Archive for the ‘Liberals’ Category

Full Frontal With Samantha Bee confronts liberals who #resist by fantasizing about impeachment – Vox

However disappointed Full Frontal With Samantha Bee was with Donald Trumps presidential victory, the show has remained skeptical of just how much the #Resistance thats sprung up since his inauguration will accomplish. And in its July 19 episode, the show took aim at one Resistance goal in particular: impeachment.

In a segment taped at a recent march for impeachment in Los Angeles, Full Frontal correspondents Mike Rubens and Ashley Nicole Black talked to some of the outraged liberals protesting the Trump administration by advocating for their wildest dream of getting the president kicked out of office.

What was the day you decided that Trump should be impeached? Black asked one woman, who immediately insisted that she was certain on day one that it needed to happen. So its not so much that you wish for impeachment, Black responded, as it is that you wish for a different outcome to the election.

Outlining exactly how hard the road to impeachment is especially given that the process relies on broad bipartisan support Rubens then provided a handy reality check by pointing out that more presidents have been removed from office by cholera than impeachment.

You do realize that being a dick is not an impeachable offense? Black asked a different protester, who countered, It should be.

Its not exactly that Full Frontal disagrees that Trump is unfit for office; its more that the show doesnt believe marching in support of impeachment is actually going to solve anything. Maybe the allure of an impossible dream was much easier to get behind than the reality of fighting for incremental change, Rubens mused in his voiceover, his tone joking even as his words were grounded in palpable frustration.

Rubens and Black therefore attempted to guide protesters efforts toward a more practical approach with signs like Go Vote! and Pay attention to local elections! a strategy that falls right in line with Full Frontals demonstrated insistence of pointing out the power of local politics to shape Americas policies.

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Full Frontal With Samantha Bee confronts liberals who #resist by fantasizing about impeachment - Vox

Tomi Lahren: Hollywood liberals don’t know why they hate Trump – Fox Business

Conservative commentator Tomi Lahren wants to know why Hollywood hates Trump.

I find most liberalsespecially in Hollywood, they dont know why they hate President Trump so muchthey just do. I want to know why, she told Stuart Varney on FOX Business.

Lahren will face off with comedienne Chelsea Handler later this month, during a live debate at the Politicon politics convention in Pasadena, California.

Its like the Comic-Con for political nerdsIm excited about debating Chelsea Handler, she said.

Lahren said her heated exchange with The Daily Shows Trevor Noah has taught her how to deal with comedic demagogue.

Chelsea obviously is an opponent of this president and his agenda and America first agenda so for me its going to be probing her as to why she has such a disdain for the president, she said. Comedians are tricky. Ive dealt with a couple of them at this point and what they do is that when they are not solid on the issues of the policy then they revert to the humor and then they make a mockery of you, she added.

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Handler, a vocal critic of Trump, led the Womens March at Sundance, in conjunction with the Womens March on Washington, protesting his inauguration. Lahren said if Handler asked why Trump hated women she would respond: If Trump hated women so much, why did he have the first successful campaign manager in Kellyanne Conway, who is a female. He entrusted her to run his campaign and lead him to victory but he hates women? Find that hard to believe.

While there may be no winner or loser of the debate, Lahren plans to hold her ground and defend Trump and his America first agenda.

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Tomi Lahren: Hollywood liberals don't know why they hate Trump - Fox Business

In views of liberals and conservatives, can we steer clear of the animosity vortex? – The Boston Globe

Paul Blousteins July 15 letter (Which party has the power to bend minds?) contains so many tired myths of the right, its hard to know where to begin. So Ill try to meet myth with fact:

Liberals prize independence, fending for ourselves, and self-respect every bit as much as conservatives. We do disagree, however, with the contention that the federal governments efforts to help and protect the people are oppressive.

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Every single inhabitant of this country accepts help from the federal government that is, from his or her fellow citizens every single day. Ten minutes spent reviewing what federal money is spent on utterly explodes the idea that some are more independent or self-reliant than others. We are all in this together.

When liberals describe the current economy as unfair, they are not demonizing; they are saying the economy is unfair. Nor do academics like Jeffrey D. Sachs think they are better than Bloustein or that he is evil for liking Ronald Reagan.

