When conservatives think about what they most hate about the left, several factors come to mind: their racist appeals, their whining social justice warrior nonsense, their distinct willingness to attack conservative women, their consistent stream of lies, their perversion of buzzwords.
Those things do not become good just because a Republican does them. They are nasty in and of themselves. Yet the Trump campaign is almost purely a mash-up of these ugly traits. Here are 7 behaviors that make conservatives rightly despise leftism – but that conservatives seem more than willing to overlook in Trump:
Whining About The Rules. Democrats’ entire party platform is predicated on whining about the Constitution of the United States. They firmly believe that anything they don’t like must be barred by the Constitution, and anything they do like must be mandated by it. This is true of rule of law, too: if Democratic allies riot, Democrats say the law is unfair. If certain constituencies end up in jail, they blame the criminal justice system and calls the rules corrupt. If certain constituencies end up poor, they blame “the system” rather than individual choices.
That’s all Donald Trump does lately. Instead of whining about the Constitution, he’s whining about the delegate rules in Colorado and a caucus system that has been in place for approximately 104 years. It’s not about him making bad decisions – it’s about the rules being unfair. Even though he knew them.
Pandering On The Basis Of Race. Barack Obama has been the most racially divisive president of my lifetime. He’s sicced his Attorney General on unsuspecting police departments, armed with no evidence of racism but a self-righteous certainty that law enforcement must be punished. He’s said that America carries racism in our DNA. He’s said that Trayvon Martin could have been his son, and he’s justified rioting. Now, Hillary Clinton does the same, undercutting her husband’s crime-fighting legacy to pander to members of the black community, some of whom would undoubtedly be dead if not for the Clinton crackdown on crime.
In response, Donald Trump has engaged in racial turnabout as fair play, pandering to disaffected white voters who feel that government has left them behind. There’s a reason Trump went soft on the KKK just before the Louisiana primary. There’s a reason his alt-right base is so all-fired enthusiastic about his rise. Trump is a grievance-monger for poor white blue collar workers. That’s why he pledges to beat down corporations with trade barriers until they return to those areas. Racial pandering of this sort is ugly no matter how it’s played. Defending government-crafted welfare plans to benefit whites is no less horrific than defending government-crafted welfare plans for blacks. As Kevin Williamson puts it, “If you wanted to know whether white identity politics inspired by Donald Trump is going to be as foolish and morally reprehensible as black identity politics inspired by Al Sharpton, there’s your answer.”
Playing Social Justice Warrior. One of the great irritations of the left is their ridiculous penchant for playing the race card at every opportunity. President Obama has consistently suggested that his opponents dislike him because of his melanin level. Hillary says that all of the Republicans are racists. Vice President Joe Biden said in 2012 that Republicans wanted to “put y’all back in chains.”
Now, it’s Trump surrogate Ben Carson doing this kind of dirty work.
With Trump whining about the Colorado caucuses, World Worst Surrogate™ Ben Carson has taken to the microphones to explain that the Colorado caucus rules were just like Jim Crow: “Yeah, well, you know, during the Jim Crow era, those were the rules too. They were written. Everybody knew about them, didn’t make them right. And I’m not saying this is the same. But, you know, I think you get the point.”
Yes, we do. And it’s pathetic. Comparing fair and free elections to a system of law designed to disenfranchise black voters and punish businesses who treated blacks equally is morally insipid.
The Microaggression Culture. The left proclaims that offensive words may be met with action. They deem it a “microaggression” worthy of government intervention if a business refuses to treat a man who thinks he is a woman as a woman for purposes of peeing. They call the cops when a baker won’t bake a cake for a same-sex wedding.
Trump calls on his fans to rough up protesters who disagree with him. His followers – including the execrable Roger Stone — doxx those who disagree with Trump, unchastened by their godking. Trump says on national television that he’ll look into paying for the legal defense of a guy who coldcocked a black protester. Trump must maintain his “safe space,” after all.
