“How dare you say that” isn’t a persuasive political argument.
Yet the side that has believed it can bully its way to victory on cultural issues by policing the debate in its favor continues to act as if it is one, even after getting soundly beaten in the election.
The left’s game has been to insist that everyone adopt its tendentious vocabulary, to call opponents bigots, and to use moral blackmail — and the threat of punishment — to keep any left-of-center doubters in line.
This model, which has been quite successful over the years, has a flaw, though.
If a given cause is exotic and unpopular enough, and if it becomes subject to a political debate where the broader public can weigh in, the attempt to define common sense as a thought crime is doomed to fail.
This is what happened on trans issues in the election. Donald Trump’s “she’s for they/them” attack ad was the most effective and consequential political spot of this century.
How is the left taking it? By clinging to the old rules.
In an exchange on CNN that’s gotten attention, the Republican strategist Shermichael Singleton said a lot of families don’t think that boys should play girls’ sports, eliciting an outraged reaction from progressive panelist Jay Michelson.
Interrupting, Michelson said heatedly that he wasn’t going to listen to such “transphobia” and maintained with great vehemence that it is “a slur” to describe “trans girls” as “boys.”
Notably, the anchor Abby Phillip — the moderator on what is supposed to be a straight-down-the-line news network — intervened, not to say that Singleton was free to use whatever term he thinks is most appropriate, but to rebuke him and ask him “to try to talk about this in a way that is respectful.”
The left’s attitude on this issue is not, “You may disagree, but I believe trans girls are indeed girls,” but rather, “They are girls, and you have absolutely no moral right to say or think otherwise.”
Willie Wanker
Article URL : https://nypost.com/2024/11/11/opinion/democrats-are-learning-we-wont-be-bullied-by-trans-moralism/