Why Are Liberals Obsessed With the Racism of Conservatives?
The swift axing of Roseanne Barr kicked off a Mardi Gras of gloating by liberals, especially those who like to ferret out the racism/sexism/xenophobia of others. If I had a dollar for every Daily Kos diary that amounted to, “See? See? It’s not economic anxiety!” I could treat everyone to dinner at Sullivan’s.
This reaction shows, yet again, the incredible solipsism of liberals. Because they never think this through even to the next step — if the country runs on a racist agenda, how did Obama ever get elected? Why doesn’t a racist win every election?
The answer to this is obvious, yet invisible to so many liberals: These people have always been racist. They didn’t just develop into racists because Donald Trump said it was OK (though they are giving public voice to their racism because he said it’s OK). Wake up, liberals, and acknowledge that it’s possible to be both racist and anxious about one’s declining prospects in a country without blue-collar jobs.
In fact, I would go further and posit that racism is a core value, while anxiety, economic or otherwise, comes and goes. If racism got people elected, it should go without saying, government would be full of racists (perhaps it is, but they didn’t get there by running on that). But history, here and abroad, shows that economic stress is what topples governments — or, in nominally democratic countries, gets them voted out.
In short, yes, they’re racist, but so what? They’ve always been racist, yet some of them even voted for Obama. The racism is a constant, the economic anxiety is variable — so which one was actually the factor that got Trump to the tipping point?
The logic is inescapable, but that doesn’t mean smug liberals won’t keep trying to escape it.
If it is accurate to say that leveraging white racsism is the GOP’s response to working poor/ blue-collar economic anxiety and declining prospects, then it raises the question – what is the Democratic Party’s response to working poor/ blue-collar economic anxiety and declining prospects?
I’m seriously asking – what is it?
“In fact, I would go further and posit that racism is a core value, while anxiety, economic or otherwise, comes and goes. If racism got people elected, it should go without saying, government would be full of racists….”
Are you suggesting that the majority of voters (of Americans) are racist? That they hold views that are overtly hostile to minorities? I’m not sure I’m getting your point.
No, just the majority of white Americans. Republicans routinely get a majority of white votes, and it’s not close.
“White non-Hispanic voters preferred Trump over Clinton by 21 percentage points (58% to 37%), according to the exit poll conducted by Edison Research for the National Election Pool. Romney won whites by 20 percentage points in 2012 (59% to 39%).”
I’m saying the racism is a constant, economic conditions are variable. Therefore, while racism is present in many voters, they don’t always vote for the racist — they tend to do so when faced with economic anxiety.
I’m really telling liberals that their constant crowing about conservative racism is a tiresome statement of the obvious, and no explanation for why voters responded to Trump. For evidence of that point, notice that David Duke and others like him get a lot of ink but can’t win elections. If racism was what drove voters, he would have been elected long before Trump.
Yes, they’re racist. Unless we’ve come up with a way to change people’s beliefs and prejudices — public shaming isn’t working — we should drop it, because calling them bad people doesn’t move anything forward.
disagree. racists should be terrified of speaking their minds.
Even with their victory in 2016, they weren’t able to stop the reaction. Sure their God-Emperor is as of yet impervious to consequence, but they clearly are not.
Corporate America fired Roseanne… not some whiny SJW from their keyboard. The market has spoken and it isnt just racist celebs that are feeling the wrath. That lawyer in NY, the cookout lady who is now a meme… It’s everywhere and we need to keep the pressure on these shitstains. Drive em back into 4chan where they belong.
Roxanne Gay says in the NY Times that it was racist just to allow a character on a major TV show be a Trump supporter. That’s nuts. But then Roxanne Gay often is, despite her skill at writing. Roseanne’s tweet is a separate issue.
you cant be a trump supporter and not be racist.
@Ben: The market isn’t the electorate. Keep your eye on the ball.
The whiny SJW at the keyboard is keeping the enemy engaged and outraged. Talk about their racism and lose. Talk about Trump’s destructive agenda and win.
Talking about their racism is poor politics, plain and simple. It doesn’t help, it might hurt. If it doesn’t accomplish strategic aims, then people must be doing it for another reason. I maintain that reason is closely related to the reason they masturbate — it’s easy and it feels good.
“you cant be a trump supporter and not be racist.”
So what? I already said a solid majority of white Americans are Republicans no matter who their candidate is.
Living in the moment is generally a good thing, but you lose perspective. Americans are no more or less racist than they were 5 or 10 years ago, and there are probably fewer racists alive every year.
What you’re saying is true, but it doesn’t matter. You still have to win the elections, and you still have to do it in a racist electorate. I’m trying to get it through your heads that continually pointing out the racism of that electorate is having the opposite effect from the one you desire.
Roxanne Gay isn’t wrong. But she’s failing to acknowledge that, in a society with racist underpinnings like ours, any show trying to depict American reality is going to put racist characters on TV. Only in fantasy land do such people always get their comeuppance.
As always, Roxanne is free to develop her own show.
I don’t think every Trump supporter is a racist. Just most of them. I also believe some of the racists don’t think they are. Anyway, it’s nuts to think TV should only show us characters we agree with. And not everybody has the same definition of racism.
So what is the solution, Alby? let them talk? Let them normalize their shit?
No repercussions ever for these vile shit stains? You can’t legislate racism out of people’s hearts, but you can ruin them financially. You cant even get them out of society, but you can limit their societal mobility. I want them to suffer. Right now, they dont get to enjoy their power and I have to be satisfied with it. If they are voted out of power, the real intimidation can begin.
