Conservatives aren’t the only ones under attack by an increasingly hostile progressive fringe. The newest enemies of the progressive moment include independents, private citizens opting out of the political fray, and other liberals who don’t fit within a certain paradigm dictated by millennials with staff gigs at left-leaning media outlets. This past election cycle, a horserace charred by historic levels of party polarization and scandal, the progressive moment adopted a scorched-earth approach towards Trump supporters. Now, that condemnation for the alt-right has mainstreamed into shaming moderates and attacking private citizens who don’t come out against Trump or identify with their particular brand of liberalism.
Whether it was chastising Jimmy Fallon for Trump’s appearance on The Tonight Show, attacking Taylor Swift for not endorsing Hillary Clinton, crucifying Bill Maher for inviting Milo Yiannopoulos on Real Time, shaming third party voters, or even calling for the elimination of the term “moderate” from political discussion altogether, the media is further stoking the embers of party polarization while alienating would-be voters with a “subscribe or die” mentality masquerading as “silence is complicity.” Shia LaBeouf’s now defunct Queens art exhibit saw himself, Jaden Smith, and other protestors screaming “[Donald Trump] will not divide us!” But isn’t that exactly what the left is doing?
While the GOP might be split between the alt-right, libertarians wishing they had a better voice representing their interests than Rand Paul, and establishment Republicans struggling to adapt to changing tides, the left is also reconciling moderate democrats, progressives shaped by social justice culture, and the DNC (a machine composed of 500 people so enveloped by the world of politics they have no grasp of the world around them). All factions are united in their collected hatred towards Trump, but have various ways of showing it, whether it’s through shutting down conservative speakers across the country or romanticizing the days of George W. Bush’s presidency after the former commander-in-chief indirectly came out against Trump. However, not everything needs to be political and not everyone who opts out of the political conversation, or refuses to align themselves with liberalism or oppose Trump, is an enabler of fascism.
What the media and the left need to understand is that people don’t like being told how to think and will subsequently embrace unconventional movements or ideologies where their differing viewpoints are welcomed, if not celebrated. Hence, here I am writing for a conservative outlet speaking out for the first time.
Davis Richardson is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, NY. His writing has appeared in Vice, Nylon, Bullett Media, and Capitol File. Follow him on Twitter @davisoliverr