Episode 171: The Vacuity of "Radical Libs Forced Voters Into the Arms of the Right" Discourse
Added 2022-11-16 16:13:40 +0000 UTC"How The Left Created Trump," revealed Rob Hoffman in Politico in November 2016. "Blame liberals for the rise of Donald Trump," insisted S.E. Cupp in The Chicago Tribune the year before. "How the left enabled fascism," explained David Winner in The New Statesman in 2018.
For decades, we’ve been fed a narrative that the rise of any right-wing tendency is the fault of leftists and liberal scolds. The electoral appeal and success of fascist movements and politicians, we’re told, is first and foremost a reaction to blue-haired wokeness warriors whose language and protests alienate and antagonize Real People. These Real People, then, have no choice but to shift further right, where they find a political home – typically shared with the likes of wealthy faux-populists like J.D. Vance, Josh Hawley, and Tucker Carlson – that makes them feel included and represents their best interests.
It’s a convenient refrain. Instead of placing the blame on wealthy and powerful right-wingers and centrists who actually benefit from the preservation of reactionary politics, or giving credit to left-wing activists for challenging devastating right-wing policies, this narrative instead demonizes the powerless, while insisting that those who are fighting for a better world should simply give up, lest their agitative ways turn off potential allies and create another Trump. Who does this narrative benefit, and how do both overtly right-wing and ostensibly liberal legacy media allow it to persist?
On this episode, we dissect the concept that reactionaries’ politics are the result not of their own interests, but of a snarky, out-of-touch Lefties who say mean things and simply bring up racism, imperialism and other injustices too much, and if they simply went away, the Trump right would starve itself to death and be replaced by moderate, reasonable National Review politicians.
Our guest is The Dig's Daniel Denvir.
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Guest
Daniel Denvir (@DanielDenvir) is the host of The Dig podcast on Jacobin Radio and author of All-American Nativism: How the Bipartisan War on Immigrants Explains Politics As We Know It, published in 2020 by Verso Books.
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Show Notes
Lashing Out at ‘Identity Politics,’ Pundits Blame Trump on Those Most Vulnerable to Trump
Adam Johnson | November 20, 2016 | FAIR
The Tired Trope of Blaming Trump on ‘Liberal Smugness’
Reed Richardson | May 22, 2018 | FAIR
White America’s Age-Old, Misguided Obsession With Civility
Thomas J. Sugrue | June 29, 2018 | The New York Times
When Civility Is Used As A Cudgel Against People Of Color
Karen Grigsby Bates | March 14, 2019 | Code Switch / NPR
Joe Biden’s nostalgia for ‘civility’ is nostalgia for the politics of Jim Crow
Sam Rosenfeld | June 21, 2019 | The Washington Post
What the Capitol riots show us about the white illusion of civility
Lovey Cooper and Katherine Webb-Hehn | January 15, 2021 | Scalawag
Alex Zamalin | March 2, 2021 | Yes! Magazine
Don’t Blame “Wokeness” On Democratic Losses
Micahel Arceneaux | November 11, 2021 | Essence
“Wokeness” Is Not the Democrats’ Problem
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor | November 19, 2021 | The New Yorker
How US 'wokeness' became a right-wing cudgel around the world
January 3, 2022 | AFP
Republicans Are Moving Rapidly to Cement Minority Rule. Blame the Constitution.
Corey Robin | January 5, 2022 | Politico
Let’s puncture some myths about Democrats’ struggles
Perry Bacon, Jr. | March 1, 2022 | The Washington Post
Ron Johnson Literally Blames Uvalde Shooting on ‘CRT’ and ‘Wokeness’
Justin Baragona | May 27, 2022 | The Daily Beast
Jared Clemons | June 8, 2022 | Cambridge University Press
Christopher Rhodes | September 11, 2022 | Al Jazeera
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References
Nixon, the Great Society, and the Future of Social Policy - A Symposium
Nathan Glazer | May 1973 | Commentary
March 17, 1985 | The Washington Post
David Horozwitz | September 30, 1986 | The Village Voice
Blame liberals for the rise of Donald Trump
S.E. Cupp | August 30, 2015 | The Chicago Tribune
Higher education is awash with hysteria. That might have helped elect Trump.
George F. Will | November 18, 2016 | The Washington Post
Rob Hoffman | November 20, 2016 | Politico
Peter Beinart | September 2017 | The Atlantic
Why social media is terrible for multiethnic democracies
Sean Illing | January 5, 2018 | Vox
How liberals turned on JD Vance, working-class author of ‘Hillbilly Elegy’
Salena Zito | June 12, 2021 | The New York Post
If you hate the culture wars, blame liberals
Kevin Drum | July 3, 2021 | Jabberwocking
Why ‘wokeness’ is the biggest threat to Democrats in the 2022 election
Chris Cillizza | July 12, 2021 | CNN
America’s Real ‘Wokeness’ Divide
Olga Khazan | November 11, 2021 |The Atlantic
Wokeness has destroyed Democrats' hope of connecting with voters in 2022
Scott Jennings | November 11, 2021 | Courier-Journal
Progressives’ Control of the Commanding Heights Could Be Their Undoing
Fred Bauer | December 19, 2021 | National Review
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Transcript
For a full transcript of this episode, go here. All Citations Needed episode and public New Brief transcripts can be found here.
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Credits
Senior Producer: Florence Barrau-Adams
Producer: Julianne Tveten
Production Assistant: Trendel Lightburn
Newsletter: Marco Cartolano
Transcription: Morgan McAslan
Music: Grandaddy
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Comments
The silver lining is that the way New York Times and right wing crony media is defending their audience makes them sound extremely pathetic and snowflakes. Now suddenly mental health is a concern for them
Danh Nguyen
2022-12-05 22:50:52 +0000 UTCI'm not even half way through this episode, but already feel it's one of the most timely of all, and want the whole of our society to hear it. This massively disproportionate war just won't end! Says those powerful enough to effectively influence the balance of that "culture war". All those former center and liberal folks shifted right in response to the left, says the influential right-wing news source that never discusses its own influence over their audience's thoughts...you know, those sources that are apparently so benign they keep getting in front of everyone's face and supposedly fighting an endlessly losing battle - the infinite underdogs! As a previous commenter said, so infuriating, same as my seeming inability to create paragraphs on a mobile phone here despite following written instructions.
Caleb Evenson
2022-11-18 02:47:43 +0000 UTCOoo this sounds like a good one. This is so infuriating. Yeah, some guy is raised in a conservative household in a town with no jobs and gets radicalized on 8chan, but me calling him an asshole is what pushes him over the line.
murt pie
2022-11-16 17:34:42 +0000 UTCFirst like first comment
David
2022-11-16 16:14:47 +0000 UTC
