By Douglas V. Gibbs
Author, Speaker, Instructor, Radio Host
This is the second in our series of six articles regarding liberal left talking points, “Science is Real, Black Lives Matter, No Human is Illegal, Love is Love, Women’s Rights are Human Rights, Kindness is Everything.”
The amazing thing about leftist talking points is not what they are saying, but what they are inferring. By saying science is real, it creates the assumption that somebody is claiming science is not real. By shouting Black Lives Matter, it is saying that somebody said that black lives do not matter. Going down the list, each line makes a similar assumption, leading the reader to conclude there must be people saying otherwise. And, since the allegations are coming from the liberal left, it then provides the assumption that conservative republicans say that science is not real, the GOP and white police say black lives don’t matter, there are human beings who are considered illegal (and therefore not human) by members of the political right, some people who claim to love in a different manner than the norm are actually not capable of love, women’s rights are not human rights which would then create the idea that women are somehow less than human, and there are times kindness does not matter at all to some people.
It is a masterful manipulation of language, and a diabolical play on the assumptions of the average person.
The problem is, the assumptions people are making based on the talking points are false. For example, no conservative ever said black lives don’t matter.
There may be a very small minority of rotten people in American Society who are so racist, and so out of their mind crazy, that they believe there are people whose lives don’t matter. Anything is always slightly possible. But it is safe to assume that most people are not that way. However, with the sound-byte “Black Lives Matter,” and the accompanying political rhetoric, the liberal left have not only decided that a large portion of people actually believe that black lives do not matter, but that the problem is so bad that the alleged racists desire the death of blacks, and/or a return to the days of Jim Crow laws, or even the age of slavery.
Of course, the very idea in this modern society that an entire class of people, or the followers of an entire political party, believes such a thing is preposterous. Yet, for some the sound-byte is so effective, that that is exactly what they believe.
And the politicians play on it like it’s a fiddle.
What amazes me is how illogical, based on recent evidence, the claim truly is.
Exhibit A: The first black president in the history of the United States, Barack Obama.
Exhibit B: The overwhelming popularity of President Trump to a base that not only elected the billionaire businessman, but in defiance of a conventional wisdom that said Hillary Clinton was a sure thing.
We are told that President Trump and his supporters are racist, and that the racists were so angry at the Democrats for their black President, Barack Obama, that they pulled together to surprise everyone in the election of Trump in 2016.
Question: If the Republican Party base is that racist, and that capable of overwhelming the electoral process with their numbers, then why wasn’t stopping the first black president in 2008 or 2012 possible?
The obvious answer is that racism played no part. Political policies, and promises, did. Simply, the conservative voters of the Republican Party were not inspired enough by the candidates from the previous elections, John McCain and Mitt Romney, to even overcome their alleged prejudices (of which apparently does not exist), but Trump’s stance on policies, and his firm stance on what he believes, was enough to inspire an entire, otherwise silent, group of voters who put him into office.
In short, if racism was the reason for Trump’s ability to be elected, would not the racists have been out in greater force with the advent of a black president in the elections prior?
Besides, if Trump and his supporters were of the belief that Black Lives Don’t Matter, they’d be angry about the economic boom going on in the black community as a result of Trump’s policies, including the lowest black unemployment rate in history.
Oh, and don’t forget that Trump once won the Ellis Island Award for his work in minority neighborhoods.
Read the rest of the articles in this series:
— Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary