Daily Archives: June 1, 2017

Kathy Griffin is under fire for a photo shoot where she held a mock severed head of President Trump.(Photo: Dan MacMedan, USA TODAY)

Media bubbles. Everybody's got one and everybody thinks the other side's stinks. For those of you who may lean liberal and not know what's trending on your conservative brother-in-law's Facebook page or vice-versahere's a look at what was hot from both right and left-leaning media and commentators this week.

And here's what had everyone fired up last week:

What really fired up conservatives this week?

What really fired up liberals this week?

Of all the posts about comedian Kathy Griffin'soffensive photo shoot with decapitated Trump head,this one from Fox News Entertainment, about Griffin losing her new Squatty Potty gig, made the biggest social media splash.

"We were shocked and disappointed to learn about the image Ms. Griffin shared today, it was deeply inappropriate and runs contrary to the core values our company stands for," Squatty Potty CEO Bobby Edwards in a statement, according to Fox News. "In response, Squatty Potty has suspended its ad campaign featuring Ms. Griffin. We have acted swiftly and decisively to demonstrate our commitment to a culture of decency, civility, and tolerance."

Not familiar withthe Squatty Potty? I'll just leave this here ...

"I know its theoretically wrong for a Republican candidate to smack around an annoying liberal journalist, but that still doesnt mean that I care," writes Townhall columnist Kurt Schlichter about Greg Gianforte's alleged assault of Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs on the eve of Montana's special election for its open House seat. The fact that he and other conservatives don't care about the assault is the fault of liberals who "have chosen to coarsen our culture,"Schlichter says.

Their validation and encouragement of raw hate, their flouting of laws (Hi leakers! Hi Hillary!) and their utter refusal to accept democratic outcomes they disapprove of have consequences. What is itself so surprising is how liberals and their media rentboyz are so surprised to find that we normals are beginning to feel about them the way they feel about us and that were starting to act on it. If you hate us, guess what?

Were going to start hating you right back.

National Review critic Kyle Smith was less than kind in his assessment of a recent New York Magazine interview with Hillary Clinton:

The funniest episode in the protective yet revealing new Hillary Clinton profile arrives when we learn that this sad, unemployed, 69-year-old lady is so desperate to keep her self-image alive that she still employs flunkies and retainers to treat her as though she actually were the president, or the secretary of state, or a president in waiting, or at very least the leader of the opposition.

Smith was particularly disgusted with what he says is Clinton's refusal to accept any blame for the election outcome.

"Every time she draws attention to the Trumpian flaws that were conspicuous to all during the campaign, she doesnt hear the obvious rejoinder echoing in every Americans mind: Then why couldnt you trounce him?" Smith concludes.

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And in other Hillary Clinton news:

"Hillary Clinton said Wednesday that her loss to Donald Trump might suggest that Democrats have to start learning how to twist the truth if they're going to start winning elections," the Washington Examiner'sPete Kasperowicz writes. Kasperowicz refers to remarks Clinton made at a tech conference in California, where she attributed part of her loss in the 2016election to what she considers the Trump team's open embrace of "falsehoods, fake news" and "lies."

"The other side was using content that was just flat-out false and delivering it in a very personalized way, both above the radar screen and below," Clinton said.

Kasperowicz said at one point Clinton appeared to reconsider the wisdom of not using the same tactics against her opponent. He said she implied that future candidates might have to resort to lying if they want to win when she said, "I'm not rethinking it, but everybody else better rethink it, because we have to figure out how to combat this."

Citing CNBC, this post on Sean Hannity's website celebrates the private sector jobs report for May, which came in at a robust 253,000 after forecasts of 180,000.

"The Trump administration has made job creation the cornerstone of its economic plan, slashing regulations and rescinding burdensome government policies that inhibit growth," the Hannity post reports.

"Many economists believe its now possible to achieve the White Houses goal of 3% GDP growth per year," the report concludes, without providing specific examples.

President Trump dealt a "devastating setback to international efforts to curb global warming" when he announced Thursday that the US. was pulling out of the Paris climate change agreement, which the Obama administration had taken a big role in brokering, the Huffington Post reported.

The move is a particularly egregious repudiation of the international community because the Trump administration could have negotiated for lower emissions targets under the Paris Agreement, officials and the pacts advocates said. Because of that, the diplomatic fallout will likely be harsher than when President George W. Bush rejected the 1997 Kyoto climate agreement.

President Donald Trump has announced the United States will withdraw from the Paris climate agreement. USA TODAY

"We don't need additional information about the Russian covert scheme to undermine the 2016 campaign, or about the curiousinteractions between Team Trump and Russia, or about Trumppressuring and then firingFBI Director James Comey, to reach the judgment that the president of the United States engaged in wrongdoing," David Corn writes forMother Jones.

Explicit collusion may yet be proved by the FBI investigation overseen byspecial counsel Robert Muelleror by other ongoing probes. But even if it is not, a harsh verdict can be pronounced: Trump actively and enthusiastically aided and abetted Russian President Vladimir Putin's plot against America. This is the scandal. It already exists in plain sight.

The newly elected president of France, Emmanuel Macron, promised to be "demanding" in his dealings with Russia and denounced state news organizations like Russia Today as "fake news" and "propaganda" during a news conference alongside Putin on Monday. "Two weeks into his term, the 39-year-old Macron struck an assertive, principled tone that you would have expected from an American president meeting with an increasingly assertive adversary," wrote Elliot Hannon for Slate.

Macrons assertiveness is noticeably absent in American interactions with Russia, which have melted into a bizarre sycophancy. Macron, like an increasing number of European leaders, seems to have sensed the softening in Washington and has indicated he will strike an equally tough pose in his dealings with the Trump White House.

French President Emmanuel Macron hosted Russia's Vladimir Putin at the sumptuous royal palace in Versailles on Monday to talk about cooperating on fighting terror. Time

There is "glaring hypocrisy" in the Trump family's outcry over Kathy Griffin's photo shoot because of their embrace of right-wing rock star Ted Nugent, writes Aaron Rupar for Think Progress.

"Just last month, Trump invited rock star Ted Nugent to the White House for dinner, despite Nugents repeated calls for the deaths of then-President Obama and Hillary Clinton," Rupar writes.

During Trumps presidential campaign, Nugents well-documented history of racism and violent threats didnt deter Trump fromfeaturing him in his campaign adsand at his rallies.

Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters could not be more clear on his 2017 U.S. tour: He does not like President Trump. At his shows, images played on a massive screen above the stage show Trump wearing lipstick, a wig, in dominatrix leather and naked, the Daily Kos reported. There are also anti-Trump messages that flashon the screen and agiant inflatable pig with Trump's face on it that hovers over the audience. Some fans at were not thrilled at the opening show in Kansas City, according to the Daily Kos.

The fans who didnt like the anti-Trump message must have beensuper bummed out to see children on stage, sporting Resist t-shirts during Waters rendition ofAnother Brick in the Wall. I mean, the guy wrote"The Wall" for Christ sakes. What did you think that was about?

Roger Waters dedicated some of his performance to ridiculing Donald Trump at Desert Trip in Indio, Calif., Oct. 9, 2016.(Photo: Jay Calderon, The Desert Sun)

In case you missed it:

What really fired up conservatives this week?

What really fired up liberals this week?

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What blew up the liberal and conservative media bubbles this week - USA TODAY

Three liberal states are teaming up to fight climate change in response to President Trumpwithdrawingfrom the Paris climate agreement.

California, Washington and New York, which together account for a fifth of the countrys economy, say theyre committed to upholding the goals of Paris despite Trumps pullout.

The president has already said climate change is a hoax, which is the exact opposite of virtually all scientific and worldwide opinion, California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) said in a joint statement from himself and the other two states governors.

The three states are already some of the most progressive in policies regarding greenhouse gas emissions and aim to lead the world on fighting climate change.

Brown and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) attended the Paris climate conference in 2015, where nearly 200 nations wrote the pact to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

The coalition, which the governors are dubbing the U.S. Climate Alliance, is launching without specific goals, except to do their own parts to abide by the original United States commitment.

I am proud to stand with other governors as we make sure that the inaction in D.C. is met by an equal force of action from the states," said Inslee. "Todays announcement by the president leaves the full responsibility of climate action on states and cities throughout our nation.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) accused the Trump administration of abdicating its leadership and taking a backseat to other countries.

Cuomo said he is signing an executive order on climate change, which he said would confirm New Yorks leadership role in protecting our citizens, our environment, and our planet.

Read more:

Liberal governors team up to fight climate change - The Hill

Christian is accused of fatally stabbing two men who tried to protect two African-American girls, including one wearing a hijab, on a Portland light-rail train.

"Go home, we need American here!" Christian shouted at the girls, according to a probable cause affidavit. "I don't care if you are ISIS."

On Tuesday, Christian had barely entered the courtroom when he started shouting in his blue jail uniform.

"Free speech or die, Portland!" Christian bellowed. "... Death to the enemies of America. ... You call it terrorism, I call it patriotism. You hear me? Die."

Portland attack survivor feels 'very fortunate' 01:08

Just outside the courtroom, vitriol flew from the other direction.

One man identified himself as a friend of Christian's and was instantly met with profanity from some supporters of the victims.

"F*cking Nazi, you're a fascist!" one person shouted at the man.

"I bled for my race," he replied, as he tightened the red shoelaces on his boots.

It's not clear what the man meant when he said he bled for his race. Sheriff's deputies escorted him out before any more trouble erupted.

It's far from the first time Portland has been linked to Nazi extremism.

At the Portland metro station where bloody victims emerged last week, mourners wrote messages in chalk to honor those killed.

One message stirred memories of another gruesome murder: "Remember Mulugeta Seraw."

A message in front of Portland's Hollywood metro station honors murder victim Mulugeta Seraw.

"The murder of Mulugeta Seraw really put Portland on the map for all the wrong reasons," said Blazak, who is also chairman of the Oregon Coalition Against Hate Crimes.

Seraw, an Ethiopian immigrant, was bludgeoned to death with a baseball bat by a group of Portland skinheads in 1988.

"This city had a wake-up call," Blazak said. "It was kind of a sleepy, progressive city where we recycled everything. And then all of a sudden we had these roving gangs with Nazi skinheads attacking -- and in this case killing -- an immigrant."

And in the years following Seraw's death, Portland gained the unsavory nickname of "Skinhead City."

"We became famous in the 1990s as 'Skinhead City' because of the rival gangs of right-wing racist skinheads and anti-racist skinheads who are doing physical battle in the streets," Blazak said.

Last week's deadly train incident "is kind of the latest manifestation of that," he said.

But conflicts have escalated in recent months, Portland Police Chief Mike Marshman said.

Girl targeted on Portland train speaks out 01:22

"With the election of President Trump, I think our protest activity -- the number of events we have -- has increased," he said.

"That's problematic for me only because that takes more money to have those events go safely. I have to pull officers and detectives from their normal day-to-day activity, so certain crimes just now aren't getting investigated, or the investigations that are being worked on just take longer to work through the investigative process."

In the two days after Trump's inauguration, protesters caused about $1 million in damage, Marshman said.

Blazak, the Oregon criminology professor, said Portlanders are known to be passionate about politics.

"There is kind of a radical history in this town and in this region on both sides of the political spectrum," he said.

The terms are relatively new, but the concepts are not.

For years, the alt-right has existed in the cyberworld, "but now they're kind of spilling over into the streets," Blazek said.

Suspect ranted on train one day before attack 00:45

"They're disaffected with mainstream conservative speech, (but) they don't want to be associated with overt white supremacist neo-Nazi groups, and they want to express anti-immigration views, anti-multicultural views, economic protectionism."

He said alt-right protesters are typically "moderate-income working-class white males who are left out of the globalization and ... feel left out of all the progress that's happening," the professor said.

"And they want to assert their voice because they feel like the tendency is to defer to the minority voice, and they feel like they're not part of the conversation."

By contrast, the alt-left -- also known as the Antifa -- is bent on stopping the rise of right-wing groups.

He cited a 2012 case in which alt-left activists "walked into a high-end restaurant in Chicago where a white supremacist group was eating and literally beat them up with baseball bats."

Blazak said the recent train killings, combined with political rhetoric, portends "a long, hot summer in Portland as these groups kind of line up against each other."

It might seem self-defeating for right-wing activists, and especially alt-right activists, to try to make headway in traditionally liberal hot spots like Portland and Berkeley, California.

Blazak said he's not surprised alt-right members are trying to raise their profiles in such cities.

"There's this mantle of free speech that they're hanging their hats on," he said.

"Under the first amendment, they have a right to express themselves ... but it's used in a very provocative way to bring out the opposition and essentially martyr themselves in these street battles between the left and the right and to show themselves as almost the victims of the oppressive left-wing regime."

Alt-right leader punched during interview 00:42

But Joey Gibson, organizer of the group Patriot Prayer USA, said his group's planned rally in Portland on Sunday is "really not about provoking, it's about fighting for your right to assembly and to show what you believe in."

