, some blogs and cable TV have devoted themselves to tribalism for years now. This isn’t new. Demonizing the other side coupled with epistemic closure is the norm for the most part, for those who engage in politics. It might be worse now, but if it is, it is just a small progression from what it was last year, and the year before.
Steve
I voted FOR Trump, I’m not a bigot unless you force me to be. My wife and children are minorities, but I voted my financial interests, for me and my minority family. Looks to me like it’s Dems who have lost power who are hyperventilating. Look, I’m a Teamster, Dems had their chance to win me, they DID NOT want my vote.
Now, they can take their transgender bathrooms and shove them up their agenda.
I’m not a drug addict unless you force me to be.
I’m not a pedophile unless you force me to be.
I’m not a rapist unless you force me to be.
See why that sounds like Grade A bullshit? I can’t even be forced to prefer vodka to single malt, but you can be forced to be a bigot?
As for trans bathrooms, the GOP made that an issue in North Carolina. It’s not the trans agenda, the trans people weren’t bothering anyone. The GOP made it an issue.
Dave:
This has been my concern since November, as you know. The divide is very deep. But with Trump at 40% I’m actually relaxing a bit. The country is just not having it. The people aren’t having it, the courts aren’t having it, and the man-baby has been forced to take on a national security team that is not about to call the troops out of the barracks. Even at 40% his support is too contingent, the Venn diagram of Trump and Trump voters isn’t as tight as it should be. Interesting. And when you look at the polls, independents are pretty much lock-step with Democrats in not trusting or admiring Trump.
It’s interesting apropos of your Netherlands post. It’s a hell of a hard thing to get a herd of 330 million people of dozens of ethnic, racial and religious groups spread out across 50 states going in one direction.
Trump’s sheer incompetence is another reassuring factor. (Unless there’s a war. Or a health crisis. Or a market crash.) And there’s his lack of communication skills – all he’s got is anger. So, on balance feeling much better than I did a month ago. If I was at DEFCON 2 before, I’m at DEFCON 3 now.
And for Trumpkins: your boy’s tax returns are still out there, and all it takes is a Senate Intelligence Committee subpoena. If they show a Russian connection he’ll drop to 25%. That’s not even getting into the FBI investigation.
Dave commented on a piece yesterday about how ‘real America’ is suffering, a piece which takes several paragraphs before it references a guy who wrote about a book about how black people are genetically inferior. Is Nicholas Eberstadt a horrible racist? Who knows and cares. But the bottom line is that he and everybody else who thought the piece was really worth reading had no problem thinking that the pointless mentioning of a eugenicist would in no way detract from its message. I mean, it didn’t bother me, because like a lot of people who read conservatives frequently, I’m totally indifferent to the well-educated racists who inevitably pop-up. But I’m also white.
Kristof’s point is that it’s up to non-Trump voters to respond as if everything about Trump voters comes from a good and decent place. The fact that this a well-known eugenicist happens to intrude upon a piece about real America and the suffering of white people is of no importance. It’s a crazy theory. If you want to support white supremacy, say it. It’s a free country. But referencing constantly white supremacists and then saying how unfair it is to be judged for your intimacy with them–which is basically the MO for almost all Trump voters–is just disgusting. Stand up, at least for something.
Gray, your honesty, in the midst of all the outrageous PC BS, is commendable. I salute you!
On my desk I have a post-it, front and center, encouraging me with these words: “In the time if universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
IMO, in the era of social progressive self righteousness, standing one’s ground, asserting truth to ultra left power, is what some people are finding the courage to take on, refusing to capitulate to, in the midst of the ongoing tilt to leftist intolerances.
jan–
In no way do I imagine your house with less than five thousand post-it notes on its varieties of surfaces.
Hardly, MM. That was a nice try to diminish the wisdom of those words. Truth is being rapidly over run by the leftist unilateral thinking.
ModuloMyself:
Eugenics is an antiquated term which has been replaced with “Planned Parenthood”
source: Margaret Sanger.