Bill Gates has helped the world infinitely more by founding Microsoft, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs and bringing computing to the masses, then I can discern from his philanthropy. But the left abhors the first as selfish and self serving and the second as noble (as long as he gives it to the "right" causes. The left embraces politics as morality, even a sub for religion, so of course the heretics would be castigated. They also give away "free" stuff.
Per "Even when I laugh, it still doesn’t feel good to be insulted by people you want to like and respect. It still doesn’t feel good not to be taken seriously. But whose life doesn’t require mental discomfort?"
Oh boy. These are words of wisdom but sometimes in the moment they are hard to live by. But thinking that is the point of the piece?
Ironically enough, Trump is also the first target in my memory to warrant many (certainly not all) of the attacks leveled against him. It’s as if he animated the long imagined straw man of insensitive, amoral conservative with life like some gameshow host necromancer.
And yet, the left’s response was to continue to find ways to level unfair attacks against him. The man was blessed with the intellectual and character deficiencies of their dreams and still, they pushed the envelope. It wasn’t enough that he tried to extralegally investigate Biden from the Oval Office, they had to manufacture bogus ties to some vast Russian conspiracy, for example.
Surely the right does much the same. Obama’s a secret Muslim, Biden stole the election, etc. The difference is that the legacy media run air cover for the left in ways that they do not for the right. Suppress the obvious Whan leak theory, suppress the Hunter laptop, jump to amplify Hamas propaganda, repeat lies about bombshell impeachment revelations when you know they don’t exist.... I could go on forever.
Anyway, I agree with the thick skin requirement. You should have seen some of the hate mail I used to get in college. Once in a while, I’d run into the senders and their responses varied from indignant silence to open outrage to a sort of surprised “Hold on, you’re not a hateful bigot like I thought. How can this be?”
Zealots, which most partisans are, find great comfort in villains. They’re not only right, they’re the good guys but to be good guys, there have to be bad guys. The reduced opportunity to meet political opponents in person has extended that comfortable dream on both sides of the aisle and we are all much the worse off for it.
It was my observation right from the get go that Trump built himself a persona based upon what a New York progressive thinks a conservative is, and amazingly the political circumstances at the time he showed up on the scene were perfect to allow him to get away with it. I think that's why so much of what he's done seems like the animation of the left's strawmen of the right.
And it truly is astounding how much the current iterations of the left and right are made for each other. You are right in observing that for how truly bad Trump's actions and rhetoric have been, the left can't resist piling on more than necessary and continually overstates the case. This has allowed Trump to get away with so many egregious things because his enablers have been able to make the response to Trump's actions, rather than his actions, the "real story." A good example is the Jan. 6 Commission. The left and a lot of NeverTrump folks were convinced that the commission was going to land a heavy blow against Trump, but I warned people at the time that by overstating the case they run the risk of bringing Trump back into the conversation and reinvigorating his support as the right once again experiences a circle the wagons moment. I think my warning has played out as Trump is once again dominant in right-wing circles and the non-Trump efforts within the GOP face as uphill climb as ever trying to steer the ship back to sane waters.
“This has allowed Trump to get away with so many egregious things because his enablers have been able to make the response to Trump's actions, rather than his actions, the ‘real story.’”
Yep. Every time they actually wrong Trump, they create permission for his enablers to excuse the actually bad behavior. It’s incredibly annoying.
Hadn’t thought about him taking that classic narcissistic approach to playing a role he thinks will resonate vs him just being who he is. That makes a whole lot of sense.
I also like this piece because even after 8 years of Trump, I still struggle to get the support. Much of what Ben writes here helps get closer though. The momentary release when he lets some leftist have it in a way that the "squish" Romney never would. But it is disconcerting to see that he is not some champion in the arena fighting the gladiators of the left but a spoiled old man child who will stamp his foot until there is another recount.
