How Trump and Republicans wield the politics of victimhood

[DonViejo]

By Paul Waldman
Opinion writer
October 29 at 12:26 PM

For many years, conservatives mocked liberals for what they described as a politics of victimhood, one in which the left supposedly centered its politics on a series of grievances it claimed must be addressed. Quit whining and pull yourself up by your bootstraps, conservatives said; if you’ve got it bad, the fault lies with no one but yourself.

But somewhere along the way, the right realized that claiming the status of victim, whether earned or not, can be extremely powerful. In the age of Trump, the politics of conservative victimhood has reached new heights. And as usual, it comes right from the top.

After bombs were sent to a dozen people President Trump had attacked, he quickly identified the person really being threatened. “Come to think of it, who gets attacked more than me?” he asked at a White House political event just after reading some words about unity that were obviously written by others and about which he couldn’t have cared less. And after 11 people were gunned down in a Pittsburgh synagogue, reportedly by a white supremacist who believed George Soros is bringing a caravan of migrants to invade the United States — the conspiracy theory propagated in various versions by Trump and others on the right — Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway homed in on the best way to understand what had happened:

The anti-religiosity in this country, that it’s somehow in vogue and funny to make fun of anybody of faith, to constantly be making fun of people who express religion, the late-night comedians, the unfunny people on TV shows, it’s always anti-religious. And remember, these people were gunned down in their place of worship, as were the people in South Carolina several years ago. And they were there because they’re people of faith and it’s that faith that needs to bring us together. This is no time to be driving God out of the public square.

The victims in Pittsburgh weren’t murdered because they were “people of faith”; they were murdered because they were Jews. And the nine people murdered at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., in 2015 weren’t murdered because they were “people of faith”; they were murdered because they were black.

So what’s the point of the pivot toward the supposed oppression of religious people? It’s obvious: Putting it in those terms says to the deeply religious white Christians who make up such a key part of Trump’s base that they are the real victims here, or at least joined to these events by their profound and ongoing victimization.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2018/10/29/how-trump-and-republicans-wield-the-politics-of-victimhood/

[Caliman73]

1. Somewhere along the way nothing, this has always been the right.

A good article, but another "think piece" about something that, "just magically popped up". All politics is in a way, about grievance. Every group wants their needs met. Liberals, whether they were the radical Republicans of the 1850's fighting for abolition and equality for Black people, whether it was the Progressives of the 1890's and early 1900's fighting against Trusts, for labor, and for the environment; have always been the champion of the common person, the less powerful. Conservatives have ALWAYS fought to preserve the status quo.

This isn't new. Nixon did this in the 60's with his "silent majority" who were being tarred by those "long hairs" and feminists, and Black Panthers. Reagan did it when he went after the Unions who were "destroying American business". He talked about never having to say you are sorry for being an American, even though we had deposed legitimate governments all around the world and introduced right wing death squads all over Latin America. The GOP did it throughout the 90's and 2000's sticking up for those poor beleaguered "job creators" who the evil Liberals wanted to crush with taxes and regulations.

As I have said in other threads. Trump is nothing unique. He is just not subtle. He is the loud uncle who talks about "Ki#es and Ni99ers" in the family that "isn't racist" but has never had a Black friend, and thinks those funny little hats are weird.

Republicans have been playing the victim, working the refs, and projecting all of their ugly motives onto Liberals for DECADES.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

2. +1

And they do it EVEN WHEN they have all the power in the world at their disposal.