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There is Still a Different View [1]
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Date: 2025-03-31
With Republicans enjoying a prolonged victory lap on Sunday talk shows, cable gab, and infuriatingly nightly with CNN’s Abby Phillip, one would believe that no legitimate liberal perspective exists. Watching the smug, self-assured smile of CNN’s GOP contributor Scott Jennings reset every argument with the words “in the eyes of a lot of working-class voters...” I suppose—in his mind, excludes the slackers who support Democrats. Republicans are good at speaking as if the only perspective that matters is the conservative one. The likes of former RNC chair Reince Priebus and his ilk will bring up that President Donald Trump got over 77 million votes but ignore the fact that Kamala Harris got nearly 75 million votes. Harris's loss to Trump was by a margin narrower than Trump’s loss to former President Joe Biden, who garnered 81 million votes.
Because one party overexcites the vagaries of their party into action does not mean the apathy of the other means they also support conservatives. Democrats, who support LGBTQIA+ rights, climate change, abortion rights, universal healthcare, or minimum wage increases, are not suddenly against all those things. Republicans, I agree, were successful in this cycle of convincing Democrats to stay home because their morality was less critical than their pocketbook. For the Republicans who are gleefully throwing dirt into the premature grave of Democrats, I suggest they remember when they were contemplating their death with the Republican 2012-13 autopsy. Democrats walked around with the Jennings smirk, thinking America would coast into its version of the unchallenged future. The GOP thought a kinder, gentler party toward women and minorities was the answer.
Donald Trump upended that thinking with a more callous attitude toward women, minorities, the gay community, and civil rights. He guessed right that the undercurrent of racism bubbling below the feet of America’s first black president was palpable and insidious enough to win. The fear for liberals is that the Democratic party does not adopt the same strategy of thinking that cruelty is the point.
Democrats have been successful since the Kennedy era because policy morality inspires further morality. The burr in the saddle of the high horse the GOP currently rides is that cruelty can only be exceeded by more cruelty. The concentration on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) is a perfect example. Once Trump conditioned the people (white people) to accept that black people are the recipients of special treatment to their detriment, the next step was to remove black people’s accomplishments from public record, such as the Tuskegee Airmen, Medgar Evers, and Jackie Robinson, whose name was returned after a public outcry. The collateral damage to the Native population, women, and the gay community is just a bonus.
The tide of cruelty is washing up on the shore, and the people who voted for Trump because he hates the people they hate are caught up in the tsunami. Now that grandma’s check is on the line and veterans who may not get their benefits are at risk, the cruelty seems misplaced. One Trump Cabinet official, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, is so mesmerized by the cruelty that he publicly said, “Let’s say Social Security didn’t send out their checks this month.” My mother-in-law, who’s 94, she wouldn’t call and complain. She just wouldn’t. She’d think something got messed up and she’ll get it next month,” Lutnick, who has an estimated net worth of $1.5 billion, said on the “All-In” podcast. For those of us in the real world, our morality would not allow us to risk our ninety-four-year-old mother-in-law surviving with no means to pay for heating, medicine, or food for a month.
Your Vote is Still Your Voice
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