It's not that difficult. They're belligerent, xenophobic reactionaries who sole pursuit is political power & imposing suffering on outsiders & Others. But the whole US center-left/VSP apparatus has ruled that explanation out, so what's left is a mystery. washingtonpost.com/politics/biden…
It goes like this: if you say Republicans are in fact the terrible people they appear to be, you're "partisan." And it is deep, deep in the DNA of VSPs that they are not on any team -- they are above that, with refined sensibilities that appreciate both sides' perspectives. So...
... they can't say that. But then they're left with this endless puzzle, which is explaining endless ugly, ignorant, cruel behavior ... without attributing it to ugliness, ignorance, or cruelty. This is like the main intellectual job of VSPs: laundering that behavior.
That's what "economic anxiety" was all about -- and all its many forebears, all the elaborate thought castles VSPs have constructed to indirectly explain behavior that they can't, because of their identity imperatives, explain directly.
This is, of course, a familiar story in democracies on their way to collapsing into authoritarianism. The centrist establishment simply cannot bring itself to see a reactionary insurgency for what it is, until it's too late. They'd rather lose the country than their self-image...
... as judicious, above-the-fray wise men.
Perhaps if I spend 20 years complaining about exactly this dynamic, I can get people to see ... [dies waiting]
A great example: the *top priority* of GOP leadership is to prevent reforms that would make it easier for people to vote. I have no trouble explaining that. How can a VSP? What sort of intellectual bankshot is required to retrofit a benign explanation?mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-…
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
