Kellyanne Conway and Trump Derangement Syndrome
Kellyanne Conway and Trump Derangement Syndrome
Why are you so obsessed?
Last night’s livestream was pretty good. Lots of talk about the Biden docs and George Santos and Matt Schlapp. And a really deep pull reference to Randy Stoklos. Watch the rewind here or listen to the podcast version here.
Also: Next week is going to be a little weird around here. I’m going to be in LA and Seattle and if you’re in the area, I hope you’ll come and hang out IRL. Details here.
The travel will make writing a little more challenging, so I may miss a day or two and the format may be more abbreviated. Apologies in advance.
One last thing: Great job in the comments yesterday. You guys turned that thread into the smartest and most thoughtful comments section I’ve ever seen on the internet. I shouldn’t be surprised; but I am proud of what we’ve built here together. Thank you.
1. TDS
The New York Times is such a liberal media bubble that it paid Kellyanne Conway and handed her real estate on its opinion page for a piece about Donald Trump. Because Kellyanne has a long history as a straight shooter and honest broker who can give truthful and unbiased information while adding value for Times subscribers.
Three cheers for both sides.
Look, I’m not here to rag on the Times. I just want to talk about a single paragraph in Kellyanne’s piece:
Trump Derangement Syndrome is real. There is no vaccine and no booster for it. Cosseted in their social media bubbles and comforted within self-selected communities suffering from sameness, the afflicted disguise their hatred for Mr. Trump as a righteous call for justice or a solemn love of democracy and country. So desperate is the incessant cry to “get Trump!” that millions of otherwise pleasant and productive citizens have become naggingly less so. They ignore the shortcomings, failings and unpopularity of President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris and abide the casual misstatements of an administration that says the “border is secure,” inflation is “transitory,” “sanctions are intended to deter” Putin from invading Ukraine and they will “shut down the virus.” They’ve also done precious little to learn and understand what drives the 74 million fellow Americans who were Trump-Pence voters in 2020 and not in the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Where to begin?
When you picture “communities suffering from sameness,” do you think about Trump voters, or Biden voters?1
Sure looks like Trump’s support suffers from an awful lot of sameness: White evangelical Protestants, mostly without college degrees. It’s the Biden supporters who are all over the map: Whites, Blacks, Catholics, Protestants, religious and not-religious; college educated and non-college educated.
As for the media bubbles people keep themselves in, say what you will about the woke socialist antifa subscribers of the New York Times—but they are paying their hard-earned money to get the views of Kellyanne Conway and Ross Douthat. How about the people watching Fox News and Newsmax and reading the Federalist and Townhall? Is both-sides journalism a thing at those places, too?
And are Democrats really blind to the weaknesses of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris?
That is not the impression I get from the liberal culture!
But it’s this line that really grinds my gears: