Posted on 01/04/2016 2:20:42 PM PST by presidio9
Five-time Jeopardy! champion Tom Nichols1 writes today about why so many people are attracted to Donald Trump. Nichols is a Republican, but makes it very clear that he deeply loathes Trump("hideous," "narcissistic," "creepy," "stupid," etc.) and will never vote for him. So what's his take on Trump's popularity? Is it due to economic insecurity? Inchoate anger? Bubbling racism and xenophobia? Hatred of the Republican establishment?
Nah. He says that Trump's rise is basically the fault of the left:
To understand Trump’s seemingly effortless seizure of the public spotlight, forget about programs, and instead zero in on the one complaint that seems to unite all of the disparate angry factions gravitating to him: political correctness. This, more than anything, is how the left created Trump
Uh oh. That's not going to go over well. For what it's worth, Nichols is clear that he isn't referring to garden variety political correctness, which is basically little more than avoiding terms that are obviously insulting or exclusionary. At worst, that stuff is annoying but well-meaning:
Today, however, we have a new, more virulent political correctness that terrorizes both liberals and conservatives, old-line Democrats and Republicans, alike....The extremist adherents of this new political correctness have essentially taken a flamethrower to the public space and annihilated its center....Any incorrect position, any expression of the Constitutional right to a different opinion, or even just a slip of the tongue can lead to public ostracism and the loss of a job.
....Gay marriage is a good example. Liberals wanted gay marriage to win in the Supreme Court, and it did. Leftists wanted more: to silence their opponents even after those opponents completely lost on the issue....I could reel off many other examples. When the New York Times tells the rubes that it’s time to hand in their guns, when The Washington Post suggests that Jesus is ashamed of them for not welcoming Syrian refugees the week after a terrorist attack, people react not because they love guns or hate Syrians, but because their natural urge to being told by coastal liberals that they’re awful people and that they should just obey and shut up is to issue a certain Anglo-Saxon verb and pronoun combination with all the vigor they can muster. And if they can’t say it themselves, they’ll find someone who will, even if it’s a crude jerk from Queens who can’t make a point without raising his pinky like a Mafia goon explaining the vig to you after you’ve had a bad day at the track.
....For the record, I despise Donald Trump and I will vote for almost any Republican (well, okay, not Ben Carson) rather than Trump....But I understand the fear of being silenced that’s prompting otherwise decent people to make common cause with racists and modern Know-Nothings, and I blame the American left for creating that fear.
....How long this will go on, then, depends on how long it will take for those people to feel reassured that someone besides Trump will represent their concerns without backing down in the face of catcalls about racism, sexism, LGBTQ-phobia, Islamophobia, or any other number of labels deployed mostly to extinguish their dissent.
This is hardly a new critique. Conservatives have been complaining about "being silenced" forever. The only difference between Trump and the rest of the GOP field is that Trump's complaints are a little earthier than Rubio's or Bush's.
Still, even if I think Nichols is overstating things, it's not as if he doesn't have a point. Even those of us on the left feel the wrath of the leftier-than-thou brigade from time to time. I don't generally have a hard time avoiding objectionable language myself because (a) I'm liberal, (b) I'm good with words, and (c) I write rather than talk, which gives me time to get my act together. But even at that, sometimes I cross an invisible line and get trounced for it.
But for someone without my advantages, I can easily see how it might feel almost impossible to express an unpopular opinion without tying yourself in knots. And let's be honest: we liberals do tend to yell racism a little more often than we should. And we do tend to suggest that anyone who like guns or Jesus is a rube. And the whole "privilege" thing sure does get tiresome sometimes. And we do get a little pedantic in our insistence that no conversation about anything is complete unless it specifically acknowledges the special problems of marginalized groups. It can be pretty suffocating at times.
For the most part, I don't mind this stuff—and conservatives do themselves no favors by harping on supposed PC idiocy like the "war on Christmas." But that's largely because I can navigate it reasonably well and I mostly agree with the aims of the PC police anyway. People who can't obviously feel a lot more constrained. So while I don't really buy Nichols' argument—conservatives built the monster named Trump, not liberals—I do think he has a germ of a point. Donald Trump is basically telling ordinary people that ordinary language is OK, and since that's the only language they know, it means they feel like they can finally talk again.
OK, fine, he's also a Professor of National Security Affairs at the U.S. Naval War College.
