Liberal feminists, young and old, need to question the role they played in Hillary’s demise. The two weeks of media hyperventilation over grab-her-by-the-pussygate, when the airwaves were saturated with aghast liberal women equating Trump’s gross comments with sexual assault, had the opposite effect on multiple women voters in the Heartland.Frank Bruni in The New York Times:
These are resilient women, often working two or three jobs, for whom boorish men are an occasional occupational hazard, not an existential threat. They rolled their eyes over Trump’s unmitigated coarseness, but still bought into his spiel that he’d be the greatest job producer who ever lived....
The angry white working class men who voted in such strength for Trump do not live in an emotional vacuum. They are loved by white working class women -- their wives, daughters, sisters and mothers, who participate in their remaindered pain. It is everywhere in the interviews. “My dad lost his business”, “My husband hasn’t been the same since his job at the factory went away”.
... rust belt women and plenty of others saw him as the rough, tough boss who would bring the business back, and with it the manhood of the sad guy they love.
From the presidential race on down, Democrats adopted a strategy of inclusiveness that excluded a hefty share of Americans and consigned many to a “basket of deplorables” who aren’t all deplorable. Some are hurt. Some are confused.Trump voters are offended by the way we characterize them, and by the way we characterize Trump. Meanwhile, Hispanics, Muslims, and blacks were bombarded throughout the campaign with racial invective from Trump supporters. Jews who criticized Trump were found their Twitter feeds and email in-boxes full of Nazi imagery. And backing Clinton meant to many people, that you were an "elitist."
Liberals miss this by being illiberal. They shame not just the racists and sexists who deserve it but all who disagree. A 64-year-old Southern woman not onboard with marriage equality finds herself characterized as a hateful boob. Never mind that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton weren’t themselves onboard just five short years ago.
Political correctness has morphed into a moral purity that may feel exhilarating but isn’t remotely tactical. It’s a handmaiden to smugness and sanctimony, undermining its own goals.
Hillary Clinton was described throughout the campaign as a liar, a crook, a "nasty woman," and, of course, much worse:
But after an election, I guess the right to feel aggrieved and insulted belongs exclusively to the winners.