Gibson said he's libertarian and not alt-right. He said one of his goals is to help "turn a blue state into a red state."

That could be a huge challenge.

"Portland is as left as you can get," said Lenz of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

He said what's happening with the alt-right in Portland is actually reflective of what's happening across the country.

"What the alt-right is trying to do is they are going into these bastions of liberalism and hoping and willing to engage in physical conflict with counterprotesters," he said.

"The story isn't an Oregon thing. It's a national story."

Paul Vercammen and Stephanie Becker reported from Portland, and Holly Yan reported and wrote from Atlanta. CNN's Carma Hassan also contributed to this report.

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Portland's liberal image tempered by history as 'Skinhead City ... - CNN

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron leaps off stage after taking part in a televised debate on May 31, 2017 in Cambridge | Stefan Rousseau via Getty Images

The paper calls June 8 vote a dismal choice, but says their endorsement is a down-payment for the future.

By Saim Saeed

6/1/17, 1:01 PM CET

TheEconomist has backedthe EU-friendly Liberal Democrats in the upcoming U.K. generalelection, it announced Thursday.

Calling the election on June 8 a dismal choice between a backward-looking Labour Party and an inward-looking Tory party, the weekly said Tim Farrons Liberal Democrats come closest to its classical, free-market liberal values.

The Economist supported the Lib Dems position on staying in the single market and open borders, and preferred it to Labours loony left policies and Prime Minister Theresa Mays illiberal instincts.

Brexit will do least damage if seen as an embrace of the wider world, not simply a rejection of Europe, the leader article endorsing the partyreads.

The paper said it is under no illusions about the Lib Dems chances in the election, which polls suggest look grim. We know that this year the Lib Dems are going nowhere, it said, but called its endorsement a down-payment for the future in the hope that British politics may resemble French President Macrons success in carving out space in the center-ground of politics between left and right.

Our hope is that they become one element of a party of the radical center, essential for a thriving, prosperous Britain.

Link:

The Economist endorses Liberal Democrats in UK election - POLITICO.eu

We now have a Trump Doctrine, and it is, at least in its conception and initial execution, the most radical departure from a bipartisan U.S. foreign policy since 1945. In an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn and national security adviser H.R. McMaster say that President Trump has a clear-eyed outlook that the world is not a global community but an arena where nations, nongovernmental actors and businesses engage and compete for advantage. The senior officials add: Rather than deny this elemental nature of international affairs, we embrace it. That embrace has now led the United States to withdraw from the Paris accord on climate change, signed by 194other parties.

The elemental aspect of international relations has existed for millennia. The history of the human race is one of competition and conflict. U.S. foreign policy has amply reflected this feature. The United States has the worlds largest military and intelligence apparatus, troops and bases in dozens of countries around the world, and ongoing military interventions on several continents. This is not the picture of a nation unaware of political and military competition.

But in 1945, the world did change. In the wake of two of the deadliest wars in human history, with tens of millions killed and much of Europe and Asia physically devastated, the United States tried to build a new international system. It created institutions, rules and norms that would encourage countries to solve their differences peaceably through negotiations rather than war. It forged a system in which trade and commerce would expand the world economy so that a rising tide could lift all boats. It set up mechanisms to manage global problems that no one country could solve. And it emphasized basic human rights so that there were stronger moral and legal prohibitions against dehumanizing policies such as those that led to the Holocaust.

It didnt work perfectly. The Soviet Union and its allies rejected many of these ideas from the start. Many developing nations adopted only some parts of the system. But Western Europe, Canada and the United States did, in fact, become an amazing zone of peace and economic, political and military cooperation. Certainly there was competition among nations, but it was managed peacefully and always with the aim of greater growth, more freedom and improved human rights.

The West that emerged is, in historical terms, a miracle. Europe, which had torn itself apart for hundreds of years because of the elemental nature of international competition, was now competing only to create better jobs and more growth, not to annex countries and subjugate populations.

(Daron Taylor/The Washington Post)

This zone of peace grew over the years, first encompassing Japan and South Korea, and later a few countries in Latin America. It was always in competition and conflict with the Soviet bloc, in traditional geopolitical ways. Then in 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed and large parts of the world gravitated toward this open international order.

At the heart of the system was the United States, which had tried to create such an enterprise after World War I but failed. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, learning from those mistakes, advanced a new set of ideas as World War II was drawing to a close. This time, it worked.