Former Republican, anyway: "I’m a conservative independent and a former Republican. I quit the party in 2012 because of exactly the kind of coarse ignorance that Trump represents. The night Newt Gingrich won the South Carolina primary on the thoughtful platform of colonizing the moon, I was out."
I included that second sentence only because it tickled me.
Much of this I've learned from reading stuff by academics, who are the masters of acceptable language. As an example: if you were to call something "black behavior," you'd probably get mauled. The solution? Call it "behavior stereotypically coded as black." This accomplishes so many things at once. However, it's also phraseology that no ordinary person would ever think of. This means they literally have no acceptable way of expressing the original thought, which makes them feel silenced.
Somewhat of a crock. Yes, the liberals are a cause, but the GOPe is a signiicant contributing factore.
The GOPe surrendered to the liberals in order to be liked inside the beltway and to be invited to all the right Georgetown cocktail parties and to share in the looting of the country.
Just more political pigs at the trough.
Personally, I think that the GOP-e is responsible for the rise of Trump. The GOP-e has, for far too long, ignored the input and wishes of a large conservative-leaning populace, and Trump seems to have a finger on the pulse of the frustrations of this group. JMHO
“.For the record, I despise Donald Trump and I will vote for almost any Republican (well, okay, not Ben Carson) rather than Trump..”
Okay, bye.
If they’re asking whether 100+ years of liberal/progressive policies have all but destroyed America and we the people are yearning for someone screaming STOP and let’s make America great again, then yes, the liberals made Donald Trump.
Is this election shaping up like 1968 or better yet, 1972? The disgusting, evil, reprehensible, vulgar, awful, evil, disgusting Richard Nixon who was hated by everyone except us disgusting evil, reprehensible, vulgar, evil people? Or since freepers have gotten so age-conscience when it comes to women, my parent’s generation?
No, liberals are responsible for the fall of Civilization each time it falls.
Interesting article! True too.
The guy does have a point in an odd way. I also tend to blame the GOP leadership itself for being too easily cowed, but. I suppose a reminder that that left is the Prime Mover of the problem is in order.
RINO GOPe pussies are responsible for Trump.
The GOP has to shoulder a lot of reasons for Trump’s rise.
Rubio, the annointed choice of both left and right is attempting to pull away by mouthing a few Trump positions.
This evening Speaker Ryan said Obama was overreaching on gun control.
What’s the matter Ryan? The rubber stamp isn’t big enough?
Congress is useless and our “representatives” have made it so.
Liberal republicans (such as the GOPe) are the most to blame.
“Nichols is a Republican, but makes it very clear that he deeply loathes Trump (”hideous,” “narcissistic,” “creepy,” “stupid,” etc.) and will never vote for him.”
A “Republican” who loathes Trump is quoted in the article. Trump is supposedly a problem. Who is responsible for him?
Nobody is “responsible” for Trump. Trump is a successful businessman who loves America and is not afraid to speak the truth and endure the consequences. That is why we like him and want him to be president.
You got it! It is becoming tedious beyond belief to encounter one idiot after another whine and moan about Trump as a person and see their personal invectives unleashed to slander him, then find these jerks agree with everything he says. These sorts of ignoramuses are just confused, delusional chickenshorts who don’t have the stones to be real! Ignore them one and all!
Settle down detective. This is a Mother Jones article. You are repeating some of the main points here, but what you should not need to get from it is that liberals disapprove of Republican motives.
Trying to put a moral equivalence on liberal lunacy and the egregious attacks on conservatives is insane.
As a side note: Only Homos are Homophobes. They think the entire world thinks they are homos and that is unfair. When you sashay down the street acting all flamboyant and kissing the same gender to prove a point they are confirming their point.
Liberals impose P.C. Communism on America, feckless Republicans wring their hands and whine that there’s nothing they can do. So I guess this is one time when you can blame (or credit is probably the better word since “blame” makes it sound like Trump is a bad thing) “both sides” for the rise of Donald Trump.
Yep, the GOPee’s continued confirmation of the ‘rat agenda over the years has built up a deposit of disgust that is not easily wiped (with a cloth?) away.
That may be the feeling here, but in the country as a whole I suspect it has more to do with left-wing political correctness.
If you're already involved and ideological and partisan you might be p.o.'ed at Mitt Romney all the time, but a lot of people out in the country have already forgotten who Romney was and are responding to what they see on TV now.
Rage against McConnell or Boehner is something people who are already politically active have. The man in the street -- not so much. And politicians like Jeb Bush or John Kasich are so ho-hum that it's hard to think that they are the main thing anybody is reacting against.
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