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There are millions of well-meaning Americans who think the Reagan administration was a disaster for America for very sound reasons. I honor Blousteins right to disagree, but I deeply resent his insinuation that our opinions are based not on facts but on animosity.

Bob Binstock

Cambridge

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In views of liberals and conservatives, can we steer clear of the animosity vortex? - The Boston Globe

Business Insider: Liberals Can Win Again If They Stop Being Moral Condescending Busybodies – Townhall

Condescension being a hallmark of liberalism is an age-old discussion. Yet, after Hillary Clintons stinging 2016 defeat to Donald Trump, some are wondering if their attitude to people who dont think, act, or live like them might be an issue in terms of bridging the cultural divide we have (i.e. urban vs. rural). Business Insiders Josh Barro, who also hosts Left, Right, and Center on KCRW, commented on this issue and offered ways in which his fellow Democrats can stop being so annoying. There are parts with which I disagree - namely that were a socially liberal country. I still think were right-of-center, but Barro is blunt and straightforward in his assessment that liberals have just become insufferable in their intolerance towards people who dont live in the urban bastions of progressivism. As a result, they have become the moral busybodies that was often a criticism of conservatism. Barro calls this particularly problem within liberalism the hamburger problem. And by cultural disconnect, hes not talking about policy stances either, which is often an excuse for liberals to think that theyre not out of touch.

Suppose you're a middle-income man with a full-time job, a wife who also works outside the home, and some children. Suppose it's a Sunday in the early fall, and your plan for today is to relax, have a burger, and watch a football game.

Conservatives will say, "Go ahead, that sounds like a nice Sunday." (In the Trump era, they're not going to bother you about not going to church.) But you may find that liberals have a few points of concern they want to raise about what you mistakenly thought was your fundamentally nonpolitical plan for the day.

Liberals want you to know that you should eat less meat so as to contribute less to global warming. They're concerned that your diet is too high in sodium and saturated fat. They're upset that the beef in your hamburger was factory-farmed.

They think the name of your favorite football team is racist. Or even if you hate the Washington Redskins, they have a long list of other reasons that football is problematic.

Beyond what you're doing this weekend, this movement has a long list of moral judgments about your ongoing personal behavior.

The SUV you bought because it was easier to install car seats in doesn't get good enough gas mileage. Why don't you have an electric car?

The gender-reveal party you held for your most recent child inaccurately conflated gender with biological sex. ("Cutting into a pink or blue cake seems innocent enough but honestly, it's not," Marie Claire warned earlier this month.)

You don't ride the subway because you have that gas-guzzling car, but if you did, the way you would sit on it would be sexist.

No item in your life is too big or too small for this variety of liberal busybodying. On the one hand, the viral video you found amusing was actually a manifestation of the patriarchy. On the other hand, you actually have an irresponsibly large number of carbon-emitting children.

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Liberals like to complain that working-class voters who back Republicans have voted "against their own self-interest," by which they implicitly mean economic self-interest. This idea could benefit from a little introspection.

Do liberals go into the voting booth and choose a candidate based on a narrow conception of economic self-interest? Of course not.

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Objectively, you would think the groups most substantively exposed to risk from the Trump presidency are low-income people who face benefit cuts and members of minority groups against whom he whips up and indulges negative sentiment.

Yet, as the Republican pollster Patrick Ruffini has pointed out in his analyses of turnout in House special elections, the "resistance" surge in Democratic turnout relative to Republican turnout is occurring almost entirely among college-educated whites. That is, the people most alarmed by Trump seem to be the ones who stand to lose the most cultural power, not those who stand to lose the most materially.

Barro later goes into how liberals can fix this perception that could hurt outreach initiatives since whether they like to admit it or not, Democrats need to win back white working class voters (i.e. Trump voters). One is working to diffuse the high tension on cultural issues and recognizing that this is not a sign of defeat or compromise. Actually, this can be applied to a whole host of issues that liberals will fight to the death on, like immigration. Here's the rest of his advice on what liberals should do to temper their cultural intolerance:

Don't tell people they should feel guilty. As I discussed at the top of this piece, Americans are broadly open to liberal positions on cultural policy issues. Over the last few decades, they have increasingly internalized the idea that the government should let people be free to do what they want in their lives. So embrace that ethos by emphasizing how liberal policy positions would let members of all sorts of groups live their best lives, protected from discrimination and harm. Don't tell people they should feel bad about living their own lives as they want.

