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| President Trump addressing his supporters on January 6th (NPR) |
The ‘I told you so’ crowd are liberals that have for 4 years now been saying that the Trump Presidency was so toxic that the consequences for the US would eventually be frightening.
I did not think we would see those consequences. But I was wrong. They were right. It happened. Those of us that had some good things to say about the President’s policies, if not the President himself have been duly chastened.
Unfortunately it doesn’t end there. Opposition to the President was not based solely on his character. It was based as much or more on his conservative policies. Which for the most part they believed were highly destructive.
Those of us who thought differently and actually thought most of his policies were good for the country and the world are now at best ignored. The media is currently not giving people with those views the slightest platform for expression. As though their own liberal Orthodoxy is the only political position worthy of expression.
One can debate whether conservative polices are good or bad. But there is no longer any public debate about that as far as the media is concerned. The left has the floor. They have two of the three branches of government, and the mainstream media are their advocates and soldiers to the exclusion of all other views.
Without actually saying so, the media now lumps conservative views together with the views of right wing extremists, bigots and antisemites. The media refers to those who stormed the Capital as Trump supporters. While it is true that they were all Trump supporters, the not so subtle implication is that all 74 million people that voted for him were either involved or at least supported them. And that they share the same values.
The truth, however, is that the vast majority of those that voted for him were voting for his conservative policies - hoping to see them continued. Meanwhile the media portrays the left as the more intelligent. informed, and moral portion of the country. Which by default implies that the right (most of whom voted for the President) are stupid, ignorant, and immoral. And probably just as covertly bigoted as the overtly bigoted extremists that stormed the Capital.
The ‘I told you so’ crowd of the left may be right about the the consequences of the Trump Presidency. But that does not make their politics any more right.
The truth is that the debate between left and right is a good thing and should continue. Neither side should be relegated to the trash heap of illegitimacy. Because that invites extremism on the part of the winning side. Debate keeps things balanced.
The President is entirely responsible for the ascendancy of the left. With an army of left wing media ready to do their bidding. The only political view one hears these days is that of the left. Which is expressed as pure truth. Dissent is barely tolerated, much less given any credence.
Those who still support the President are in fact contributing to this sad phenomenon. Their continued support after he’s gone will perpetuate it. It is the Nancy Pelosis, Adam Schiffs, and Jarold Nadlers of the world that the media treats as the purveyors of truth and morality. Not the Kevin McCarthys, Nikky Haleys or Marco Rubios.
As someone that leans politicly conservative, I regret the direction the country is now headed. But the fault lies as much with Trump supporters as they do with Trump himself.
Those of us that appreciate the President’s conservative policies and want to see them return, need to end the support of the President himself. He needs to be fully rejected. His influence needs to end. He is not the only person capable of implementing the policies we support.
We need to look ahead and choose our candidates more wisely. If conservative views are ever to be given legitimacy again we need to separate them from the man who most recently implemented them. We need to let the name ‘Trump’ sink into the black hole of oblivion, never to rise again.