“Emotionally charged words like bigot, racist, homophobe, or the new favorite of the left, white supremacist, are used because they are effective in gaining votes.”
The news on North Korea, the hurricanes, and continued squabbling might have drowned out the protestors at Nancy Pelosi’s news conference. It was originally being held so Nancy Pelosi could announce a deal with President Trump. They would provide various border enforcement measures in return for Trump signing protections into law for the children of undocumented immigrants. But the conference was stormed by illegal immigrants who shouted her down.
The debate over the compromise and what to do about immigration is large and complex. But this is a small event that highlights how satisfying and symbolic it is for conservatives to watch liberals get a taste of their own medicine.
Emotionally charged words like bigot, racist, homophobe, or the new favorite of the left, white supremacist, are used because they are effective in gaining votes. The most emotional vote counts as much as the coldly rational one, and more people vote because they are angry than because they are calmly convinced of a correct position.
A short time ago, a liberal writer at the New Yorker pointed out how totalitarian it is to label certain speech out of bounds and then police it with labels like bigot or white supremacist. The writer was correct, but that didn’t stop the swift backlash from his progressive allies, who dismissed his concerns as whiny elite white man talk. Because this tactic is used so effectively, many traditional liberals tolerate the behavior against conservatives. But just like the Cultural Revolution in China, often the former allies of the revolution become its next victims because they aren’t radical enough.
That is why San Francisco liberal Nancy Pelosi suddenly isn’t extreme enough for the far left. The protestors stormed her conference because they believe President Obama set up a “deportation machine,” and Pelosi isn’t doing enough to stop it after Trump ended DACA. This is supremely ironic, because she and Chuck Schumer just rolled Trump to get it restored without giving up much. Pelosi tried to listen and address their concerns, but they kept screaming slogans like “undocumented, unafraid.”
After 30 minutes of trying to respond to unproductive yelling, she left the news conference. Extremists could claim another victory against somebody who is just an elite white person—and who supposedly doesn’t care about their radical agenda. All I have to say is welcome to the party Nancy! Now you have a small taste of what it feels like to be a conservative trying to pass sensible measures whose only crime is that it doesn’t conform to liberal group think.
From Scott Walker trying to pass modest union reforms to fiscal conservatives making sure the federal government isn’t taking out credit cards in the names of our grandkids, Republicans regularly face this kind of rude, boorish, counterproductive, and frankly ridiculous behavior. After experiencing a small taste of it, maybe Pelosi will start acting like a grown-up and rein in the radicals who so often march under her banner.
