[Julie Steiner]

Another Times op-ed, undermining my last sentence:

‘Reach Out to Trump Supporters,’ They Said. I Tried.
I give up.
--Wajahat Ali
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/19/o...upporters.html

Snippets:

The majority of people of color rejected [Trump's] cruelty and vulgarity. But along with others who voted for Joe Biden, we are now being lectured by a chorus of voices including Pete Buttigieg and Ian Bremmer, to “reach out” to Trump voters and “empathize” with their pain.

This is the same advice that was given after Trump’s 2016 victory, and for nearly four years, I attempted to take it. Believe me, it’s not worth it.

Growing up, I often talked about my Islamic faith with my non-Muslim friends, and I like to think that might have helped to inoculate them from the Islamophobic propaganda and conspiracy theories that later became popular. So I assumed I could win over some Trump supporters whose frustrations and grievances had been manipulated by those intent on seeing people like me as invaders intent on replacing them.

So in late 2016, I told my speaking agency to book me for events in the states where Trump won. I wanted to talk to the people the media calls “real Americans” from the “heartland” — which is of course America’s synonym for white people, Trump’s most fervent base. Over the next four years I gave more than a dozen talks to universities, companies and a variety of faith-based communities.

My standard speech was about how to “build a multicultural coalition of the willing.” My message was that diverse communities, including white Trump supporters, could work together to create a future where all of our children would have an equal shot at the American dream. I assured the audiences that I was not their enemy.

I reminded them that those who are now considered white, such as Irish Catholics, Eastern European Jews, Greeks and Italians, were once the boogeyman. I warned them that supporting white nationalism and Trump, in particular, would be self destructive, an act of self-immolation, that will neither help their families or America become great again.

And I listened. Those in the audience who supported Trump came up to me and assured me they weren’t racist. They often said they’d enjoyed the talk, if not my politics. Still, not one told me they’d wavered in their support for him. Instead, they repeated conspiracy theories and Fox News talking points about “crooked Hillary.” Others made comments like, “You’re a good, moderate Muslim. How come others aren’t like you?”

I did my part. What was my reward? Listening to Trump’s base chant, “Send her back!” in reference to Representative Ilhan Omar, a black Muslim woman, who came to America as a refugee. I saw the Republican Party transform the McCloskeys into victims, even though the wealthy St. Louis couple illegally brandished firearms against peaceful BLM protesters. Their bellicosity was rewarded with a prime time slot at the Republican National Convention where they warned about “chaos” in the suburbs being invaded by people of color. Their speech would have fit well in “The Birth of a Nation."

We cannot help people who refuse to help themselves. Trump is an extension of their id, their culture, their values, their greed. He is their defender and savior. He is their blunt instrument. He is their destructive drug of choice.

Don’t waste your time reaching out to Trump voters like I did. Instead, invest your time organizing your community, registering new voters and supporting candidates who reflect progressive values that uplift everyone, not just those who wear MAGA hats, in local and state elections. Work also to protect Americans against lies and conspiracy theories churned out by the right wing media and political ecosystem. [...]

Or, you can just watch “The Queen’s Gambit” on Netflix while downing your favorite pint of ice cream and call it a day.

[...]

I will move forward along with the majority who want progress, equality and justice for all Americans. If Trump supporters decide they want the same, they can always reach out to me. They know where to find me. Ahead of them.

[Quincy Lehr]

Elizabeth Bruenig at the Times is better than nothing (though they have a lot to atone for after hiring Bari Weiss). But I really think a lot of where kvetches like Stephens's here come from is one of the best aspects of Twitter. Back in the Iraq War, Thomas Friedman or Jonathan Chait or Charles Krauthammer or Bill Kristol could write some pro-war tripe or other and proceed to "what I meant to say was..." as the war went horrifically wrong and their whole justification for the thing unraveled in their high-prestige, high-salary perches without ever really hearing much of a contrary word. (MSNBC had sacked Phil Donohue for being anti-war, and pretty much the only anti-war talking head one saw on TV in the U.S. in late 2002-early 2003 was Jeanine Garofalo). Nowadays, if one posts one's smooth-brained takes on Twitter, however, a large number of accounts with some combination of rose emojis, black flags, and hammers-and-sickles will, well, own and ratio you. And yes, the Twitter mob can be one of the worst things in other circumstances, but it means that Stephens and his ilk have to deal with non-adulatory reader response on a regular basis, with not-infrequently hilarious results.

Originally Posted by Andrew Mandelbaum

Truth. But the entire discourse in the mainstream, from end to end, is so far off the historical it is hard to know where to begin. When Hitchens sold his soul on Iraq it was like every outlet murdered any employee who could still spell Luxemburg or Kronstadt and gave each and every political writer in their ticket-box lines a never-ending enema bag of anti-marxist cliche's distilled from the Horowitz crayon collection. I am sure it was way before that when the Stupid began but it is so much worse every year since.