In this age of political polarization, the starkest dividing line between Republicans and Democrats isn’t respect for democracy, or views on abortion, or even the age or fitness of the presidential candidates for the job.
No, the biggest thing that separates elite Democrats from Republicans is their ability to ignore, dismiss, and demonstrate the virtue of censorship over any and all problematic information.
When Republicans are faced with inconvenient truths, for example, the leaders of their “family values” party A cheating man who was married 3 times and had an affair with a porn star They recklessly twist and reinterpret the truth even though it doesn’t even rise to the level of a scandal. Baby ChristianAnd if this same leader claims to put America first and protect the Constitution, spoil the election by fabricating votes For himself? Well, there is an excuse for that. In fact, he Winning the election, So it is actually the other side that has destroyed democracy.
These Republican lies are certainly morally abhorrent, but while they allow Republicans to absorb vast amounts of information that denigrates their own camp, they also leave room for them to collect and gleefully disseminate vast amounts of information that denigrates Democrats.
Meanwhile, what do partisan Democrats do about politically inconvenient information? They refuse to acknowledge its existence and repeatedly parody themselves. Former President Trump Assassination attempt Even hours after it was widely publicized that he had been hit by a bullet at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania last Saturday, the candidate was, according to major mainstream liberal news outlets, “collapsed”
That’s why I argue that those astonished by the media Democrats’ willingness to ignore President Biden’s obvious aging and decline until the June presidential debate must be forgetting the Democrats’ response to a host of recent issues, from COVID to crime to gender ideology. Time and again, ignorance by refusing to see is the Democratic way.
For people willing to access and evaluate widely available information, regardless of ideology, it was clear from the early days of the 2020 pandemic that the coronavirus was: Wuhan Institutenot a wet market. Particularly dangerous in children and healthy adults, and thirdly, Zero legitimacy I’m not going to close anything, School closuresThere is no mention of wearing masks or maintaining “social distancing.”
Yet these facts went unacknowledged by the mainstream media until the Democratic politicians to whom the mainstream media beholden destroyed them with regressive taxes on working class Americans. Public Education And that Service economy. Throughout 2020 (and in many cases into 2021 and even 2022), liberal pundits simply repeated the Democratic party line on the pandemic, as if it were a Brave New World. For many rank-and-file Democrats who believed them, this misinformation was accompanied by anxiety about the coronavirus itself, anxieties exacerbated by a lack of facts to assuage excessive fear.
Similarly, in 2020 and the years that followed, and even to this day, the highly accessible realities regarding education, crime, and policing Hysterical stories The claims made by Democratic intellectuals about school discipline and police violence. As a result, Democrat-led cities that hire “progressive” district attorneys (like Larry Krasner in my own city of Philadelphia) dramatically Reduced safety And the murder rate increased among disadvantaged people of color, most of whom Support the policeThey have also adopted so-called “restorative justice” in predominantly minority urban public schools. Main Effects The purpose is to exonerate perpetrators and encourage the victimization of well-behaved children, thereby making it nearly impossible for anyone to learn.
And of course, perhaps most absurd of all, the Democratic Party’s totalitarian adherence to the illusion that “trans women are women” is a biological fact, a scientific consensus. Women’s Safety, privacy and access Opportunities for exercise;And everyone Finally know I don’t mind pretending to be virtuous about sexual dimorphism. Men accept that the sexes are biologically distinct, and therefore, perhaps, also on average It’s psychologically and socially wrong — it feels regressive and anti-feminist.
This Democratic delusion has begun to crumble more quickly under other administrations, The weight of realityBut this ridiculous idea of femininity as a social performance rather than a chromosomal fact violates the very rights feminists have fought for (it also smacks of homophobia), and if you point this out to someone at a Democratic think tank or mainstream university, you’re likely to be politely redirected or accused of bigotry.
In each of these examples, the Democrats’ ability to deny reality is based on a tautological premise that the only “valid” sources of information exist to reinforce left-wing ideology, not to disseminate information. The kids of elite Democrats were not the kids who attended closed public schools and had no access to alternative learning environments; they were the kids who played on their front porch or Hiding in the bathtub They believe they are safe from bullets. And they remain so, even as fears creep in. Transgender ideology They would not destroy what enlightened people like themselves hold dear.
But Biden’s debate was hosted by CNN, a trusted liberal news source, and partisan Democrats watch political debates, so this one (albeit unintentionally) made them reexamine what they’ve seen so far. Denying existenceAnd among them is the president Office Fitness.
As a result, for the first time in my nearly 40 years of life, many mainstream liberal journalists are actually engaged in activities that resemble journalism—at least that was the case until Trump narrowly avoided assassination and Biden ultimately withdrew from the 2024 presidential race.
And no matter what happens with the Democrats or Trump or the election, if at least some of them can maintain that, that would be a really good thing for the country, for our democracy.
Elizabeth Grace Mathews writes about education, culture, religion and politics. Her work has appeared in USA Today, Law and Liberty, America Magazine and the Deseret News.