Since then, every president of either party has recognized that the United States has created something unique that is a break from centuries of elemental international conflict. In the past two-and-a-half decades, it has tried to help incorporate hundreds of millions of people, from Mexico to Ukraine, who want to be part of this liberal meaning free international order.

From the start of his political career, Trump has seemed unaware of this history and ignorant of these accomplishments. He has consistently been dismissive of the United States closest political, economic and moral allies. He speaks admiringly of strongmen such as Russias Vladimir Putin, Chinas Xi Jinping, Egypts Abdel Fatah al-Sissi and the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte but critically of almost every democratic leader of Europe.

The consequences of Trumps stance and his actions are difficult to foresee. They might result in the slow erosion of the liberal international order. They might mean the rise of a new, not-so-liberal order, championed by China and India, both of them mercantilist and nationalist countries.

But they could also result, in the long run, in the strengthening of this order, perhaps by the reemergence of Europe. Trump has brought the continents countries together in a way that even Putin could not. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that Europe must look out for itself and, as if to underscore that fact, the same week welcomed the prime minister of India and the premier of China. French President Emmanuel Macron upheld Western interests and values face to face with Putin, in just the way an American president would have done in the past.

Trump might not cause the end of the Western world, but he could end the United States role at its center.

Read more from Fareed Zakarias archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.

Read more:

Trump could spur the rise of a new, not-so-liberal world order - Washington Post

In the small fishing village of Mousehole, assistant harbormaster Bill Johnson dismisses most of what is being said in the run-up to the U.K. election as a lot of gobbledygook.

Gibberish aside, the 60-year-old is clear on one thing. A year after voting for Brexit, hes turning from the Liberal Democrats to the Conservatives, the only party he trusts to complete Britains withdrawal from the European Union.

Photographer: Chris J. Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

A local shop in Mousehole.

Theresa Mayneeds a mandate to push things through on Brexit,said Johnson in his office overlooking the little harbor with its sailboats, kayaks and paddle boards. Shes the only one going in with a strong line.

Johnsons switch illustrates a dilemma for the traditional third party in British politics, whichsuffered a near wipe-out in the last election and is running on an unabashedlypro-EU platform targeting the 48 percent of Remainers. Problem is, it'sgetting the cold shoulder. Even as Mays poll lead is waning, the main beneficiary isJeremy Corbyns Labour Party.

In the closing stages of the election, assumptions have been turned on their head, from Mays initial commanding advantage in public opinion to the theory that the Liberal Democrats could sop up support among almost half of the population that had never wanted Brexit to come to pass.

Unfortunately for the Liberal Democrats, it is stuck in the polls around the 10 percent mark, little more than the 8 percent they won in the 2015 election.

Thats why places like Mousehole, described by the poet Dylan Thomas as the loveliest village in England,matter to a party fighting for political relevance as it seeks to regain a foothold in itsformer stronghold of southwest England. The region stretches from Cornwall to the rolling hills of the Cotswolds, taking in cities such as Bath, known for its Roman baths, and Plymouth, from where the Pilgrim Fathers departed for the Americas in 1620.

Photographer: Chris J. Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

Surfboards and kayaks propped up against the harbor wall in Mousehole.

The Liberal Democrats sensed a shot at a comeback when May called a surprise snap election, arguing she needed a personal mandate and a bigger majority to stand up to the EU in negotiations. They too would make Brexit their strong suit: by opposing it.

Ten minutes after Mays election announcement on April 18, Liberal Democrat LeaderTim Farronrushed out a short statement tellingvoters that this election is your chance to change the direction of our country and avoid a disastrous hard Brexit.

But the Brexit message is always going to be a difficult one to fight because it seems to go against the notion of democracy,said Thom Oliver, a politics lecturer at the University of the West of England and a Liberal Democrat expert.

The offer to revisit the 2016 decision with a second referendum at the end of the Brexit talks may work in cosmopolitan London but further afield could go down as sour grapes given that the party lost that argument, he explained. In fact, for some Liberal Democrats campaigning for a seat in the southwest, its simply not a selling point.

Photographer: Chris J. Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

Andrew George.

My answer to the Brexit question is its going to happen, you cant stop it, theres not going to be a second referendum, whatever Tim Farron says, said Andrew George, 58, the partys candidate for the St. Ives seat, a district where Johnson and 55 percent of voters chose Brexit. All this theoretical posturing is kind of irrelevant.

