Traitors in our midst...
Last edited Fri Apr 19, 2019, 11:44 AM - Edit history (1)
Nobody ever wanted to have this conversation when I've brought it up in the past, so I'll just say what I gotta say and let it drop.
Since 2016 an increasing number of formerly-respected liberal pundits including bloggers, writers, journalists, and elected officials both current and former have been actively working for Donald Trump and not us. I'd said even before Trump's inauguration that we as a party would never really advance until we purged these backstabbing elements out.
I'm not going to name names in this thread and I'm not going to argue individual cases. I'm just going to implore DU to etch a day like today in your memory, and take a hard, scrutinizing look at what each one of our self-appointed thought leaders and influencers are saying today and in the coming days about this first release of the report:
1. Are they in total denial about the report's significance? Or even worse are they ignoring today's news altogether?
2. Are they cherry-picking the most minuscule errata and using it as a toe-hold to discredit the entire report?
3. Are they trying to spin or divert the discussion elsewhere? Are they still regurgitating stale, long-debunked talking points?
4. Are they defending Trump and his administration outright? Or are they doing the oh-so-clever "Oh I'll never defend Trump, but I will endlessly bash and smear his critics and the #Resistance 24/7/365? Is their ratio of attacks against their own party versus attacks against Trump 8-to-1 or greater?
5. No matter whether they're defending Trump directly or indirectly, are their talking points indistinguishable from the nutbars on RussiaToday or NewsMax or Fox News? Have you caught them plagiarizing anti-Dem talking points from more extremist sites like InfoWars?
6. Are they starting to make regular guest appearances on Fox News? Are they writing guest columns for sites like DailyCaller? Does Breitbart boost their signal and promote them as a "REAL/SMART" Democrat/pundit/journalist/etc.? Did they write for liberal websites for a number of years only to cross over to a far-right one after 2016? Are folks like Giuliani, David Duke and Cernovich quoting them and re-tweeting their hot takes on Twitter?
7. Are there some political hot-button topics that outraged them DAILY and were ready to go to war against Obama for, yet somehow under Trump they stopped giving a shit about their pet issue despite Trump making it a thousand times worse? Do you see them giving Trump a pass for things they'd never give Obama or Hillary a pass on?
8. Have they bent over backwards to whitesplain away the overt racism in Trump's rhetoric and the racist leanings of his base? Were they pimping that "It's class and not race!" bullshit despite being debunked ages ago? Are they still accepting the conservative framing that only white folks make up the "middle/working class"? Worse still, were they whoring the hell out of the RW "identity politics" talking points?
9. Do they have a full deck of "whataboutism" cards to play to deflect any criticism against Trump? Do they sprinkle arguments using "AND THAT'S WHY TRUMP WON!" as a rebuttal? Was there true fear and lament on Election Night when Trump won, or just smug self-satisfaction? Even worse, did they have a schadenfreudegasm?
10. Are they always telling their followers on social media every two years to "send a message" by staying home and not voting, or voting third party? Have they been revisionist as fuck by saying with a straight face that Obama never did anything for us and was the worst president ever? Have they been doing a lot of scrubbing of their pre-2017 activity and hot takes on social media?
There's more of course but you get the general idea. And yes, because I've been keeping score for 3+ years I can cite multiple examples of high-profile, household name liberal pundits who fit these warning signs... I'm just telling y'all to take heed...