The thing is, they will ALWAYS feel aggrieved. Giving gay people the right to get married made them mad enough without what you call “liberal smugness”.
I dont care if they are outraged. coddling them isnt the answer. Speaking the only language they know back to them is the only way.
You dont get it nate. It wasn’t Roseanne the character that got fired. It was the actual racist garbage human.
TV and media are full of people we “dont agree with”. that isnt the issue.
RG said there should be no shows featuring characters who are Trump supporters. That’s what I was addressing. She’s saying basically that characters she doesn’t agree with should not be on TV. Like I said, it’s a separate issue from the real Roseanne being fired for a tweet.
“So what is the solution, Alby? let them talk? Let them normalize their shit?”
They will talk no matter how you respond, and it already is normalized in their world, and always has been. White people didn’t just start calling black people monkeys yesterday. Go ahead and vent, just realize that you don’t take that to the knife fight.
The issue here isn’t the response to racism, it’s placing the blame for the loss of the 2016 election on racism. My point, and I’ve been making it for two years now, is that you have to win regardless of appeals to racism, and you don’t blunt those appeals by pointing out that they are racist. We just tried that and lost, and even if the election was stolen, it shouldn’t have been close enough to steal.
The appeals to racism were couched in economic terms, which is how they convince themselves they aren’t racist.
Democrats are still thinking in demographic terms. Trump went psychographic — identifying tribes that exist pan-demographically (all-white, of course, but varied in terms of age, education, etc.) because they share the same inculcated “conservative” tribal attitudes.
One of the things that binds them is their resentment that we keep calling them racists. If it helps, try to realize that they nurse these resentments because they are, charitably, not so bright. You can’t persuade them intellectually because they are intellectually inept. I try it all the time on That Other Blog with Anono. He can’t respond in any intelligent manner, because there’s nothing we would recognize as intellect there.
“I want them to suffer.”
Think about that for about 15 seconds and you’ll realize you don’t really, or at least wouldn’t get any actual pleasure if they did. A bankrupt soybean farmer who voted for Clinton is going to suffer the same as a bankrupt soybean farmer who voted for Trump.
Did the DNC fire Roseanne?
Seriously, you’re blaming SJWs for the decision of a large company which I promise you doesn’t care about the morality. they made the call based on how it would affect their bottom line. You are right. they are not too bright. Im not interested in changing their minds or even changing how they talk in the privacy of their own doublewides.
Im interested in scaring them into clamming up in public. Who cares about elections? Our electoral system doesn’t even fucking work anymore. the DNC is engineering quite the impressive fumble this fall bc they really don’t want power back. It’s too hard.
No, I really do. their “suffering” is black men not being gunned down by cops. Its gay elected officials and hijab-wearing women in congress. Their suffering is having to press 2 for English. It drives them to do things like get caught on camera being awful, losing their jobs, and being shunted to the margins… and get decent enough government assistance to not starve.
I want them to suffer, but i also want them to get nationalized health care and be able to go college at no cost other than my tax dollars.
Our nation is full of bigoted ignorant mean spirited white trash who thrive on resenting people weaker than themselves, particularly other races
. I hate these people !
@Ben: Huh? I support firing Roseanne. What are you talking about?
I’m talking about how certain liberals gloated about it, not the decision itself.
“Who cares about elections?”
If I didn’t care about elections, I wouldn’t be on a political blog.
“Im interested in scaring them into clamming up in public.”
Not me. If they make up 60% of the white population, I’d like them to identify themselves. You can’t shun them if you don’t know whom to shun.
“their “suffering” is black men not being gunned down by cops. ”
Who is “they”? The cohort of old white men who yell at Fox News from their Barcaloungers? You’re letting getting even with them direct your agenda? God help you. I want the cops to stop acting as they do, but not for that reason.
@mouse: Don’t forget that these people have been brainwashed by people who profit off them. They are this way not just because they are prejudiced; everybody is tribal, it’s a baked-in simian trait. They are this way because those traits have been encouraged by people making a good buck doing so. Education didn’t make Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly multi-millionaires.
Ben doesn’t care about elections? I guess expressing moral outrage is more his thing.
Yeah, good point. Just sick of mean white trash working against me their kids and themselves to satisify their vile bigotry
They are people who, despite lack of any evidence, think of themselves as better than others.
I realized recently that racial pride is basically an exercise in glory-stealing. When white people natter on about the accomplishments of Western society, it’s worth noting that they haven’t made any contributions to it. It’s the equivalent of bragging that, between us, Mickey Mantle and I have hit 536 major-league home runs.
Lol, yeah!
I would have liked Roseanne’s Season 2 storyline to be about how the family realized they were duped by Trump and all voted Democratic in the midterms. But I guess that was never going to happen.
That was never going to happen in real life either mainly for the reason Al said above (and others).
Remember, Hillary still received more votes than Trump. The win for racism wasnt that resounding.
Also as an fyi, black people have been winning and losing elections against racists since the ratification of the 14th amendment. Liberals act like they just realized that the electorate was racist in 2016, when Hillary lost.
Another thing…
Don’t hate your enemy. It clouds your judgement.
Hate concentrates my mind wonderfully.
“When a man knows he is to be hanged it concentrates his mind wonderfully.” I just like to give Dr. Johnson credit for some of the quotes we use. Weird dude, but usually on the money. Good use of it.
word.
I switched it around. He did write a great bit on hate though… eulogizing his late friend in a letter to a Mrs. Piozzi in 1762.
“Dear Bathurst was a man to my very heart’s content; he hated a fool, and he hated a rogue, and he hated a whig – he was a very good hater!”
This is a very high compliment indeed.