IN ONE OF the most incisive pieces of post-election pop culture so far, Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock on Saturday Night Live school an election night party full of blithely ignorant white liberals on the deep, persistent currents of American racism.
“Because of changing demographics, there might never be another Republican president in this country,” cast member Beck Bennett says in the sketch.
Chappelle glares at him, dumbfounded. “Word?” he says. “You ever been around this country before?”
The gag of course is the fact that, as a black man, Chappelle has seen the country at its ugliest, its least inclusive, so he can understand how a candidate like Donald Trump, with his hardline stance on immigration and tough-on-crime policies, might just succeed. Bennett’s character is still living in his white liberal bubble.
And yet it’s not a bubble formed entirely by delusions. Even as the Electoral College votes today to make Trump president, the United States is becoming more liberal. Just look at the data.
Over the eight years Barack Obama has served as president, public opinion in the United States has shifted decisively leftward. Think about it. When Obama came to office, he still hadn’t publicly supported same sex marriage. Last year, the White House was lit up in rainbow colors to celebrate the Supreme Court’s decision to legalize same-sex marriage. Over the last year, bottom line-driven businesses have boycotted entire states over discriminatory policies against LGBT people. A law prohibiting transgender people from using the bathroom of their choice just cost North Carolina’s Pat McCrory the governorship. Undocumented immigrants have come out of hiding, banding together online to discuss their struggles. And in November, California, Maine, Massachusetts, and Nevada all voted to make recreational marijuana legal.
So if left is quickly becoming the new center, how did Trump win? Some, including Trump’s own team, have chalked up his victory to an economic message that resonated with white, working class voters dismayed about the economy. But exit polls reveal Clinton actually won among voters whose top issue was the economy, and Trump’s own approach—curbing free trade chief among them—had more in common with Bernie Sanders than GOP orthodoxy. Another theory for Trump’s victory, one held by the dejected partygoers in the sketch, attributes his win to a far-right racist uprising.
https://www.wired.com/2016/12/dont-let-trumps-win-fool-americas-getting-liberal/
“Because of changing demographics, there might never be another Republican president in this country,” cast member Beck Bennett says in the sketch.
Chappelle glares at him, dumbfounded. “Word?” he says. “You ever been around this country before?”
The gag of course is the fact that, as a black man, Chappelle has seen the country at its ugliest, its least inclusive, so he can understand how a candidate like Donald Trump, with his hardline stance on immigration and tough-on-crime policies, might just succeed. Bennett’s character is still living in his white liberal bubble.
And yet it’s not a bubble formed entirely by delusions. Even as the Electoral College votes today to make Trump president, the United States is becoming more liberal. Just look at the data.
Over the eight years Barack Obama has served as president, public opinion in the United States has shifted decisively leftward. Think about it. When Obama came to office, he still hadn’t publicly supported same sex marriage. Last year, the White House was lit up in rainbow colors to celebrate the Supreme Court’s decision to legalize same-sex marriage. Over the last year, bottom line-driven businesses have boycotted entire states over discriminatory policies against LGBT people. A law prohibiting transgender people from using the bathroom of their choice just cost North Carolina’s Pat McCrory the governorship. Undocumented immigrants have come out of hiding, banding together online to discuss their struggles. And in November, California, Maine, Massachusetts, and Nevada all voted to make recreational marijuana legal.
So if left is quickly becoming the new center, how did Trump win? Some, including Trump’s own team, have chalked up his victory to an economic message that resonated with white, working class voters dismayed about the economy. But exit polls reveal Clinton actually won among voters whose top issue was the economy, and Trump’s own approach—curbing free trade chief among them—had more in common with Bernie Sanders than GOP orthodoxy. Another theory for Trump’s victory, one held by the dejected partygoers in the sketch, attributes his win to a far-right racist uprising.
https://www.wired.com/2016/12/dont-let-trumps-win-fool-americas-getting-liberal/
