Once upon a time, the center-left held great cultural power. It had taken the flag of the moral high ground away from traditional ethics and government by claiming the Civil Rights movement wins as their own, and proceeded to wave it in front of political opponents for decades.
What center-left activists knew how to do most effectively was marginalize and ignore by misdirection. Calling someone a racist or a sexist really hurt. With that in play — or by parlaying some more traditional outrage (like corruption) — center-left activists, mavens and politicians could ruin their opponents’ careers. Political careers.
The first big success was taking down Nixon.
And ignoring inconvenient facts? They were masters of evasion, stonewalling, and spin.
But no more. They cannot seem to get marginalization and misdirection right — even though they scream about marginalization all the time . . . when practiced by their enemies, of course.*
Now their greatest hero, Barack Obama, is in danger of being found out. President Trump tweeted about the apparent scandal a few days ago:
The left went nuts over this, of course. And tweeted it and memed it around helter skelter.
President Trump seems to be playing them like the proverbial fiddle, goading them into spreading the news about the scandal far and wide.
You don’t win that way.
Which is good. They deserve to lose. And we need (if not deserve) better than they can offer.
twv
Wirkman Comment 