Vicious Smearing Of Women. Sarah Palin came under fire from the left for the crime of being a conservative woman. So has Michelle Malkin. So has Ann Coulter. Women who do not buy into the left’s abortion-only version of womanhood find themselves on the receiving end of vile smear after vile smear. Chivalry doesn’t exist on the left.
It doesn’t exist for Trump, either. Cross the Dear Leader and commit the sin of having a womb, and you will be hit with a level of vitriol higher than that of the typical man who disagrees with Trump. Amanda Carpenter will be called an adulteress on national television for backing Ted Cruz. Megyn Kelly will be accused of bleeding from her “wherever” for the thoughtcrime of asking Trump tough questions. Michelle Fields will be smeared as an “attention-seeker” for reporting an undeniable grab and bruise from Trump’s campaign manager. Heidi Cruz will be labeled ugly by Trump personally for the crime of being married to Cruz. Conservatism is about the notion that men defend women from assault. The Trump campaign forwards such treatment. Which makes sense, given that their leader is a man who once told New York magazine, “Women, you have to treat them like s***.”
Lying For The Sake Of Lying. The left lies with skill and precision. Hillary Clinton maintains, straightfaced, that she did yeoman’s work in Libya, that she never stashed classified information on private servers, and that if she did, it was totally legitimate. Barack Obama says that the IRS never targeted conservatives, says that he never knew anything about Fast and Furious, and overlooks corruption in virtually every department under his watch. It’s maddening to watch the left gaslight Americans, and to watch the media help.
But these people are pikers next to Trump. Democratic lies are calculated. Trump’s are brazen, consistent, and overwhelming. Trump lies every five minutes in his speeches. In one townhall event, he lied upwards of 70 times. We have catalogued 101 of Trump’s lies, and could easily have reached 500. Most disturbing, his supporters move the goalposts right along with him, pretending he is telling the truth until he is disproved, at which point he gives them a new lie to believe. When Corey Lewandowski changes his story nine times about the Michelle Fields incident while Fields never changes her story once, Trump’s backers keep shouting “hoax” until the gaslighting takes hold. And Trump and his media sycophants egg it on.
Perverting Buzzwords. The Obama administration uses idiotic catch-phrases like “right side of history” and “evolved” to describe favored policies, and embraces “social justice” in order to promote big government leftism. This irritates conservatives, and for good reason: these phrases mean nothing.
Trump does something worse: he takes meaningful phrases and words and injects them with brain feces. So do others in his campaign. Thus, Lewandowski says, “Everything is politically correct, nowadays” after blatantly lying about whether he grabbed a reporter, then saying nothing for a month, then coming up with the ridiculous story that he was acting to preserve the life of his boss from that ISIS assassin 90-lb. reporteress with the pen bomb. That’s just Corey being politically incorrect! When Trump mocks POWs or the disabled, his supporters say the same: he’s just being politically incorrect!
This robs the term of all meaning. Political incorrectness is stating important facts regardless of the dictates of the politically correct left seeking to stop dissemination of vital information. To Trump, being “politically incorrect” just means being a jackass.
Or take the term “establishment.” Trump says that Ted Cruz is the “establishment.” This is like saying that I am a charter member of the Trump campaign. It’s nonsensical. If Cruz is “establishment,” the term has no meaning. Trump is the guy who spent oodles of money on Democrats for purposes of buying people off, who hobnobs with the chichi (and pays them to come to his wedding), who makes friends with people on all sides of the aisle to cut deals that benefit him. But Cruz is the “establishment.”
Idiotic. And just as damaging as when the left cuts the heart out of language to accomplish their purposes.
The left is indecent. That’s why conservatives hate the left.
But so is Trump.
Now, some conservatives revel in this. They think it’s turnabout as fair play. They think Trump is fighting fire with fire, that it takes a leftist strategy to beat leftists.
Sometimes that’s true.
Not here. Trump is a personal totalitarian with only one centralizing principle, maximization of power. He acts like a leftist because he is one. He’s not using leftist tactics to defeat leftism. He’s using them to destroy conservatism itself. Once the earth has been salted, he hopes to build a new Trump Tower.