1/12 The absurd desire some liberals & progressives have to reach out to Trump's base (even those who believe the Q shit or think COVID's a hoax) stems from 1 of 3 things: either an intellectual arrogance that says we're so smart we can explain facts to folks & they'll change...
2/12 Or (for the more lefty types) a naive romanticization of 'salt of the earth' white people (especially those deemed working class), whom we still view in Steinbeckian terms, and who we think can be made to see their 'real enemies' are the millionehhhs and the billionehhhs...
3/12 Or an emotional neediness to be liked by everyone and have everyone get along because we don't like conflict. Notice the right doesn't play this game: they just steamroll folks. They deploy power. We fear it, because it seems mean or undemocratic or something...
4/12 What we must understand is that there are millions of people who hate everything we believe in. And they always will. As someone who gets weekly death threats from these types, I've come to accept this and no longer fear them. Their hatreds define them, give them life...
5/12 ...every second you spend trying to save or convert them is a second you don't spend mobilizing those who believe in justice and equity and fairness to exercise power. It's a loser move: a move of people who think they are outnumbered but are not...
6/12 A move by people who don't really have the courage to just use their power. A move by people who don't want the other side to have a sad because their compassion for the people who hate them is stronger than their compassion for the people THOSE PEOPLE hurt...
7/12 At some point liberals & the left will have to understand: we are not on this Earth to be therapists to horribly damaged right wing authoritarians. You can't save everyone. Stop trying. Get comfortable with defeating people, without apology, over and over again...
8/12 Will doing so anger the right? Yes. Will some lash out, even violently? Yes. But they are doing that now. If we refuse to really defeat people for fear they might backlash, we can never get a more just society bc we'll always fear the other side's reaction...
9/12 They are counting on this. They want to scare us into not governing, not flexing even when we have the numbers to do so. They hope their bluster and their threats will scare us back into "bipartisanship" or "coalition building" efforts that include people like them...
10/12 Even as they would never do this for us and have no intention of really being part of such coalitions. Are some individuals capable of changing their minds/hearts? Yes. But basing our strategies around snagging the statistical handful of those for our side is foolishness...
11/12 Those amenable to reason will come over w/o us having to prostrate ourselves for them. Others will come over bc they shift w/the winds of power and want to be on the winning side. Fine. Come on along...
12/12 ...Others will fight to the death. At which point the ONLY important thing is making sure they do the dying (politically speaking), not you. Shorter version: stop trying to be team Harmony. Just be the 1927 Yankees and get comfortable beating the crap out of the other side.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
