Blame the loud insistence that "it's either Trump or Clinton, and if you aren't actively voting for Clinton then you're for Trump."
This was bull**** employed for the purpose of bullying, and it backfired spectacularly.
Donald Trump was not elected by people voting for Jill Stein. He was not elected by people staying home. He was elected by people voting for Donald Trump — quite a few of whom did so despite finding him repugnant.
Why did they do so? Absolutely there were many reasons, but one of them was very likely the strident insistence by so many people that they had to make a binary choice between two individuals they deeply disliked.
"It's A or B," the would-be grown-ups insisted, "and if you aren't for A then you are for B."
And so, in the end, many people who were not at all for Trump decided that they were even less for Clinton, and that if voting for Trump was the only way to not be for Clinton, they would vote for Trump.
And now we've seen the result. And yet here is Todd Gitlin, still thundering about "the gestures of nihilism" as though his preferred brand of "vote against what you fear rather than for something you support" were not the prime example of the nihilism which persuaded so many people to say "well then, screw it, I'll just vote for Trump."
- a liberal Democrat who despises Trump and is tired of being blamed for his presidency by people who spent much of 2016 insisting that it was my duty to support corrupt, warmongering authoritarian Hillary Clinton because we couldn't take the risk of someone who might lose to Trump.
Here's a proposal.
Blame the loud insistence that "it's either Trump or Clinton, and if you aren't actively voting for Clinton then you're for Trump."
This was bull**** employed for the purpose of bullying, and it backfired spectacularly.
Donald Trump was not elected by people voting for Jill Stein. He was not elected by people staying home. He was elected by people voting for Donald Trump — quite a few of whom did so despite finding him repugnant.
Why did they do so? Absolutely there were many reasons, but one of them was very likely the strident insistence by so many people that they had to make a binary choice between two individuals they deeply disliked.
"It's A or B," the would-be grown-ups insisted, "and if you aren't for A then you are for B."
And so, in the end, many people who were not at all for Trump decided that they were even less for Clinton, and that if voting for Trump was the only way to not be for Clinton, they would vote for Trump.
And now we've seen the result. And yet here is Todd Gitlin, still thundering about "the gestures of nihilism" as though his preferred brand of "vote against what you fear rather than for something you support" were not the prime example of the nihilism which persuaded so many people to say "well then, screw it, I'll just vote for Trump."
- a liberal Democrat who despises Trump and is tired of being blamed for his presidency by people who spent much of 2016 insisting that it was my duty to support corrupt, warmongering authoritarian Hillary Clinton because we couldn't take the risk of someone who might lose to Trump.