Conservatives' ludicrous new excuse: Liberals made us vote for Donald Trump!
Despite the whining of Bari Weiss and others, conservatives are adults. The left didn’t force them to support Trump
AMANDA MARCOTTE
MAY 15, 2018 9:00AM (UTC)
It's hard to believe it's come to this point, but apparently this needs to be said: Republican voters are adults, not children. They are responsible for their own choices. Liberals did not force them to vote for Donald Trump or support his policies.
One would think none of that needs to be said, especially since conservatives like to style themselves as the defenders of "personal responsibility." But apparently the idea is really taking root among the chattering classes that liberals practically held conservatives down and tormented them into voting for Trump. The argument is, I guess, that those who publicly decry racism and sexism are so obnoxious about it that they make conservatives double down on these bigoted beliefs. So progressives and liberals have more responsibility for electing Trump than the people who, you know, actually voted for him.
This bewildering thesis started spreading like a contagion after the resident troll at the New York Times, Bari Weiss, wrote yet another article arguing that well-compensated bigots with enormous audiences are being oppressed because liberals won't pretend to be impressed with their bad arguments. Weiss was laughed at online, which is what you get when you say silly things in public. And as trolls are wont to do, she then had a tantrum on Twitter.
Link to tweet
Weiss' premise that liberals are somehow forcing conservatives to act like fools and bigots should be self-evident nonsense, but it appears to be an attractive proposition to many in mainstream media spaces. Andrew Sullivan argued in New York magazine that while he understands that Kanye West's praise of Trump is foolish, he found himself "instinctually siding" with West because the critics are just so gosh-darned critical. Then Gerard Alexander wrote yet another piece for the New York Times arguing that the "backlash against liberals" — a backlash he openly declares liberals are causing with their supposed self-righteousness — "is going to get President Trump re-elected."
more
https://www.salon.com/2018/05/15/conservatives-ludicrous-new-excuse-liberals-made-us-vote-for-donald-trump/
= new reply since forum marked as read
How will we ever get the Klan/Nazi/White Nationalist vote? A person dresses up in white sheets, shouts “white power,” and votes for a moronic bigot like Trump, and liberals get all judgment-y and labeling people they haven’t even met as racist. What choice have we but to buy to buy MAGA hats and blame Mexicans for random events?
