Letter to an Angry Liberal: Cynicism and Crying BS in the Face of War

 Dear Angry Liberals,
One of the things that I have been hearing a lot about this weekend is that Trump bombed Syria to distract from the Russia investigation.  This could be true, but several things are also happening.  My last post about Ann Coulter sparked a lot of debate and that is a good thing.  A lot of people spoke about what a vile person she is and that too, is a good thing.  The core of what I was saying is that despite the content of what she is saying, she has the will to say it.  That is the key to why they are winning; the will to speak, knowing nothing while we don't.

Sometimes, speaking what may be true feels icky, for lack of a better term, because of the timing.  The people who get the message out do not have such compunction and that may be why the bad guys win.  These are the people who are in the trenches, the Deplorables and the trolls whose first thought when seeing a Hillary Clinton stumble at the 9/11 Memorial was not, "Oh my goodness, I hope she is ok." but immediately begin working on screen captures of the moment and memes that only they think are funny.  These are the people who think up things like Comet Pizza has a basement where children are being molested by the Secretary of State who somehow slips her Secret Service detail along with many other higher ups to go and do some nefarious thing in a crowded pizza place.  These are the people with the disgusting will after children were killed at Sandy Hook to start spreading the rumor within hours that it was completely fake.

Trump bombed Syria on Friday.  Why?  A number of articles came out immediately as we began to get battle damage assessment (BDA) of the ordeal.  First, we see that not too much damage was inflicted on the airfield as they were up and running again the next day.  He told the Russians that he was going to do it so they could move their equipment and personnel.  No doubt Assad's troops knew as well and were able to think about a three day weekend they were likely to get.

What was the intent?  Were we meant to stare in awe as missiles flew into the night and be dumbfounded by the might of the U.S. military to the point that we would forget the myriad things going on?

Logic like that is predicated on the notion that the American people do not have the bandwidth to think about more than one thing at a time.  I am still peeved about the Yemen debacle which Trump seemed to only engage in because President Obama would not authorize it when he was in office.

Let me state that I do not think that Trump is a thoughtful man.  By that I mean that I was unmoved by his moment in the White House Rose Garden talking about the "little babies" that were harmed or killed in Assad's gas attack.  More people in Syria die from regular ole bombs than from gas attacks, so why the change now?  In fact, earlier in the week, both Secretary of State Tillerson and Ambassador Haley said that the administration's position would basically to leave the Assad regime be.  Also, keep in mind that Trump screamed that intervention in Syria would be a big mistake in 2013.  The Republicans were ready to sue Pres. Obama over intervening without congressional approval. What changed?  "Gas Attack" was trending.  That is all.  Trump is running the administration based on what is most popular.  End of story.

This is also very telling about his personality and temperament as well as ours.  In light of Thursday and Friday's events, what is our policy on Syria?  Who knows?  We will apparently find out the next time something happens.  If it gets enough "likes" America will do something.  If not, well...

This whole administration is being run moment to moment and the best many of us can do is hang on for the ride.

It seemed the biggest goal of the attacks on Syria were pretty simple.  To get Americans to snap-to, salute the flag, and forget about everything else that has ever been said or done by Trump.  He didn't "become Presidential" as Fareed Zakaria put it.  He muddied the waters.

We need to be able to say so in the moment.  Sometimes it feels bad.  Sometimes it feels wrong to talk about the motives of a president in the moment, as bullets are flying.  The interesting thing is that never stopped anyone on the right from taking the opposite position and that may be part of the reason we are in the mess we are in now.  That may be part of the reason that mess will get worse.  We need to be able to speak out about things as they happen. We need someone to be the a-hole, in short and call BS ...and keep calling BS...When these things happen.

Having been called a "liberal snowflake" and many other things in the past year, we see that the core of the right-wing is to condemn those who are nice and good.  So, Angry Liberal, if I can say something, don't feel bad especially if you are speaking the truth.  Do it quickly and forcefully, because the bullies and the liars will not wait.

Be faster than the lies and spin,
Writ Large

The Angry Liberal... #Itoldyouso and the troll battle continues.

I tend to pick on the right quite a bit and I am considering upping my game.  I have been caught up in the idea of the angry liberal lately.  It is becoming more difficult to be the
soft and kind, touchy feely, hippie type.  Ann Coulter is the best model for what the left needs.  She is a person who makes little to no sense, yet says things anyway.  Without the anchor of a network, she can go on any show and say whatever she wants and sell books to those who want to read and listen to her.  Nice work if you can get it, right?

The reality is that without an anchor, she can play into the standard view of the conservative white person and enjoy being what people expect.  The problem with the left and the liberal snowflakes is that we are supposed to represent the softer side and the positive world view.  Donald Trump has turned that on its head.

In terms of debate, the liberal line is tough to hold.  How do you stand up for yourself while still being the caring loving individual you are?  The answer is simple, in my humble opinion.  We need the liberal equivalent of Ann Coulter.

Case in point: Helen Baristain is married to an undocumented immigrant.  She is a Trump supporter.  Her husband was just deported, despite having no criminal record and being an upstanding citizen (or rather being an upstanding person living in the U.S.).  What is there to say?  The soft, snowflake wants to say that I am sorry that happened.  I want to say that she  and we should do everything in our power to get him back into the arms of his loving family.  The angry liberal in me wants to tell her tough and launch a new hashtag, (#Itoldyouso).

We are seeing more and more of it; people falling victim to their support of Donald Trump and the Republican regime.  The interesting thing is that if something good happens, Trump takes credit.  If something bad happens, he places blame everywhere but himself.  I think we need someone to take him and others to task without trying to be politically correct.  For the record, that person is not Bill Maher.

I am not saying that everyone should be mean to trolls.  I am saying that someone should be mean.  Someone needs to listen to some of the things these people are saying and say, "That is stupid."  The inevitable reply to that will be, "Oh, I thought you liberals were supposed be all sweetness and light." Do we care and is that the line that lets people off the hook for the silly things they say?  The idea that people should allow others to say what they want without consequence or rebuttal because it is the nice thing to do.

The problem is a simple one and easily solved.  One of the reasons why we lose these debates and the commentary is because we have cede the lower ground.  We all rise above when someone needs to get muddy.  Also we assume that people are open to convincing or simply the viewing of relevant facts.  I do not want to believe we are past the point of serious debate, but...

In my opinion and my wildest dream, we need a liberal goon.  In hockey, often teams have a goon or an enforcer whose sole job is to punish players on the other team who foul them.  The right has many such goons who come out of the woodwork when it is time to bash a liberal.  We don't really have anyone.  I would like to see someone sink to their level.  Let's have a reporter with a White House press pass who just screams, "BULLSHIT!" when Sean Spicer said something that was untrue.

Fundamentally, the left has been on its back foot since November 7th or so.  We have been in a defense posture where we are replying to the things that have happened as opposed to launching our own initiatives and building our base.  We have been called on to work with Trump and those in the know are unwilling to do so, despite how many people it would help, because he would likely take credit for any progress made on the left and if anything fails, put them in a place to take the fall.

So I ask, where is the angry liberal out there yelling and screaming about the alt-right and telling people to STFU?