‘Oh, good, Tom Nichols took time out of his busy schedule to lecture Conservative Americans about how they’re stupid and Trump is the Devil,’ said no one, ever. We GET it Tom, Trump bad, but c’mon already, he had to know this ‘thread’ would just piss a bunch of people off.
Which makes us wonder if Tom was trolling, which is truly sad because he used to be someone worth reading.
Counter-intuitive though it may seem, Trump winning was a political disaster for the white working class, especially older whites. They were once pandered to in elections; now it's no longer possible to indulge the pretense that their concerns are economic – or fixable. /1
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) December 3, 2018
Huh?
That's because there's no ground for a policy fix or a compromise with people whose basic position is that they want America to be white, sorta Christian, and frozen in 1963 – except with 2018's drugs, sexual liberty, govt transfer payments, ESPN channels, and internet porn. /2
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) December 3, 2018
Where does he come up with this crap? Does he have Jennifer Rubin or Max Boot on speed dial?
Note to Tom, DUDE, learn how to thread your tweets. Seriously. We’re not sure Tom has any business lecturing others about how dumb they are when he clearly doesn’t understand how to use Twitter.
Back to the thread.
That's why I'm tired of people declaring conservatives (like me, Boot, Rubin, Wilson and others) who still believe in limited government, fiscal responsibility, a superpower foreign policy, and individual freedom to be "not conservatives" because we won't pander to populists. /3
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) December 3, 2018
This editor was just joking about Rubin and Boot up there … ROFL.
Predictable.
Who's more liberal? Us, or the working class Trump voters who are always looking to Daddy to excuse them for out-of-wedlock births, their embrace of a defeatist foreign policy, rampant drug abuse, chronic underemployment, and endless demands for government solutions? /4
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) December 3, 2018
Gosh, Tom seems cranky.
This "it's not your fault, the system has it in for you" bullshit pioneered by Bannon and weaponized by Trump is something conservatives castigated liberals for saying to minorities years ago. And rightly so: it deprives people of agency and responsibility. /5
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) December 3, 2018
It’s almost like Tom has created a group of people that don’t really exist to argue against. Or he’s taking a play from Alinksy and debating extremes only.
If sucking up to small-town populism – the worst melding of ignorance and self-pitying, insecure nationalism – is now "conservative," then the word has no meaning. Conservatives were once prudent, incremental, patriotic, and stoic. (Like, say, the President who just passed.) /6
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) December 3, 2018
Blah blah blah blah blaaaaaaah.
Yes, we were also hidebound, resistant to needed change, overly cautious, too wrapped up in our sense of tradition, and often indifferent to the struggles of others. (We were also the counterpart to progressives who needed the sensible ballast of prudence and judgment.) /7
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) December 3, 2018
Note, his /8 tweet is missing but you know, he’s superior to us country bumpkins. Guess being able to count isn’t something he values in Conservatives.
Conservatives and liberals need each other to make progress. What we're seeing with Trumpism, especially two years in, is neither conservative nor liberal. It is a stubborn demand that the world treat white working class adults like children. To coddle them with soothing lies. /9
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) December 3, 2018
Tax cuts, job growth, and a strong economy are all bad things because TRUMP BAD.
Cripes, when does Tom start advocating for abortion?
So enough with the woes of the Iowa farmers who fear black and female presidents, or New Hampshire townies who fear immigrants without ever seeing one anywhere near them. That's not "conservative" any more than Occupy Wall St guys taking dumps on police cars are "liberal." /10
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) December 3, 2018
I don't know what it's going to take for Generation Fox to figure it out. I now seriously doubt they will come to their senses, if they ever had any. (This is why I have very little hope that anything Mueller or anyone else says is going to move that 30-40%.) /11
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) December 3, 2018
Ugh, this goes on and on.
That intransigence is the disaster for the white working class: because it shows there's no point in trying to compromise with what were once legitimate concerns about taxes, foreign affairs, education, etc. They've traded that agenda for mindless Trumpian ethno-nationalism. /12
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) December 3, 2018
Oooh, big word!
That kind of political agenda can't be reasoned with. It can only be defeated. And realizing that this is no longer a rational political debate is not good for America (or Europe, or anywhere else), but that's how it has to be. /13x
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) December 3, 2018
If we rolled our eyes any further back into our heads we might actually hurt ourselves.
Oh STFU with this racist, fearful Iowa farmer bullshit, you egomaniacal dillhole. You don’t know dick about any Iowa farmer. Lord you’re tedious. https://t.co/ll4zTprujw
— Lizzy Lou Who?☃️ (@_wintergirl93) December 3, 2018
What she said.
False equivalence, much?
— David Gorski, MD, PhD (@gorskon) December 3, 2018
It seems to be about all he knows how to write these days.
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