All but three of the 15 seats the party lost in southwest England in 2015 voted for Brexit.

George represented St. Ives in the House of Commons for 18 years until the partys electoral annihilation two years ago, when it lost all but 8 of the 57 seats it took in 2010. Hes focusing his campaign on local issuesnot Brexit, but is nevertheless downbeat about his prospects: I think the Tories will edge it here.

Weighing on Georges chances are a number of other factors: U.K. Independence Party voters switching to the Tories, an influx of retirees swelling the ranks of Tory voters, and a change in the district boundaries in 2010 that turned St. Ives from a stronghold into a marginal seat.

Photographer: Chris J. Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

The town of St. Ives.

After a few missteps, May has retrenched into campaigning in areas that Tories hold rather than her earlier, more ambitious play to destroy Labour bastions in the north. On Wednesday, when a shock survey showed the election could resultin a hung Parliament, May showed up in Bath, a seat the Liberal Democrats are trying to wrest back. It's also one of those southwestern bulwarksof the `Remain' vote on Brexit.

Voters here in the southwest are vitally important for this election, May said. In 2015 at the last election, your votes gave my party 15 more seats. If I lose just sixof those, then the government risks losing its majority, and we risk Jeremy Corbyn becoming prime minister.

Johnson, the harbormaster, isnt the only Brexit supporter turning to May. April Westlake, 78, also voted for the Liberal Democrats in the last election butthinks May is just what the country needs right now.

We need a lady like her to get us out of the mess were in,she said of the prime minister while out walkingher French bull terrier in Marazion, a postcard-pretty village opposite St. Michaels Mount, a tidal island topped by a castle and chapel.

Photographer: Chris J. Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

Peter Freeman.

The same goes for Peter Freeman, the 68-year-old owner of a charter boat business in St. Ives. A longtime Liberal Democrat voter, he switched to UKIP in 2015 and now doesnt trust his old party. They want to interfere in the Brexit negotiations to weaken Theresa Mays hand, he said. Shes the only one I can see who will get the best result.

Still, for every Conservative supporter Bloomberg found, there was a Liberal Democrat to match, suggesting itll be a tight race and anything can happen.

Shirley Beck, who says she was the only Labour Mayor in the West country in 1993, istoying with the idea ofvotingfor the Liberal Democrats in St. Ives.

Why? Nothing to do with Brexit. Its because George supports re-openingthe local hospital.

Read this article:

Why Are the Liberal Democrats Struggling in General Election 2017 ... - Bloomberg

Do elite liberals want to take this flag down and turn the barn into an abortion clinic? Photo: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

One of the most regular conservative arguments about politics and culture, which has been around at least since Spiro T. Agnew but has had a huge renaissance in the Trump era, is that liberal elites clustered in big cities, especially on the East and West Coasts, look down on, or at a minimum dont understand, the plain and mostly white folk of the Great American Heartland.

Some members of the liberal elite deny the charge, while others glory in it; most do make the point that if the 2016 presidential elections are any indication, there are at least as many Americans in one camp as in the other (though all those underpopulated red spaces are a problem for Democrats who would like to control the Senate or a majority of state governments someday). The distinguished liberal journalist Mike Tomasky is the latest to echo the charge. Lets consider it on the merits at this particular and particularly fraught moment in American political history.

Tomaskys point of departure is this:

Unlike coastal liberals, he continues, people in the heartland go to church; have things that interest them more than politics; are not averse to owning guns or admiring the military or global corporations; and are reflexively patriotic.

These are, as Tomasky knows, overgeneralizations, not just of heartland people but of the coastal elites that supposedly despise them. Although he self-effacingly places himself in the ranks of the clueless and the insensitive, Mike Tomasky is actually a native of West Virginia, probably ground zero for the estrangement of white Middle Americans from the national brand of liberal politics in recent years. I happen to know he has plenty of things other than politics he cares about, including college football; I know this because I share that passion. Indeed, as a Heartland native (though now living in the Central Coast of California), I avoid talking or even thinking about politics when Im around folks who have nonpolitical day jobs; have no problem understanding why people, especially in rural areas, own guns, or why the biggest employer in many towns is as likely to be regarded as a benefactor as a villain. I even go to church very regularly. There are more people like Tomasky, and even like me, in the ranks of coastal liberal elites than he lets on.