Bill Gates has helped the world infinitely more by founding Microsoft, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs and bringing computing to the masses, then I can discern from his philanthropy. But the left abhors the first as selfish and self serving and the second as noble (as long as he gives it to the "right" causes. The left embraces politics as morality, even a sub for religion, so of course the heretics would be castigated. They also give away "free" stuff.
Per "Even when I laugh, it still doesn’t feel good to be insulted by people you want to like and respect. It still doesn’t feel good not to be taken seriously. But whose life doesn’t require mental discomfort?"
Oh boy. These are words of wisdom but sometimes in the moment they are hard to live by. But thinking that is the point of the piece?
Ironically enough, Trump is also the first target in my memory to warrant many (certainly not all) of the attacks leveled against him. It’s as if he animated the long imagined straw man of insensitive, amoral conservative with life like some gameshow host necromancer.
And yet, the left’s response was to continue to find ways to level unfair attacks against him. The man was blessed with the intellectual and character deficiencies of their dreams and still, they pushed the envelope. It wasn’t enough that he tried to extralegally investigate Biden from the Oval Office, they had to manufacture bogus ties to some vast Russian conspiracy, for example.
Surely the right does much the same. Obama’s a secret Muslim, Biden stole the election, etc. The difference is that the legacy media run air cover for the left in ways that they do not for the right. Suppress the obvious Whan leak theory, suppress the Hunter laptop, jump to amplify Hamas propaganda, repeat lies about bombshell impeachment revelations when you know they don’t exist.... I could go on forever.
Anyway, I agree with the thick skin requirement. You should have seen some of the hate mail I used to get in college. Once in a while, I’d run into the senders and their responses varied from indignant silence to open outrage to a sort of surprised “Hold on, you’re not a hateful bigot like I thought. How can this be?”
Zealots, which most partisans are, find great comfort in villains. They’re not only right, they’re the good guys but to be good guys, there have to be bad guys. The reduced opportunity to meet political opponents in person has extended that comfortable dream on both sides of the aisle and we are all much the worse off for it.
All good points.
It was my observation right from the get go that Trump built himself a persona based upon what a New York progressive thinks a conservative is, and amazingly the political circumstances at the time he showed up on the scene were perfect to allow him to get away with it. I think that's why so much of what he's done seems like the animation of the left's strawmen of the right.
And it truly is astounding how much the current iterations of the left and right are made for each other. You are right in observing that for how truly bad Trump's actions and rhetoric have been, the left can't resist piling on more than necessary and continually overstates the case. This has allowed Trump to get away with so many egregious things because his enablers have been able to make the response to Trump's actions, rather than his actions, the "real story." A good example is the Jan. 6 Commission. The left and a lot of NeverTrump folks were convinced that the commission was going to land a heavy blow against Trump, but I warned people at the time that by overstating the case they run the risk of bringing Trump back into the conversation and reinvigorating his support as the right once again experiences a circle the wagons moment. I think my warning has played out as Trump is once again dominant in right-wing circles and the non-Trump efforts within the GOP face as uphill climb as ever trying to steer the ship back to sane waters.
“ It was my observation right from the get go that Trump built himself a persona based upon what a New York progressive thinks a conservative is,”
I noticed that too…
“This has allowed Trump to get away with so many egregious things because his enablers have been able to make the response to Trump's actions, rather than his actions, the ‘real story.’”
Yep. Every time they actually wrong Trump, they create permission for his enablers to excuse the actually bad behavior. It’s incredibly annoying.
Hadn’t thought about him taking that classic narcissistic approach to playing a role he thinks will resonate vs him just being who he is. That makes a whole lot of sense.
I also like this piece because even after 8 years of Trump, I still struggle to get the support. Much of what Ben writes here helps get closer though. The momentary release when he lets some leftist have it in a way that the "squish" Romney never would. But it is disconcerting to see that he is not some champion in the arena fighting the gladiators of the left but a spoiled old man child who will stamp his foot until there is another recount.