Yep. That's actually a Mothers Day ad by a liberal Super-Pac. It's real. It is not a parody concocted by right wingers to make the Left look bad. It's actually supposed to scare you mothers out there, lest yours sons become one of ... one of ... them. I mean, this is so blind to how actual people think, it's beyond imagining:
On the other hand, you have the Never Trumpers. These folks increasingly sound like the very people who pushed many conservatives and Republicans into the arms of Trump in the first place.
Basically, the GOP had become filled with pols and pundits who appeared to view conservatism on, shall we say, unique lines. They held to big business issues that helped the top earners and money makers. They were just conservative enough, but not so much that they wouldn't be invited to all the best liberal parties in Manhattan and Washington D.C.. Every couple years, they would flimflam the yokels between the coasts, convincing them that they cared about such stupid things as abortion or sexual deviance or encroachment on basic liberties or the erosion of traditional Judeo-Christian foundations of our society. Once the elections were over, it was back to champagne and caviar with the beautiful people at the latest party, to hell with the yokels.
And so they continue. The latest has been to marginalize Kanye West and Candace Owens. Granted, I know little of Ms. Owens, other than she forcefully calls out some of the most sacred cows of modern, liberal race theory and narratives. I know even less about Kanye West. I just know he's known to provoke with goofy opinions, as many rappers do, and that I probably wouldn't hang too much on his opinion, other than acknowledge he is allowed to have an opinion.
I certainly note the Left's hysterics and its need to keep the minority herds in the pen. I likewise caution conservatives about chasing after the latest cultural icon who happens to say something remotely positive about Trump, the GOP, or anything not leftist. I'm thinking Rosanne here.
Nonetheless, they're free to speak, and should represent at least an alternative to the very tight narrative controlled by the Left with its monopoly in the press, educational institutions and popular culture. They should be heard, if not taken too seriously. Just as anyone should be heard (and that includes those who represent majority opinions). Perhaps the truth will end up being somewhere in between.
But not so for the Never Trumper! Ross Douthat demonstrates. Like George Will, I've become somewhat disappointed in Mr. Douthat. Mr. Douthat, like Will, has become more Never Trumper than conservative, finding any way to tear down, to marginalize, or deflect from a net positive that could somehow find its way back the the Trump White House. As one who didn't vote for Donald Trump, I can say that's no different than being a liberal Democrat.
Here he demonstrates this in flying colors. His entire piece can be summed up this way. Basically, while the Kanye kerfuffle is worth a giggle, on the whole he and Ms. Owns are race bating hacks and likely frauds. Only by accepting 95% of the leftist, Multi-Cultural, PC, Identity Politics narrative can conservatives have a chance. Only by assuming America as nothing but a racist nation defined by racism, filled with racists doing nothing on a daily basis than being racist, and the unparalleled daily suffering of African Americans in this most racist of all nations, can conservative hope to appeal to a multi-ethnic voting base.
I doubt it. What he doesn't know about America, race and identity politics appears to be what he does know about the Catholic Church. That is, you can't take almost everything from forces diametrically opposed to you, declare them true, and then slap one little modicum of dissension on it and call it a compromise. If you throw a clean washcloth in a mud puddle, chances are the mud puddle won't get cleaner. He rightly points out that every time a Western monotheistic faith has attempted to compromise with liberalism, it has failed, withered, and died. Why he can't figure that the same goes for compromising politically on fundamental premises, I don't know.
But like too many NTs, he appears to see accepting the premises, narratives, priorities, templates and assumptions of the modern Left regarding issues like racism and America's identity as the only real way to help the GOP. We even accept some of the Left's basic solutions. It's just that somewhere along the line, we don't just go all Leftist and we ought to do something different somewhere, and that will make all the difference. That the issue of racism, while real, historical, and a problem to be overcome is hardly a thing to be denied, simply taking the Left's entire book on the subject at face value, while changing one tiny part of the cover, is hardly the solution. It will likely continue to result, not in greater racial harmony, but as we've seen in the last decade or so, far less. And I don't think we'll see waves of ethnic minorities storming the GOP Convention as a result.
Congratulation Mr. Douthat, you've just joined Tom Steyer in helping to make sure that Donald Trump will never go away.
Granted, I know little of Ms. Owens, other than she forcefully calls out some of the most sacred cows of modern, liberal race theory and narratives.
ReplyDeleteShe is... interesting. There's a dave rubin interview if you are curious. She was actually working on a doxing service when she ran afoul of the left that apparently drove her to convert right. There is some debate among right circles whether she's sincere in her conversion or an opportunist.
My opinion? If the Left is driving people out of its camp and into the Right's, the best thing to do is just let them for now.
Here's what I notice. Those who are 'former conservative/Christian Right/Evangelical have, in many ways, dropped things they once said were non-negotiable, or compromised with things they once said were unacceptable (sometimes even accepting them). Those who are fleeing the Left are still, on the whole, liberal. They haven't changed. They're still liberal in all their glory, they simply don't see the Left as compatible. Those on the 'former Right', on the other hand, are dropping, changing, compromising or ignoring things that they once stood for. That difference alone is enough to make me take note.
DeleteI do notice that there has been a massive string of pieces saying Owens is a liar, that her 'story' is a fraud, and that accounts of what she said happened are false. That's what Douthat links to, basically a she said/she said. I don't know. I just know that Peterson is ignored, West and Owens attacked. Meanwhile advocates for more Leftist views could molest teddy bears for all I know, because the press never seems to go back into the nittygritty of their lives.