And while you can always find professional or armchair liberal observers who have the attitudes Tomasky condemns, they are not really found that often among people in the business of running for office you know, the liberal politicians Middle America is presumed to hate. I cant recall ever hearing a Democratic politician spit contempt at people for being religious. Democrats have gone far out of their way to express support for the Second Amendment, and now regularly talk about gun safety rather than gun control. And conspicuous displays of patriotism and of respect for the military were as common at the coastal-elite-dominated 2016 Democratic National Convention as at the aggressively Middle American GOP confab.

Yes, contemporary liberals are sometimes inflexible and tone deaf, but the examples Tomasky cites are questionable:

Intra-Democratic infighting on the exact level of minimum-wage increases subsided with the end of the Sanders/Clinton presidential nominating fight, and many culture-war battles are the product not of liberal dogma but of conservative efforts to find wedge issues. After all, it was the North Carolina GOPs bathroom bill that ignited the transgender rights controversy, and we wouldnt be arguing over municipal Christmas decorations if not for Fox News annual War on Christmas meme. You cant really blame these sources of cultural tension on intolerant liberals who would generally prefer to talk about other issues.

While the disease Tomasky deplores may not be as all-ravaging as he suggests, I guess theres nothing wrong with administering a particularly strong inoculation. There is a species of coastal-elite liberal media that writes and talks strictly for people like themselves and wouldnt know Kentucky from Timbuktu, though its not as large a segment of the media as often imagined.

But there is another problem Tomasky does not address: There are sometimes reasons other than elitism, and the very opposite of indifference to Middle America, that dictate fighting the heartlands political representatives vigorously.

The fight against Trumpcare is about many things, but none is so important as the fight to keep the state and local governments of Middle America from shirking the needs of their poorer and sicker citizens. If coastal elites really didnt give a damn about anyone else, theyd probably accept a deal from Susan Collins and Bill Cassidy to let the states keep or kill Obamacare as they wished, and let those red-state African-Americans and hillbillies suffer the consequences. Similarly, there is probably nothing that would lower the cultural temperature of American politics more than some sort of grand bargain on abortion, such as letting different places have different policies. There have been liberals who have urged that kind of compromise for years. But it would be a betrayal of the reproductive rights of women who happen to live in inconvenient places the very places liberals are thought to dislike and abhor.

Its always a good idea to make some effort to understand people with different backgrounds, different views, different life circumstances, and yes, even different prejudices than our own. But to the extent that liberals genuinely believe their policies are best for the whole country you know, the country they are suspected of loving too little then arguing that the Heartland is worse for their absence is an act not of elite disdain but of communal affection.

The great negotiator cant get anyone to negotiate with him.

President Trump falsely indicated that it was a terror attack, but the Philippines police chief believes robbery is the real motive.

A new bill even lets parents name the dead fetus.

A wildly false speech reveals a president unable to grasp a problem that isnt zero-sum.

On the same day President Trump withdrew from an international climate deal, the controversial project started shipping oil.

This is the second noose in the past week thats been found on Smithsonian grounds.

This issue was apparently the final straw for Musk, who remained with Trumps council amid the travel ban.

The military band played jazz music before Trumps announcement regarding the Paris climate agreement.

Showtime will release the interviews starting June 12.

Trump insisted that other nations are taking advantage of the U.S. with the deal.

The 1,001-foot tower at 262 Fifth Avenue will be by far the tallest structure in the Nomad neighborhood.

More than 30 residents of the Upper East Side high-rise have called for the Palace to drop Trump.

The fired FBI directors testimony is going to be must-see TV.

The Health secretarys blatant corruption grows even more blatant.

The Russian president compared the hackers to artists who wake up in the morning in a good mood and start painting.

In the same interview, Mick Mulvaney also attacks the Congressional Budget Office as biased and admits his own numbers are completely fabricated.

Hes right in the middle of these relationships. He turns up over and over again.

Giant-sizing our culture.

The mascot went rogue during Wednesday nights game.

Trump wrecks an international pact to limit climate change because liberals like it.

Read the original:

Do Coastal Liberals Hate Middle America? - New York Magazine

NewsBusters (blog)

Will Liberal Politics Ruin Netflix's 'Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt?' NewsBusters (blog) The third season of Netflix's Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt took a turn into the world of politics by incorporating random snarky political one-liners into almost all of the thirteen half-hour episodes that were released on May 19. With Hillary Clinton ... and more »

Link:

Will Liberal Politics Ruin Netflix's 'Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt?' - NewsBusters (blog)