Traumatized? You Have a 12-Step Program!

There is little that Nick Kristof and I might agree on. In his latest piece, A 12-Step Program for Responding to President-Elect Trump, New York Times, Nov 17, 2016, he only makes one statement that I have always talked about and lately have been harping about.

His Step 8 is encourages his readers to get out of the echo chamber. That’s good advice for the whole country. I echoed that in a wider article here. Having friends that don’t think like you does truly make you smarter.

My agreement with Kristof pretty much ends there. He proceeds in the rest of the piece to demonstrate that he and his cohort have learned nothing from the past election. The other 12 steps are a creepy recitation of I-will’s and I-should’s that read like a laundry list of why the left will give up even more seats in the next midterm election.

For example, when trying to appeal to the center or center-left worker in the rust belt, that’s the place that handed the Democrats the biggest throbbing this year, you won’t win a single vote saying you joined the Council on American-Islamic Relations or the Southern Poverty Law Center. One is an Islamic group that simply cannot bring itself to condemn acts of terrorism, including beheadings of innocent people.

The other is a socialist waste of time. The only people associated with the SPLC to pull themselves out of poverty are the ones who left, learned life isn’t fair and socialism doesn’t work, and then made something of themselves.

Americans are fed up with being beaten over the head with racist labels and economic guilt.

Kristof goes on to list one insult after another in his condescending analysis of the average Trump voter. It is worth mentioning he is swiping much of it from Chris Hitchens’ send up of Reagan voters from years before.

I have been very hard on those voters and I have been brutal with Trump. The difference is I don’t throw around terms like racism and misogyny and speak in condescending terms, and then say but we must be kind to “them” and avoid conflict. This article is intended to create conflict by over-compensating for a feeling of inferiority on Kristof’s part.  Read Manipulism, by Mikkel Claire Nissen.

Kristof’s little lefty cry for compassion was really just another failed manifesto listing the same emotionalist “grievances” that cost the Democratic Party positions from town council seats to the White House. Trump was sooooooo easy to beat. But the rank and file Dems watched, lips obediently sealed, while the party’s most equal of equals carted out the most flawed candidate in our history.

The opening paragraph says it all. A week after the election and we are still talking about people traumatized by the results. In his article, Kristof hopes to help “around the margins”. I have news for you, anyone truly traumatized by an election is in desperate need of help with their already damaged psyche - and not around the margins!

Step one in Kristof’s self-help program should start with first admitting the “traumatized” are just self-absorbed, little drama queens seeking constant validation, and go from there.

Matt Jordan is host of Street Politics and author of STREET POLITICS: It Ain't Your Daddy's GOP Anymore!