Don’t paint all Trump backers as idiots, fools
It is apparently de rigeur to make fun of President Trump supporters these days. It is not enough to go after theGreat Leader, who is tweeting himself intomessy, muddywaters with some nonsensical twiddle. We mustmake the supporters of the president look like fools, idiots and rubeswho are one rowshort of a full set of dentures.
Case in point: NPR decided to tweet out the Declaration of Independence, and some sad folks didn’t recognize the brilliant blueprint for our inalienable rights. They thought itwas a call to arms fromthat violent and revolutionary news source that is more likely to kill you with boredom than with sedition. Anyone who actually believedNPRwas encouraging a coup has spent a little bit too much time hanging out on Sesame Street.
Butworse than the people who didn’t get the joke, the mainstream pooh-bahs decided to take a swipe at the president’s people by suggesting theywere the only ones who fell for the tweetstorm. Howstupid, they implied, that these idiots actually didn’t recognize the handiwork of Thomas Jefferson, delivered up in 140-character servings. Sniff, gawd, bring on the brie and Chablis. The assumption that only Trump supporterswere boondoggled into believing thatNPRwas calling for the overthrowof government is the same type of pretentious arrogance (I know, to-may-to, to-maaa-to) that caused so many people to react violently when President Obama talked about the poor folkswho “cling to their guns and their religion.” It is the sort of progressive put-down that made a lot of people vote for Trump as a big “F U” to the establishment, without actually considering the consequences of their act of defiance.
I’m not saying everyone who voted for Trump did it to “get back” at the schoolyard bullies, the ones who were always telling them theyweren’t good enough, tolerant enough, organic enough, multicultural enough, tech-savvy enough, gender-sensitive enough, and so on and so forth to the tenth power of nausea.
I amsaying that suggestions like the one that only Trump supporters got fooled by theNPR tweets are the reason CNNwill fail in getting the nation riled up over another tweet involving awrestling match. WhenNorthKorea is sending missiles into the air and you are still licking yourwounds about being dissed by the WhiteHouse, you clearly have not gauged the spirit of the “Hillbilly Resistance,” the one that doesn’twear cute little pink crochet hats or throwaround hashtags like peace signs.
I’ve been annoyed at the childish, churlish nature of our president. Whobut the most die-hard devotee hasn’t? Yet, every time I get onmy high horse to complain about the most recent outrage from1600 Pennsylvania Ave., I see this absolute disdain for the men and women who voted for the “wrong” candidate, and I understand why the cable news shows will not get their wish.
Trump will not be impeached on theirwatch, and it’s not because therewon’t be any grounds dug up from the bottom of a bottle of vodka. Theremay indeed be something that RobertMueller uncovers in his search to shake the cobwebs out of the Trump campaign.
But I have a hard time believing that the men and women in Congress, whowere elected to represent their constituents to the best of their abilities and not spend their time insulting them, would be persuaded to vote in favor of impeachment without a real smoking gun.
Mika and Joe can write all the opeds theywant complaining about how“not sane” the president is, and it will just make his supporters that much more convinced there is a vast left-wing conspiracy out to get him. CNNcan complain about being attacked on a daily basis by the president, and the base will continue to believe the network deserves it. NPR can try to stay above the fray, as it usually does, but unless it decides to tweet out a few episodes of “Duck Dynasty,” I’m not sure any of Trump’s supporters will pay attention.
A lot of people out there are tired of being called stupid, whether directly to their faces or indirectly with the raised eyebrowof the highbrow. I almost think they can dealwith being called racist, sexist or homophobic (which some are, some aren’t and who cares anyway, since liberals are exactly the same,) but cannot deal with being ridiculed for their allegedly inferior intellects.
When people do that, they just galvanize the Hillbilly Resistance to reject any notion that the press is in danger, that Trump is a beast, that Ivanka is a Stepford daughter, thatMelania lives in a tower and lets down her hair onweekends, and thatwe are in danger of another revolution. #giveusabreak.
Mika and Joe can write all the opeds they want complaining about how “not sane” the president is, and it will just make his supporters that much more convinced there is a vast leftwing conspiracy out to get him.