JLW
Diamond Member
- Sep 16, 2012
- 14,579
- 15,077
- 2,405
“Those of you of a certain age will recall the phrase “the Silent Majority,” made popular by Richard Nixon…
No candidate on the broad left has ever, to my knowledge, invoked the phrase. It’s high time that changed….
……As Aaron Blake pointed out in The Washington Post, there have been six special congressional elections this cycle and the Democrat has outperformed in four of them, the Republican in just one. In the sixth race, Blake notes, the results (the Democrat won) closely mirrored the 2020 results, but “Democrats swung the results by double digits from the 2022 race for the same seat and flipped the seat blue.”
…..So, a theory for you: Maybe, just maybe, there is an army of Americans out there who may not call themselves liberal or progressive but who are anywhere from sort of turned off to massively repulsed by MAGA. And while Trump and Fox News and Steve Bannon and Marjorie Taylor Greene and all the rest of them spend their days fulminating about America dying and hyping the authoritarian tsunami coming—talk that the mainstream media picks up and that dominates our discourse—there are in fact millions of Americans sitting quietly at home who detest these histrionic harbingers of hatemongering (a Safire-esque turn of phrase for you, since I mentioned Agnew).
They are out there. And they, I submit, are your new Silent Majority…..
…….They’re not all liberal. But they definitely support abortion rights. They’re not rushing to join trans rights groups. But they want people to be treated with empathy and tolerance. They’re not reading gender-bending young adult fiction. But they recoil against censorship. They’re not socialists. But they want the government to do more for working- and middle-class people. They’re not Earth Firsters. But they believe climate change is real. They may still tell pollsters they’re wary of “big government.” But new interstates and bridges, and airport expansions, and new light-rail tracks, and expanded broadband access? They’re great with all that.
And most of all: They, just like Nixon’s old Silent Majority, seek normalcy, law and order, and someone to save the country from extremism. But in Nixon’s time, the extremism came from the left, while today it comes from the right. It’s the Trump right that attacks normalcy, on a daily and sometimes hourly basis. It’s the Trump right that is lawless, as evidenced most obviously by the fact that all these Republicans are tripping over themselves to support a convicted felon to be the president of the United States. And it’s the Trump right that is extremist on just about every issue, from health care to foreign policy.
So they sit at home, probably not watching much cable news, not marching in any marches, but just waiting until Election Day to register their opposition to MAGA. …..”
newrepublic.com
***********************************
I found the article in the New Republic very interesting. As everyone knows who have been around MAGAs, they are loud and brash. They make no bones that they are for Trump. They carry flags and shout down all who take issue with them, and as can be seen on forums like this are very aggressive in their support of Trump. Calling for “Civil War” if they lose or their opponents “commies” are just causing growing numbers to get tired of this stupidity and histrionics.
I have been at dinner with MAGAs and they are all over my social media feed. Always spouting about Trump and those of us whether sitting around the table or on social media know not to argue with them but let them spout on and on. If you call them out they just go off the deep end. Better to be silent.
So, the silent majority waits and come November we will go the polls and our voices will be heard.
No candidate on the broad left has ever, to my knowledge, invoked the phrase. It’s high time that changed….
……As Aaron Blake pointed out in The Washington Post, there have been six special congressional elections this cycle and the Democrat has outperformed in four of them, the Republican in just one. In the sixth race, Blake notes, the results (the Democrat won) closely mirrored the 2020 results, but “Democrats swung the results by double digits from the 2022 race for the same seat and flipped the seat blue.”
…..So, a theory for you: Maybe, just maybe, there is an army of Americans out there who may not call themselves liberal or progressive but who are anywhere from sort of turned off to massively repulsed by MAGA. And while Trump and Fox News and Steve Bannon and Marjorie Taylor Greene and all the rest of them spend their days fulminating about America dying and hyping the authoritarian tsunami coming—talk that the mainstream media picks up and that dominates our discourse—there are in fact millions of Americans sitting quietly at home who detest these histrionic harbingers of hatemongering (a Safire-esque turn of phrase for you, since I mentioned Agnew).
They are out there. And they, I submit, are your new Silent Majority…..
…….They’re not all liberal. But they definitely support abortion rights. They’re not rushing to join trans rights groups. But they want people to be treated with empathy and tolerance. They’re not reading gender-bending young adult fiction. But they recoil against censorship. They’re not socialists. But they want the government to do more for working- and middle-class people. They’re not Earth Firsters. But they believe climate change is real. They may still tell pollsters they’re wary of “big government.” But new interstates and bridges, and airport expansions, and new light-rail tracks, and expanded broadband access? They’re great with all that.
And most of all: They, just like Nixon’s old Silent Majority, seek normalcy, law and order, and someone to save the country from extremism. But in Nixon’s time, the extremism came from the left, while today it comes from the right. It’s the Trump right that attacks normalcy, on a daily and sometimes hourly basis. It’s the Trump right that is lawless, as evidenced most obviously by the fact that all these Republicans are tripping over themselves to support a convicted felon to be the president of the United States. And it’s the Trump right that is extremist on just about every issue, from health care to foreign policy.
So they sit at home, probably not watching much cable news, not marching in any marches, but just waiting until Election Day to register their opposition to MAGA. …..”
There’s a New “Silent Majority” Out There—and It Is Not Conservative
Ever since Richard Nixon used the phrase, it’s been a Republican thing. But the Republicans are the extremists now, and the Silent Majority isn’t what it was in 1969.
newrepublic.com
***********************************
I found the article in the New Republic very interesting. As everyone knows who have been around MAGAs, they are loud and brash. They make no bones that they are for Trump. They carry flags and shout down all who take issue with them, and as can be seen on forums like this are very aggressive in their support of Trump. Calling for “Civil War” if they lose or their opponents “commies” are just causing growing numbers to get tired of this stupidity and histrionics.
I have been at dinner with MAGAs and they are all over my social media feed. Always spouting about Trump and those of us whether sitting around the table or on social media know not to argue with them but let them spout on and on. If you call them out they just go off the deep end. Better to be silent.
So, the silent majority waits and come November we will go the polls and our voices will be heard.
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