Yardley on democracy and Trump
Mike Yardley writes:
There is something nauseously disturbing about the far left’s duplicitous affection for the voice of democracy and free expression.
They only honour the central tenets of democratic expression when it falls into line with their ideological viewpoint, suits their cause or the vote in question favourably goes their way.
Belying their professed belief in diversity, tolerance and freedom of thought, is the fevered liberal uprising against the 45th US President.
Their cloth-capped refusal to accept the legitimacy of his victory crudely illustrates how nakedly self-serving and hypocritical their adherence to democratic values really are.
I wanted Trump to lose. But I accept he won and protesting against a democratic election outcome is a very bad idea in my opinion. Sure once he actually makes decisions, then protest against them all you want. But a protest against an actual election outcome (and that is what they were, despite the spin) is counter-productive. It will make his supporters even more inclined to back him.
But far from being a genuine grassroots outpouring of public anxiety at the inauguration of Donald Trump, the event’s Facebook attendance list read like a roll call of the usual rent-a-crowd suspects and oh-so-familiar activists from the Green and Labour parties.
Ditto, for the Auckland and Wellington events. Designed to exhibit solidarity with the women’s march in Washington DC, it is equally risible how blatantly agenda-driven that demonstration was too. …
Madonna shared her desire to blow up the White House, Miley Cyrus spouted some indecipherable twaddle about gender empowerment, in between twerking manoeuvres, while Scarlett Johansson got all worked up about Trump’s “Era of Tyranny”.
The over-heated rhetoric matched the hysteria that seems to have gripped the uber-liberal wing of the Democratic Party, prompting 60 House Democrats to spit the dummy like sore losers and boycott the inauguration.
Their two-fingered salute to the democratic process and the Office of President was feckless. But it will appeal to the hyper-ventilating battalion of Trump haters who choose to wallow in their vast collective vat of self-imposed victimhood.
What a pity the protestors, the Hollywood darlings and the no-show Democrats representatives didn’t take a leaf out of Hillary Clinton’s book, who exhibited grace, grit and dignity when attending the presidential inauguration “out of respect for the democratic process”.
Ditto for President Obama, whose political record was mixed, but will go down in history as one of the most likable and decent men ever to lead his country.
The irony is that everyone thought it would be Trump and his supporters who would refuse to accept the outcome of the election.