Say when you think the liberal commentariat has gone overboard. While former President Barack Obama has urged people to eat less meat, usually the leading voices of the new liberal moralism are not politicians. Less-smug liberal commentators will usually protest that these voices are marginal, especially the college students who get so much attention on Fox News for protesting culturally insensitive sushi in the dining hall. If these voices are so marginal, it should be easy enough for Democratic politicians to distance themselves by saying, for example, that some college students have gotten a little nuts and should focus on their studies instead of the latest politically correct cause. Showing that you also think liberal cultural politics has gotten a little exhausting is a good way to relate to a lot of voters.

Offer an agenda that provides benefits people can see as mattering in their daily lives. If you want voters to refocus away from petty cultural fights and toward public policy, it's not enough to turn down the temperature on culture; you need a policy agenda they can relate to. I wrote in December about some ideas to do this though of course, you could also make such an agenda in farther-left flavors.

Don't get distracted by shiny objects. If the government can't do anything about the problem you're discussing if it's purely a matter of the cultural discourse should you spend your time on it and risk alienating people on the opposite side of the issue? Probably not.

You can debate among yourselves if this will actually take hold with Democratic Party leaders and the elite that keep the war chests funded. Right now, lets say its very possible that these could take hold. Democrats have no economic message for the 2018 midterms at present. Theyre divided, leaderless, and searching for a route to political revival. You never know what could be added into the mix, if they ever get to itfor a winning political message. At the same time, theres plenty to suggest this wont happen. The number of rural Democrats on the Hill is slim. Overall, theyre pretty much a species on the verge of extinction. They were all but wiped out in 2010. In Appalachia, a once robust bastion of Democratic support among working class whites, Hillary Clinton only won 21 out of its 490 counties. Thats a total collapse and Democratic elites may not want to even bother with rebuilding the party apparatus out there, though its necessary if they want to expand the map, especially for state and local races which are key to keeping a talent pool well maintained for future national races. Also, these people dont think white voters matter, which was crystal clear with the Clinton campaign.

Condescension seems to have its roots in American liberalism. Whenever its mentioned I always think back to the story between an aide and Adlai Stevenson, who, like Clinton, is also a two-time presidential loser; Stevenson ran and lost twice in 1952 and 1956. The tale goes that the aide was confident of a Stevenson win, saying to the Democratic candidate something along the lines of Mr. Stevenson, you have the thinking people on your side to which Stevenson replies, ah, but I need a majority. Snobbery and condescension may have always been ingrained in liberal politics, but social media made this virus airborne.

Even The New York Times Noticed the Dems' Obstructionism

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Business Insider: Liberals Can Win Again If They Stop Being Moral Condescending Busybodies - Townhall

Liberals cry poor over corporate support – NEWS.com.au

Corporate Australia is facing criticism from the Liberal Party for not providing greater support.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull reportedly told a group of chief executives at a private dinner in Sydney on Monday night they needed to do more in terms of donating to the party and getting behind the government's pro-business policies.

The Australian Financial Review reported one source saying the prime minister had been "testy" about the point and was "determined to pursue anyone who should be putting their hand in their pocket".

Mr Turnbull was forced to chip in $1.8 million of his own money to keep the Liberals' 2016 election campaign afloat.

Liberal MP Jason Falinski said Mr Turnbull had a right to be angry with corporate Australia.

"The business community has just simply vacated the field," the NSW MP and former Liberal executive member told Sky News on Wednesday.

"What is business doing in terms of arguing against the bank (royal commission), arguing for business tax cuts, arguing for industrial relations reform - I can't see it."

He said the "massive behemoths" in the banking sector were not making the case for better financial regulation.

The problem had existed since the 2007 election, which was won by Labor on the back of a multi-million-dollar union campaign against the Howard government's WorkChoices laws.

"In the 2007 elections unions put in tens of millions of dollars into the campaign and where were they (business)? Still arguing about whether they should put in $50,000. Nothing has improved. It's just go worse," Mr Falinski said.

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Liberals cry poor over corporate support - NEWS.com.au